The Great Political Migration

This is where the fun starts

Over the last few years, the right has become split between the war hawks and those with more America first/ anti-war sentiments. Those of the left have used this to their advantage and draw attention to the fact that Republicans can’t seem to align on critical issues, be it Kevin McCarthy, how to approach censorship, vague omnibus bills, etc. Unfortunate for them, the left is currently experiencing a similar in-house shake up due to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Below is a visual I prepared to describe what I am witnessing occur on both sides of the political spectrum.

To the left we have the general pro-Palestinian position, which we will further split into two groups. Away from the far end are people who believe in a two state solution and want the Israeli occupation to come to an end. To the left of this, it’s more extreme counterpart, are those who, whether knowingly or unwittingly, are pro-Hamas. These are individuals who chant for decolonization and cheer for the obliteration of the Jewish State. For whatever reason, the center-left position seems to be pro-Israel. This same phenomenon mirrors itself on the right. Military Industrial Complex, anyone? At dead center we have the people who want no involvement in foreign affairs. Slightly to the right of that is America first, a patriotic offshoot of anti-war sentiments that seek to bring that money back into our economy and infrastructure. Lastly, all the way to the right, we have the war hawks that want to use this conflict as an opportunity to get back into the middle east.

This is where the fun starts.

Anyone with an understanding of history deeper than “derp! Republican racist, bad! Democrat superhero humanitarian!” knows that political platforms and beliefs often change and evolve. The most obvious example would be during the time of the Civil War. At its inception, the Republican Party was formed to combat the expansion of slavery into the western territories, while the southern states that would eventually secede from the Union were Democrat. Fast forward to the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and you now find that the Democrats are the party against segregation. White southerners who historically voted Democrat no longer felt that the party’s new platform aligned with them politically. This left a vacuum that Republicans were ready to fill as they embraced their newly found segregationist positions. One can only imagine that this is the origin of our contemporary caricatures of the two parties.

Even so, our modern understanding of party representation is still being challenged. Ten years ago, what we colloquially refer to as “the left” championed free speech, body autonomy, anti-corporation, and anti-big pharma. After the craziness that was the last half-decade, from big censorship campaigns to the covid lockdowns, the party has become unrecognizable to many lifelong Democrats. Unsurprisingly, Republicans have been gaining more grace and support for simply being willing to have conversations that the left is not, securing the free speech base. During the lockdowns, the Democrats were overwhelmingly in support of big pharma while it was mainly Republicans who opposed the mandates.

Another pitfall most people are naively susceptible to, most likely due to the homogenization of social media, is this idea that all Democrats or Republicans think the same way as everyone else in their respective party. This is an obviously silly fallacy looking at disagreements within Congress alone, but let’s take it a step further. Why should we assume that a Republican in Kansas shares the same beliefs verbatim as one in New York? Or a Democrat in Washington as opposed to one in Texas? It would make more sense to assume there is this wide limbo of positions that hover towards the center. A Democrat in a red state might be pro-gun, just as much as a Republican in a blue state might not have a care in the world about gay marriage. The Texas Democrat and the New York Republican might have a lot more in common than once believed.

To avoid the headaches of modern tribal pigeonholing, more and more people are becoming self-described moderates, and to this I say; Amen. Let the great relocation begin.

We can’t all be politically homeless forever.