Two Parties, Untethered

I recently had a couple exchanges about the matter of "true conservatism," and how the GOP needs to get away from Trumpism and back to what it should be about. My take was, and remains, that this is wistful fantasy, not only because Trump is a symptom rather than a cause, but also because the major parties are not anchored to any bedrock ideology. Yes, we can list a number of traits that tend to persist (e.g. Democrats favor somewhat more government than Republicans), and we can name certain differentiating issues (e.g. abortion, gun rights), but in contrast with other -isms such as socialism, communism, and libertarianism, there isn't a fixed principle (government controls the means of production; government owns everything; individual and property rights are paramount) that keeps either the Republicans or the Democrats from moving with the tides.

A reader recently commented that the Democrats today have elevated such issues as gender rights of children, men competing against women and occupying their spaces, fear mongering regarding abortion rights, accepting millions of illegal immigrants, and support for Hamas above yesteryear's Democratic priorities. Add emergent Jew-hatred and throwing money at anyone whose votes they think they can buy, and you get the present-day picture.

Today's Republican party, steered by Trump, has also drifted from more traditional Republican values. Protectionism has replaced free trade, government favoritism has replaced free markets, reckless government spending doesn't bother them much, and "punching back" is now a baseline political plank.

Both have become cults of personality, where idolizing their candidates and personally deriding the opponents has displaced any semblance of policy discussion. Policies are a "by the way" side dish to a "he's awesome, she's a dolt; she's a goddess, he's the devil" main course.

I'm seeing a ton of this in the wake of Harris selecting Tim Walz as her running mate. Rather than focus on the policies he advanced and what they'd mean should the Harris/Walz team take over the White House, many focus on mockery and personal putdowns. Those of us screaming about how destructive the leftist policies that we can expect from them are being drowned out by a doubles ping-pong match of hagiographies and denigrations about the individuals on the tickets.

Time and again, I've argued that what matters is policy, because policy persists after politicians leave office. Yes, you can find policy discussions here and there, but they are specks of signal in an ocean of tribalistic noise. That those specks are not anchored to the historical positioning of either party tells us how adrift the nation has become.