4.6 Loyalty tests
It’s a puzzle…
During the COVID crisis why were Republicans so fiercely opposed to masks and vaccines when that meant some number of their base would catch COVID and die?
Why did they support policies that reduced the number of people who vote for them?
Why would they sacrifice members of their own tribe?
This is actually not a puzzle if you look at it from the tribal point of view. Instead…
It’s a loyalty test.
When the Republican leaders argued against protections, they were issuing a challenge to their followers…
Just how loyal are you? Are you willing to risk your life and the lives of your children to stand with our tribe?
Wearing a bright red MAGA ball cap is a sign of loyalty, but an easy one. It doesn’t cost you more than a few bucks. And there’s no risk involved.
But refusing vaccines, that is risky.
Except it’s only risky for individuals not for the Republican Party. Because not enough members of the base were dying that those losses would change voting results in any significant way.
So it’s a perfect test. If very big numbers of the base started dying from COVID, Republican leaders would have been promoting vaccines like crazy.
And isn’t it interesting that there were Republican leaders getting the vaccine for themselves and their families? I guess they were thinking that since they were the accepted leaders of the party, their loyalty is beyond question so they don’t need to prove anything to anybody.
And now, an update. During Trump’s second term, there are more puzzles that are not really puzzles.
Look at the farmers who are losing their farms because of tariffs and because USAID has been shut down. Why are those who voted for Trump continuing to support him despite their losses?
It’s a tribal thing. They are staying loyal because that’s what tribalists do…
It’s built into our genome that we will sacrifice for our tribe.
We will make serious sacrifices. That’s at least how it was in the past. Nowadays not as many are willing to do that, but an amazing number of people are still caught in that tribal trap.
The same is true when it comes to lies. So many of the Trump lies are outrageous and extravagantly unbelievable. But MAGAs repeat the lies and stand by them, because that’s loyalty.
Even as Trump is destroying our economy, turning allies into enemies, being the best friend China ever had, and abdicating American leadership around the world, tens of millions of people, boasting their patriotism, stand by him, because they see him as the leader of their tribe.
Getting someone to give up their tribal identity and leave their tribe is one of the very hardest things to do.
And if you can’t immediately give them a much better tribe to join up with, then it becomes next to impossible.
Which is why it’s so critically important for the Democratic Party to do a radical transformation of itself and become the fiercest advocate for working families that this country has ever seen.
The MAGA movement can be so cruel and so crazy in its cruelty. Which means we have to oppose it in every way we can.
But at the same time, I have to say, I feel sorry for the MAGAs because they are trapped in an empty tribe.
The MAGA movement gives them a tribal identity, but no substance. It has never made their lives significantly better and now is making their lives harder and worse.
So…
They’re paying a very big price for a very meager identity.
If you ever catch a MAGA or a MAGA-adjacent person in a vulnerable moment, this is what you can talk with them about…
What are they really getting, what are their children getting, in return for their loyalty?
You can ask them to look inside and find the part of them that is longing to fight for better. Most of them don’t dare look inside, that’s a key part of the problem. Behind their bravado they feel like nobodies. They’re borrowing their identity from their tribe, when to be healthy and happy…
It matters that a person develops an identity of their own.
And you might say to someone who is willing to hear you out for a minute or two…
What’s deepest in my heart for you, what I wish for you, is you find your own identity and claim it and let it nurture you and strengthen you, so you can take a stand for yourself and the people you love, instead of depending on a movement that doesn’t care about you. Really and truly does not care about you.