Politics, a WSU professor says, is “not about the facts or any sort of reality, it’s about group identity.”
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat, a longtime observer of Washington politics, agrees. He says, “Social or cultural sorting is what drives elections; policy stands, not so much. The issues are ways to signal which faction you belong to.” (Read his column here.)
Westneat’s column focuses on Washington’s 8th congressional district race, a district until recently held by Republicans. Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA) won there in the last two elections, 2018 and 2020.
Running against her is Reagan Dunn, whose mother once represented the district in Congress, and a longtime King County councilman who has positioned himself as a “moderate Republican” in past elections. Running against him in the GOP primary is Matt Larkin, who calls moderates like Dunn “squishy” and says, “People are tired of squishes right now. We need steel-spined conservatives standing for something.”
To which veteran political observer Westneat responds, “Do we? People say they want politicians who grasp complexity and aren’t scorched-earth crusaders.” Then he adds, “But Larkin may be depressingly right about the true state of politics today. The issues or their details are bulldozed by strong tribal signaling.”
To which I would say, yes, that’s happening on both sides — but much more on the Republican side, where candidates don’t even debate issues anymore, and an entire party (and tribe) has taken leave of reality and common sense.
Well, anyway, this continent was populated by tribal societies centuries ago; and maybe history is just coming full circle, because human nature never changes.