Winning the War for America

Politics is first of all the pursuit of power. And then in step two it's about what you do with power when you get it. Power offers the supreme seduction of being able to make things go your way, and also avoids having their way imposed upon you. In America, "your way" and "their way" are growing further apart, leaving us in a highly polarized society that is at war with itself. American's political parties and their contrasting ideologies are the driving forces in the war, because parties have evolved as the surest way to attain power. Each party naturally crafts its strategy and its vision according to what it thinks will sell its way into office.For more than a century, the Republicans have been the party of money, which also means that they're a minority party. To attain power they must therefore stitch together a coalition of diverse interests to overcome the larger and urbanized Democratic base. The key innovation of the Ronald Reagan coalition of 1980s was in doing just that by crafting a platform that appealed not only to its natural constituency of wealthy and business interests based on an economic promise, but which also appealed to specific groups of Americans based upon the ideological promise of purity and patriotism. Reagan, that is, was the first successful "values politician" of our era, and as the cities became progressively more Democratic, rural America has shifted in favor of Republican-branded patriotism.The Reagan coalition has stayed together largely because of a very strong dose of persuasion, or more accurately, propaganda, from right wing media. But the heavy reliance on propaganda and prepackaged outrage had a major unexpected consequence in 2016, the surprising rise of Donald Trump.The Democrats, in contrast, constitute a natural majority that should win national elections often and easily, but while the Republicans are excellent strategists who play for the long term, the Democrats are poor ones who play tactically, and consequently they lose elections that they should win. In addition, due to the arcane Electoral College process, they also lose elections that they actually do win.Coming up on four years of bad GOP government, we now approach the 2020 with trepidation, for this will not be an election of nuances and convivial variations on common themes, it will be a hugely ugly election campaign. Accusations, hard selling, and hard contrasts, nasty name calling and angry accusations, threats and intimidation, rhetoric and bombast, monstrous claims and insidious insinuation will be the norm. And perhaps Vladimir Putin will again be heavily involved. Months of unpleasantness lie ahead as the parties vie for office, and with it the power to bring forth their deeply contrasting visions of America's future.This is the War for America.