I have seen various analyses of why our parties have polarized so—the rise of primaries, which may attract fewer median voters; the dying off of the WWII generation, who had fought a common enemy and so were willing to compromise across the aisle; and, of course, the ascendancy of outrage as the primary strategy for attracting attention. For whatever reason, maybe all of these, this is where we are now.
I have never voted for a Republican; however, I am planning to because in my deep blue state it is not only the gender insanity I want to vote against but also the horrendous management of public education, public safety, and tax policies. I am disillusioned by how the “welfare state” has become rife with fraud, with how crime reform has harmed crime victims, and how the tax dollars that I cheerfully paid are too often lining the pockets of the corrupt rather than improving our communities.
Would I be reconsidering my political affiliation if the gender insanity hadn’t tipped me? I doubt it. I would probably have continued to have a basic faith in Democrats doing the right thing. Do I have faith in the current Republican Party? No—I wish people like McCain were back. So, yes, perhaps I am a single issue voter. I will vote against Democrats primarily because I view the gender insanity as a fundamental threat to safety and sanity.
I keep saying I'm not a single-issue voter, either, and I pulled a straight Democratic ticket in the primary here in Texas; however, I am feeling more politically homeless every day. It is impossible to ignore this issue, since popular culture, social media, and news are saturated with it. Women's sex-based rights are a "single issue" about like clean water is a single issue. I may be a Communist, after all - why not - rednecks have been calling me that for years. lol
I am as stumped as you are and have no idea who to vote for anymore for any office. As my dad used to say, politics is all knaves and fools. I'm still waiting for anyone to come up with good ideas and ways to implement them. I expect to wait a long time.
IMO, the gender wars are not really a single issue. This ideology leads to actual policy changes in women's spaces, schools, sports, women's prisons, health care etc. We have a SCOTUS that can't define what a female is. That's crazy. How does one rule on issues that directly affect women? This affects all avenues of life and cannot be boiled down to one "issue". I'm going with the party that supports common sense and NOT ideology. To me it's clear who that is.
I haven’t voted for president twice now, just left it blank. I pick and choose what I vote for now.
I am no longer in the “D” tribe anymore. I actually do think that Democrats are just as corrupt as Republicans. I live in the SFBA and local D politicians are horrendous. One-party rule, whatever that party is, leads to corruption and authoritarianism.
I know that D’s are cooler, hipper, more stylish, artistic, talented. I know R’s are uncool, unpopular, and cringe.
D’s are much, much slicker at lying and fooling the masses, because they look and sound more sophisticated (because I guess they are more sophisticated). Is that really better, though? I find the R’s terrible lying to be kind of refreshing. And the media is on them like flies on shit so their lies are quickly exposed. Media runs cover for D’s as you know.
I just really think any loyalty to D’s is based on pretentiousness. I really do.
I think they had a moment right before and after Trump got elected in 2024 but the way the ICE stuff and now Iran is being handled just reflects so poorly on them.
They would need help from Hollywood, I think, another Alex P Keaton played by another remarkably talented star.
It was important to visit the 7th Circle of Hell, and we all need to be thinking a lot more about this problem. Lisa’s to-the-point Unherd essay puts the issue clearly and well: “it’s increasingly likely that there will continue to be two bad choices: Democrats with gender ideology, or Republicans without it.”
One of many things that’s so frustrating about this is, at the grassroots level, polling and surveys (like the recent The Argument poll) show that left-of-center voters are increasingly opposed at least to males in women’s sports and spaces and medicalization of minors. But the voices of those voters are not so far being heard, on many levels.
For example, when Democratic Party overlords like the North Carolina Democratic Party revoke a dissident Democrat’s access to VoteBuilder,” it’s game over. The primaries are a big, big problem, too. Jesse Singal’s superb New York Times Op-Ed noted a study showing that, among all the other problems with primaries, it’s much harder than in a general election to figure out who stands for what. In consequence, as the study states, “primary voters know less than general election voters; difficulty distinguishing candidates from partisan reputations is a likely mechanism. Consistent with group influence, learning endorsements meaningfully affects voter choice. Our findings shed new light on why Congressional candidates fail to converge to the median voter.” All of these things conspire to prevent voters from making their own, independent choices—or having a choice at all.
I also think “it depends” is a big watch-phrase here. For those of us in a bright blue area, as I am, a “protest” vote like a blank ballot or write-in vote is not going to change the outcome. In 2024, while I voted for Harris/Walz (not at all happily, mind you), I employed that approach down ballot and likely will again. What I will not do, even in protest, is vote for a Republican—I’ve not spotted one in my voting lifetime that even remotely shares my values, and it’s worse yet now with the overall obeisance to the current occupant of the White House. In contrast, if I still lived in the Hudson Valley, the equation would have to be different, because my vote actually could count. I would likely vote for whoever is the Democrat in the general election. (Please don’t “at” me. I’m not happy about my choices either!)
For those who feel, as I do, that this current administration and all its enablers have to be removed from office, I think we have no choice but to proceed on two tracks: that is, in voting, we’re going to have to vote for Democrats; in political organizing, we have to keep building support from the ground up until finally, one day, the cultural tide shifts. Some days, I think I will live to see that; most days, I don’t.
Meanwhile, always, I’m so grateful to the two of you for your smart work and big hearts. Good luck with your books, and keep going!
