First Something Important, then a Tag

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Maybe things have changed:  maybe they always were this way.  We do not choose our political parties because of what the party stands for:  we chose our political parties because of who and what they are associated with.

Let's get down and personal.  Most of us belong to the same religious group our parents belonged to.  Most of us belong to the same political group our parents voted for.  I woke up one morning and discovered that my parents were Lutheran of a sort.  Lutherans are a cantankerous lot, and we were cantankerous Lutherans, not agreeing with most other Lutherans:  that is what made us Lutheran.  And Dad, especially, was a cantankerous Democrat.

I do not know how I turned out to be such a sweetheart.

No, I do know!  That is the point here.

Before I go further, it is quite likely you grew up within the confines of your parents' religion, too, and it is might not be a surprise to you that you still are more-or-less what they were religiously.  But not always, of course.

When we change from the group identity we began with, it is usually not because we have sobered up and sat down to analyze the religious or political ideologies of whatever political parties are available, but because we have begun to associate with other people, other social groups, other work groups and, if we like them, we begin to move to where they are.

A clear, striking example of that is when we somewhat grow up, fall in love with somebody who did not grow up Catholic, or Jewish, or Pentecostal, or Non-denominational-Denomination, and decide to change religious gears.  Sometimes, of course, it is a calculated move to keep the quarrels down, or to avoid confusing the kids, but usually, we find ourselves fitting in pretty well, and become what our new group identity is.

On a much larger scale, all of us know that Abraham Lincoln is identified with what was then a new political party:  the Republicans.  Mostly northern, opposed to slavery mostly.  The Democratic Party was mostly southern, and most Southerners were Confederate supporters.   There we were, and there we stayed, mostly, until Richard Nixon figured out that the White Democrats in the South were more like him than they were like like the Democrats in the North, especially on matters of race and civil rights.  He, and later, Barry Goldwater, deliberately appealed to southern White Democrats, and a lot of southern White Democrats began to vote for Republicans.  It worked.  It also pushed the Republican Party even farther to the right.  Today, white Southerners are pretty comfortable in the Republican party.

Abraham Lincoln might not find it so comfortable, were he here today.

The issue in changing parties was not an antiseptic analysis of the ideologies of the two political parties:  it was whose side you were on.  Party be damned!

Donald Trump isn't the President today because he is a Republican.  The people who represented the Republican Party couldn't even get nominated.  The fact is that a lot of Republicans are Trump supporters because of who Donald Trump is.  Donald Trump insulted every Republican candidate who stumbled on stage, and people said, "I like Trump!  Boy, did he tell them!  He is going to drain the swamp of all those crooked politicians, and career politicians, and fact-checkers!  He'll make America great again!"

The Democrats had a pretty good chance to win the election, but they didn't.  The Republicans didn't have a chance, at all.  A lot of Republicans, although still bearing the Republican label, became Trump supporters, and formed a "Freedom Caucus".  And quite a number of people who still bore the Democratic label joined them.  And some people, whose political ideology had never been strong enough to identify with any political party, liked what Trump said, liked his attitude, liked his barely disguised White Supremacism, and his America First-ism, and his backhanded swipes at immigrants.

People didn't choose between political parties.  The same people who voted for him as the Republican nominee would have voted for him had he been the Democratic nominee.  The party label tagged along, just as the White southerners who voted for Nixon were voting for Nixon, not because he was a Republican, but for what Nixon said and did and promised.  The tag, "Republican" came just because they liked what he said.  "Boy, did he tell it like it was!  He would make America great again, wouldn't he?"

We can see where the Republican tag is today.

You cannot see where the Democratic tag is today.  Nobody cares what the traditional Democratic ideology is.  It is not luring anyone to its shore.  When someone, or something, becomes enticing about the Democrats, then people will want to associate with it, and will vote Democratic.  Hillary Clinton, whom I voted for, was the epitome of what Democrats thought of themselves as.  Only the fact that she was a woman represented something enticing and promising, and that offended about as many people as it attracted.  That is no prescription for winning, even though she did actually get more votes than Trump.  "One man, one vote" did not result in a woman president.

Democrats should stop fussing about edging a little more to the left or to the right, ideologically.   When Democrats represent something we really would like our country to become--labels be damned!--people will vote for them.