Tornado Alley (PROG)

[lesgetrich]

I'm 71 years old and have been closely following, observing and participating in politics since I was 16, both as a volunteer and Democratic party official. The one truth I've observed is that roughly a third of the electorate will always vote Democratic/Liberal and one third will vote Republican/Conservative. The other third will migrate from party to party or to Independent/Non-Partisan status. This last third actually controls most elections and is the least interested in following what's going on or committing themselves to a specific ideology.

While it would be difficult to show an exact correlation, in my personal opinion, as primitive as tribalism is, so is the division of the population along the lines of empathetic and utilitarian vs warlike and conspiratorial vs leave me alone and I'll only take a position when I have to. Throughout human history there was a need for a warrior class who would risk their lives solely for a belief in their tribe or their leader while a need also existed for care givers and peacemakers who looked for ways to improve life. An equal number of people just wanted to get by and live their lives. This is playing out in today's political parties and the extreme divisions are forcing everyone into their respective primitive genetic groupings. JMO