I have seen various analyses of why our parties have polarized so—the rise of primaries, which may attract fewer median voters; the dying off of the WWII generation, who had fought a common enemy and so were willing to compromise across the aisle; and, of course, the ascendancy of outrage as the primary strategy for attracting attention. For whatever reason, maybe all of these, this is where we are now.
I have never voted for a Republican; however, I am planning to because in my deep blue state it is not only the gender insanity I want to vote against but also the horrendous management of public education, public safety, and tax policies. I am disillusioned by how the “welfare state” has become rife with fraud, with how crime reform has harmed crime victims, and how the tax dollars that I cheerfully paid are too often lining the pockets of the corrupt rather than improving our communities.
Would I be reconsidering my political affiliation if the gender insanity hadn’t tipped me? I doubt it. I would probably have continued to have a basic faith in Democrats doing the right thing. Do I have faith in the current Republican Party? No—I wish people like McCain were back. So, yes, perhaps I am a single issue voter. I will vote against Democrats primarily because I view the gender insanity as a fundamental threat to safety and sanity.
I keep saying I'm not a single-issue voter, either, and I pulled a straight Democratic ticket in the primary here in Texas; however, I am feeling more politically homeless every day. It is impossible to ignore this issue, since popular culture, social media, and news are saturated with it. Women's sex-based rights are a "single issue" about like clean water is a single issue. I may be a Communist, after all - why not - rednecks have been calling me that for years. lol
I am as stumped as you are and have no idea who to vote for anymore for any office. As my dad used to say, politics is all knaves and fools. I'm still waiting for anyone to come up with good ideas and ways to implement them. I expect to wait a long time.
IMO, the gender wars are not really a single issue. This ideology leads to actual policy changes in women's spaces, schools, sports, women's prisons, health care etc. We have a SCOTUS that can't define what a female is. That's crazy. How does one rule on issues that directly affect women? This affects all avenues of life and cannot be boiled down to one "issue". I'm going with the party that supports common sense and NOT ideology. To me it's clear who that is.
Agree wholeheartedly! It will affect EVERYTHING.
I haven’t voted for president twice now, just left it blank. I pick and choose what I vote for now.
I am no longer in the “D” tribe anymore. I actually do think that Democrats are just as corrupt as Republicans. I live in the SFBA and local D politicians are horrendous. One-party rule, whatever that party is, leads to corruption and authoritarianism.
I know that D’s are cooler, hipper, more stylish, artistic, talented. I know R’s are uncool, unpopular, and cringe.
D’s are much, much slicker at lying and fooling the masses, because they look and sound more sophisticated (because I guess they are more sophisticated). Is that really better, though? I find the R’s terrible lying to be kind of refreshing. And the media is on them like flies on shit so their lies are quickly exposed. Media runs cover for D’s as you know.
I just really think any loyalty to D’s is based on pretentiousness. I really do.
I think we're going to see young conservatives as cooler for a while. But who knows?!
I think they had a moment right before and after Trump got elected in 2024 but the way the ICE stuff and now Iran is being handled just reflects so poorly on them.
They would need help from Hollywood, I think, another Alex P Keaton played by another remarkably talented star.
It was important to visit the 7th Circle of Hell, and we all need to be thinking a lot more about this problem. Lisa’s to-the-point Unherd essay puts the issue clearly and well: “it’s increasingly likely that there will continue to be two bad choices: Democrats with gender ideology, or Republicans without it.”
One of many things that’s so frustrating about this is, at the grassroots level, polling and surveys (like the recent The Argument poll) show that left-of-center voters are increasingly opposed at least to males in women’s sports and spaces and medicalization of minors. But the voices of those voters are not so far being heard, on many levels.
For example, when Democratic Party overlords like the North Carolina Democratic Party revoke a dissident Democrat’s access to VoteBuilder,” it’s game over. The primaries are a big, big problem, too. Jesse Singal’s superb New York Times Op-Ed noted a study showing that, among all the other problems with primaries, it’s much harder than in a general election to figure out who stands for what. In consequence, as the study states, “primary voters know less than general election voters; difficulty distinguishing candidates from partisan reputations is a likely mechanism. Consistent with group influence, learning endorsements meaningfully affects voter choice. Our findings shed new light on why Congressional candidates fail to converge to the median voter.” All of these things conspire to prevent voters from making their own, independent choices—or having a choice at all.
I also think “it depends” is a big watch-phrase here. For those of us in a bright blue area, as I am, a “protest” vote like a blank ballot or write-in vote is not going to change the outcome. In 2024, while I voted for Harris/Walz (not at all happily, mind you), I employed that approach down ballot and likely will again. What I will not do, even in protest, is vote for a Republican—I’ve not spotted one in my voting lifetime that even remotely shares my values, and it’s worse yet now with the overall obeisance to the current occupant of the White House. In contrast, if I still lived in the Hudson Valley, the equation would have to be different, because my vote actually could count. I would likely vote for whoever is the Democrat in the general election. (Please don’t “at” me. I’m not happy about my choices either!)
For those who feel, as I do, that this current administration and all its enablers have to be removed from office, I think we have no choice but to proceed on two tracks: that is, in voting, we’re going to have to vote for Democrats; in political organizing, we have to keep building support from the ground up until finally, one day, the cultural tide shifts. Some days, I think I will live to see that; most days, I don’t.
Meanwhile, always, I’m so grateful to the two of you for your smart work and big hearts. Good luck with your books, and keep going!
Can't fight chemistry and hormones . Obviously in the future the science will be easier.
Are you also against test tube created babies ?
We can make our position heard to the ones who are elected.