The divisiveness that's everywhere in the US political system is a feature, not a bug. By casting political problems in terms of tribal loyalty, you can get the voters in your tribe to ignore deeper problems. The deeper problems are, as always, corporate control of laws, policy and regulatory agencies. If a voter suddenly swallows a red pill and starts to see corporate corruption in government, you can always drive him to the other tribe, or shame him back into your own, and the odds are he'll go back to sleep. If you drive him to the other tribe, no harm is done, because both parties obey the same corporate overlords.
Tribalism exists to keep people from paying attention, but the solution isn't more civility, because the forces against civility are very strongly established and will destroy it to keep people distracted, so the corporate money machine can keep going unquestioned.
What we need is more scrutiny of the corporate incursions into news organizations and regulatory agencies. Have you watched the evening news lately? Did you see all those adds for pharma? Have you watched CNN or Fox? Did you see those shills for military contractors posing as authoritative commentators? Have you noticed the revolving door between the FDA and drug companies?
The focus has to be on corruption, not on civility.
I’d question this: “The deeper problems are, as always, corporate control of laws, policy and regulatory agencies.” Cursory look at history shows that the problems with governments are usually not companies. People seeking power just aren’t saints.
Corporatism thrives in the absence of strong government because it can draw strings to both sides. Trump demonstrated that even if one side completely fails, propping up it's politicians via dark pools of political influence and lobbying will keep anyone from gaining momentum.
The people aren't really a matter anymore. Republicans have minmaxed the board and carved out a basically unfailable position, while democrats really cannot oust their own politicians because that just cedes random chance.
What corporatism "promise" is a stability, a upgrade from defacto slavery to economic slavery.
Tribalism exists to keep people from paying attention, but the solution isn't more civility, because the forces against civility are very strongly established and will destroy it to keep people distracted, so the corporate money machine can keep going unquestioned.
What we need is more scrutiny of the corporate incursions into news organizations and regulatory agencies. Have you watched the evening news lately? Did you see all those adds for pharma? Have you watched CNN or Fox? Did you see those shills for military contractors posing as authoritative commentators? Have you noticed the revolving door between the FDA and drug companies?
The focus has to be on corruption, not on civility.