I read a blog by Dan Harris, the atheist, not the TV anchor, claiming that our politics had become tribal. His evidence was that issues that had no real connection had become polarized along party lines. Why he asked, should liberals believe in the right to choose and in gun control? These issues are not really connected. They are independent of each other. Sure, an argument could be created to make the linkage seem rational, but they really aren't, at least not completely. Why, OTOH, should conservatives take the opposite position?
Don't like this example? Take any other, climate change and immigration. Civil rights and wall street. These should at least be somewhat independent.
I considered his opinion but rejected it, at least for myself. Those other people, the ones I would never associate with, might be simple minded tribe followers, but I was making rational decisions.
So, today, Super Bowl Sunday, I turned my attention to the game. I have no great attachment to Boston or Atlanta. I will watch the game, I always do, and I will decide who to root for as the game proceeds, as I always do. But then I discovered that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick were both friends of Donald Trump. I found myself beginning to root for Atlanta. Sure I told myself that it as because Atlanta hadn't been there for a long time, I was rooting for the underdog. But another part of me, the nagging doubt part, was whispering in my ear, maybe Dan Harris was right, maybe I am a mere tribalist.