This is just a thought about the hazards of politics as sport. I’m talking about the aggressive defense and support of party and politician not based on action, but rather due to “team support”. (For example: “I support X because my father did. We just do. We always have.” — How sensible is that when you consider the difference between Eisenhower, Bush, and Trump?) I hear this type of comment both from conservative and liberal supporters. Neither group is immune to playing team favorites, favoring party over issue, in politics.
Unfortunately, what I don’t hear enough is people remarking about the need for caution with this behavior. Usually when I hear someone make a comment about “sport politics” it’s as an aside in a longer conversation, and then they don’t do anything other than make note. They never seem to revisit the idea. In my opinion, this is an important enough topic that it deserves to be visited directly and regularly. One excellent article on the topic was written back in April 2015, and appeared in the Huffington Post. I recommend it because it speaks directly about the ways that this problem affects our choices of leaders and what we allow them to do once they're in office.
Think about it, at one point, it wasn’t that easy to get a long-term picture of a politician’s behavior. Even so, just twenty years ago people were far more likely to vote based on topic than on party lines. These days, it’s pretty simple to find information about politicians. Websites like OpenSecrets and Ballotpedia provide information on voting history, where their funding comes from, sponsored bills, and more! In addition, a wealth of articles from all sides of any given political issue can be found on the Web. Still, for some reason, more people are voting not by topic, but for generalized political ideology. That trend might help to explain Trump’s success. We should be talking about it.
So, that’s it. Just some food for thought.