This thing is ruining the country...

Tribalism is a BIG problem.

Party tribalism is dumb, dangerous, and ruining our country.

Let me explain. 

It’s good to have principles. It’s fine to be ideological. You can be a hard-core conservative or a hard-core progressive. Being passionate about ideas is wonderful. But you gotta have some ideas. 

That’s not what’s happening now. Our politics, mostly on one side, are dominated by conspiracies and smears. And I can’t stand it when people make bad faith arguments that mislead and deceive others for political gain. Maybe it’s because I, perhaps naively, still expect our leaders to make their arguments in good faith. 

Listen, I worked for Jim DeMint and Ted Cruz, and you may not be a fan of them, but I felt like things were different then. I never imagined they would, like so many others, bend the knee for someone like Donald Trump for the sake of the party. That they, and so many others, would enable and champion his biggest lies.

I never saw them as tribalists. Not anymore. 

I can’t be a part of a tribe that supports a leader who incited an insurrection. I’m not ready to “move on” from the attack on the Capitol. And I really, really resent being lied to. Like, a lot.

So, yeah, maybe I’m not the hard-core Republican I once was. That’s okay because I’ll never, ever, go along with this. Some things are more important than being part of a club. 

Where does that leave me? 

Maybe hanging out more with you?

If you’ve been enjoying The Bulwark, that probably means you’re also not in either tribe. Or maybe you are, but you’re peering over the top of the trench, hoping to look across No Man’s Land to see some other people peering back.

That’s exactly what The Bulwark is—a bunch of people who are sick of wearing the uniform. 

I’m not waving the red elephant flag to be part of a team. The American flag is the one for me. Our democracy is far more important than any political party.

Tribalism sucks. Ditch it. Join Bulwark+.