Politicians benefit from American tribal warfare – USA Today

My initial reaction to this piece was “Duh.” but I shouldn’t take it for granted that anything more than a tiny percentage of Americans realize that the majority of our political and social problems are linked to the exact kind of political and racial tribalism that Reynolds talks about in the above link.

How else can you explain the silence of Democrats everywhere as Barack Obama exceeds his authority time and time again?  Nuance is utterly absent and criticism of one element/topic automatically puts you firmly among the ranks of “the other side”.

From the article:

“What if I told you,” asks a Matrix-themed photo-meme that has been circulating on Facebook, “that you can be against cops murdering citizens and citizens murdering cops at the same time?”

Judging by the past few weeks, this really is a Matrix-level revelation, obvious as it may seem. We have Americans protesting because of police shootings, and we have police turning their backs on New York City’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio over lack of support after two police were assassinated by Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, a gunman from Baltimore who said he was seeking revenge for the choking death of cigarette-tax evader Eric Garner.

And, as blogger Eric Raymond notes, the response has been divided: “Because humans are excessively tribal, it’s difficult now to call for justice against Eric Garner’s murderers without being lumped in with the ‘wrong side.’ Nor will Garner’s partisans, on the whole, have any truck with people who aren’t interested in poisonously racializing the circumstances of his death.”