US Polarization

Let's rewind to the beginning.. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989, capitalism had won, the Earth would become flat, globalization (i.e. Pax-Americana) would advance unimpeded, English as the lingua-franca of the world etc.

These developments hit the Dems in US particularly hard. After their loss to Bush 1,  and 1989, US Dems made the decision to mirror Republicans almost exactly bcz they were "lost in the wilderness", so they nominated the Southern Ronald Reagan for 1992. Clinton defined the party around centrists (i.e. crypto-Republicans in the Democratic Party). He created his contrasts only in execution (we'll deliver prosperity better), and secondary issues such as guns, abortion, climate.

Republicans were watching Dems closely, the wall came down, what will they do? They saw in horror as the other side is taking up their issues muscling them out of their base. They are thinking, I come back home and find this guy sitting on my couch, watching my TV, eating my cheetos.. This is not okay... They were like "you don't pitch a tent in my front yard, mucker" and immediately went to war. They took a look at the Dem's roster of issues, and they ticked off the secondary ones almost immediately. Gun control -> second amendment. Abortion -> protecting life. Environment -> Chinese hoax!

But that would not be enough. Since they could not fight "the new Dems" on primary issues (they agreed after all) they had to fight them on a more personal level. This is when things got real ugly. Clinton waffles, he is a thief, a liar, a philanderer. In one case they even indicated he was a murderer I think.. They were wrong on most of these counts, right in some.. but it didn't matter.

However the first mistake is from the Democrats.. Sure 1989 was a big deal, it is kinda understandable they did what they did, but insisting on that mistake today is senseless. Look at where US is now: Reps are not touching the secondary issues with a ten foot pole. Reagan was pro-gun control. Richard Nixon founded the frickin EPA, but Reps today are not going near gun control (even after all these deaths) and the EPA chief is a guy who wants to abolish the EPA.

The secondary issues grew and grew due to neglect and they became much bigger. Corporate Democrats are not getting anything for their about-face - they are rarely elected, they even get muscled out of their base now most recent example being a billionaire shitting in gold toilets running on left (sorry "populist") issues and crushing them. Dem failures gave Republicans a wide swath of ideological landscape, they can freely roam about there, they can do right, left, everything in the middle - all corporate Dems can do is sitting on their ass and watch. They try to fight as being "examplar citizens" with their token diversity initiatives token candidates, but it isn't enough. It will never be enough. Until the ideological void is filled, this "shitshow" will continue.

What did politicians think about the polarization during the 90s?

Take Bill Clinton himself, who was at the center of all that shitstorm, a masterful politician, right? I've read all the bios, autobios.. He didnt have a fucking clue. In one account he is with Bob Dole, he asks him (bcz the issue is bothering him, a burning question if you will) "is politics more clean or less clean today?". Dole says "more clean". Then Bill says "then what is all this vitriol all about?" [paraphrasing]. He had no idea. But the reason was staring all of them in the face.

If you try to be "Republican-lite" trying to outdo the other guy in their own game,  right after the fall of the Berlin Wall so the other side is scared shitless thinking that this will become the new normal, they'll fight you. They'll try to neutralize your secondary issues (abortion, guns, environment), demean your character in place of primary issues, and raise bunch of stink overall.

Now that I think about it, even today's excessive police violence is the fault of these "centrists", corporate Democrats. All throughout the 90s Dems wanted to demonstrate they could be "law-and-order" (code word for jailing more black people), they could do all that like other guy, and that pushed Reps further right, they became more law-and-order to create that contrast. Now they want to make mere mention of police brutality a taboo. All bcz Democrats would not stick to their natural constituency.

Note: Clinton Presidency was an important marker in history .This was the first Democratic president after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Everyone watched closely what they would do.. Dems started something with him, I guess it is fitting that era ending with another Clinton.

Utilization of Culture Codes

How does the dynamics of culture code manipulation work? There is now a one-party system in US, and I am a Dem (or Rep) and don't want real issues to be talked about bcz I am for same effin thing as the other guy, but I still need some issues to differentiate myself, so I decide to press some buttons at cultural level. In US there is a cultural tug-of-war between prohibition and "freedom", you just reframe the any issue arounnd prohibition-freedom axis, and you got yourself a nice little bruhaha.

Observe: now I am going to take a mother's health issue, and make it hot-button. I say,

"Prohibit yourself from fucking (if not married). "

And

"If you do fuck, and have a baby, prohibit yourself from ending the pregnancy".

Now the brain snaps to attention. No matter the issue, you lace it with prohibition/freedom division, the cultural mind wants to take a side on that. The analytical brain is overridden. Mission accomplished. I just created the "abortion issue". Now you can have ppl fight over these divisions, which puts you at the center of that division, and corporations buying out US and the world (and Dems/Reps not doing anything about it) are forgotten.

Guns are same way, this time prohibition is on the liberal side, cons are for "freedom", gay/straight, drugs/no-drugs, masks/no-masks, stay-at-home/not, you could go on... Notice how all these issues are conventiently formed around the same axis. Prohibit self. Or freeeee yourself. Freeeedomm.