The hatred of the other side has become stronger than the love, loyalty, or belief you have in your own.
Not stronger in theory. Stronger in practice, measured every election by the only thing politicians ultimately count. Your vote.
Buy Me a Coffee
I finally figured out what happened to American political parties.
They didn’t fall apart. They converted.
Republicans don’t have to love Republicans anymore. Democrats don’t have to love Democrats. Nobody even needs to know what their party believes, which is convenient, because at this point neither party seems entirely sure either.
You just need an enemy.
Not “here’s what we stand for.” Just: those fucking people cannot be allowed to win.
The Capulets had the Montagues. Coke had Pepsi. Springfield had Shelbyville. America has two congregations, increasingly united internally by one sacred conviction: the other congregation is fucking insane.
And once beating your enemy matters more than keeping your own principles, your principles become negotiable.
That’s the whole essay.
Ask yourself honestly. Would you have picked your candidate, this exact person, if the other team wasn’t on the ballot?
Most of you know the answer. It’s just not the one you say out loud.
The Pitch Nobody Notices
Every campaign eventually says some version of the same sentence.
“You may not love our candidate...”
Stop. That’s the warning label. Nobody selling you a car begins with “you may not love the car.” But a party can say it, because it already knows the next part closes the sale.
“...but imagine the other guy winning.”
There it is. The whole business model. Hope requires results. Fear just requires a villain, and villains are considerably cheaper.
Why Nobody Bothers Improving the Product
Here’s what unconditional loyalty buys you. Nothing.
Imagine walking into a restaurant and announcing, “I will never eat anywhere else, no matter how terrible the food gets.” You think the chef hears that and thinks, better fix the risotto? No. He’s microwaving a Hot Pocket and pocketing the difference.
That’s what you told your party. Nothing you do will cost you my vote. Then you wonder why they don’t give a shit what you ordered.
A party that can’t lose your vote doesn’t need your values. It just needs your dread.
Different Jerseys, Same Trick
Watch what happens to principles the second an enemy needs beating.
Republicans spent decades on free trade, fiscal restraint, character, limited executive power, reverence for military service. Then Trump arrived and ran an ideological garage sale. Tariffs, fine. Government taking ownership stakes in companies, negotiable. Character, we were going through a phase. And best of all: Make America Great Again. Again. Meaning it isn’t great now. Try having Obama say that sentence. He couldn’t wear a tan suit without triggering a national symposium on dignity. Trump could put the old Republican catechism through a wood chipper and somebody would produce a Federalist Paper explaining Madison loved wood chippers.
Why. Because Trump beats them. And once beating them is the highest value, every lower value is up for negotiation.
Democrats don’t get to laugh. COVID went tribal. Masks, Fauci, the lab-leak question, all became loyalty tests, because admitting “we got part of that wrong” risked admitting the unbearable part, that the other side got something right. Movements with real grievances sometimes mutated into purity contests: who used the wrong word, who failed this week’s terminology exam. Maybe Hamas really is a terrorist organization. Maybe biological sex matters in some athletic categories. You don’t have to agree. That’s the point. Those are arguments. But once politics becomes religion, arguments become heresy.
Different jerseys. Same trick. Your enemy becomes so evil your side never has to say maybe we’re wrong.
.
Your Party Isn’t Your Party
Ask a Republican what it would take to vote Democratic. “Nothing.” Ask a Democrat what it would take to vote Republican. “Nothing.”
People say this proudly, like they just won a scholarship. What they actually announced is their own irrelevance. If nothing your party does can lose you, and nothing the other party does can win you, why would either listen to a word you say?
Your vote isn’t a decision. It’s inventory.
The only voters with leverage are the annoying ones who say “depends.” Depends on the candidate. The record. Whether they kept their word. That’s citizenship. Everything else is fandom with a polling place.
The New American Religion
Maybe America didn’t get less religious. Maybe we just changed gods. Cable news provides the clergy. Social media provides the scripture. Politicians pass the collection plate. Hypocrisy gets forgiven instantly if it’s committed by somebody in your pew. There’s only one mortal sin left. Dissent. Question Trump inside MAGA, you’re a RINO. Question progressive orthodoxy on the left, people start checking if you’ve been “problematic.” Different hymns. Same church. Both congregations stand across the street from each other screaming think for yourself.
The Country Underneath the Circus
Underneath all this theatrical horseshit, there’s still a remarkably normal country. People want affordable healthcare and housing. Safe neighborhoods. Good schools. Functional borders. Decent wages. Less corruption. Corporations that don’t own their regulators. Most Americans aren’t professional ideologues. They have jobs, kids, mortgages, back pain, a lawn mower that won’t start. They want the country to work. But that’s never been as emotionally satisfying, or as profitable, as defeating an enemy. So we keep choosing the enemy, and somebody else keeps counting the money.
Keep Winning
So keep winning. Win Thanksgiving. Win the group chat. Find the dumbest person on the other side and pretend he represents a hundred million Americans. Find the smartest person on your side and pretend he represents you. Explain why their hypocrisy proves they’re evil while yours needs historical context. Screenshot it. Feel great for nine minutes. You showed him.
Meanwhile healthcare gets more expensive. Housing gets more expensive. Institutions get less trusted. Corporations consolidate. Lobbyists write the legislation. And ordinary Americans become convinced the greatest threat to their lives is the ordinary American standing next to them.
That’s the masterpiece. We’ve been convinced our fellow citizens are our sworn enemies, while the institutions we barely control fight over our wallets. And we helped, because hatred is easier than accountability, and winning an argument is infinitely easier than fixing a country.
So before the next election, stop asking how do we stop them. Ask the question your own party desperately hopes you never ask.
What would my side have to do to lose me?
Here’s the test. Answer without mentioning the other party. No Trump if you’re a Democrat. No Democrats if you’re a Republican. No “if they went woke.” No “if they started acting like ICE.” No “but the other side is worse.” I’m not asking what would make your party become them. I’m asking what would make your party stop representing you.
Watch what happens when people actually try. They’ll say, “I’d leave if my party started acting like those people.” And they won’t notice what they just did. Asked where your line is, you pointed across the street. You couldn’t define your own principles without consulting your enemy.
That’s not ordinary hypocrisy anymore. That’s your enemy helping write your beliefs. Good becomes whatever they aren’t. Bad becomes whatever they are. Maybe you don’t hate the other party because of your principles. Maybe you built your principles out of your hatred for them.
If that’s true, the scam is better than anyone thought. Your party doesn’t need to represent you. It just needs to stay slightly less horrifying than the people across the aisle. That’s the product. That’s the subscription. That’s the religion. Both congregations spend every election calling the other one brainwashed, never noticing they’re reading their own beliefs off the reflection in the stained glass.
You don’t have a party.
You have a sworn enemy.
And apparently, you need them to tell you who you are.
I'm R❌️an Smith, and if this made you uncomfortable, good… that's the point.
