Oct 12, 2025 06:54 PM
(Oct 11, 2025 11:05 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]A pertinent question that needs to be asked, especially in this divisive and partisan time of ours. [...]
Politics itself is at a more general level than specific areas like partisanship. Back when the donks and phants were arguably more heterogeneous in their own camps, the tendency might have been more to primarily support the party and fellow members in a nondescript way, rather than robustly share a comrade's beliefs.
Now there may be more of an overarching party plan and ideology that everyone does have to align with or genuflect to if they want party help during the campaign season. That said, though, the DP still has a distinct far-left and the GOP has the motley collection of conspiracy-oriented independents and estranged Dems that Trump brought in.
But it's probably still often naïve for a "party-blind" voter to select a candidate who claims to have some kind of free-will or individuality to go his/her own way apart from their political organization. Especially if they've been heavily dependent upon party campaign support and aid in the past.
Trump, of course, is the unifying nucleus that the phants orbit. And after Mamdani wins in NYC, the center-left majority donks may begin a gradual shift to revolving around the far-left, since there is a strong desire to not share any common ground with Trump at all (maximum separation). It's part of Trump's tactical MO to make his rivals detest him so much that they abandon critical decision-making for the automatic emotional response of just denouncing anything Trump favors (including supposedly popular, common sense views).