How the “RepDem” political playbook keeps us from seeing purple

Are you a pitchfork person or a torch person?! In our modern world, our sorting categories are political - Blue or Red.

The recent midterm elections certainly put America's sorting categories on display. First, social sorting is a natural "on-board" human characteristic. You can thank a collection of neurotransmitters, led by oxytocin, for our social sorting biology. Whether it is a bug or a feature is based on how social sorting presents.

To keep us alive: It is a feature.

For political discrimination: It is a bug.

For election night, I visited a local watering hole. My wife was out of town, and I wanted to grab dinner and have a beverage.

It was a last-minute thing, so I just went up there, not knowing who I’d run into.

It turned out, the bar was packed with people super interested in the election. There was definitely a very happy “blue” group of people celebrating victories and telling stories of why “Trump is bad,” etc., etc.

I felt a bit like an anthropologist. Listening to all the "lubricated" conversations, sitting at the bar chatting with the bartender.

It made me appreciate how American politics has devolved. The “RepDem” machine has done such an effective job of tribalizing American society. The party machine has become very efficient at placing the red people and the blue people at each other’s throats. I’ve come to appreciate that social media is truly at the core of the RepDem political playbook.

It’s important to appreciate, while our society isn’t perfect, over the last hundred or so years, extreme poverty and other social problems have been dramatically reduced in our country and throughout the world. Of course, it still exists, but we have so much to be thankful for. And that gets lost in the politics and modern society.

Let me tell you a story relating to how social media plays out in politics.

Decades ago, I visited Tijuana and Mulegé in Baja California. Economically, Mulegé was poorer than Tijuana at the time.

Yet the vibe in each Mexican community differed remarkably. Mulegé residents appeared happier, crime was low, and I felt safe as a visitor. In Tijuana, residents seemed less content, crime was higher, and safety required constant awareness.

The primary difference? Residents in Tijuana can see the gilded San Diego skyline. Mulegé is geographically isolated.

Tijuana residents saw what they lacked, and that comparison created discontent. Mulegé residents focused on their own community and remained content.

Social media operates the same way. It highlights (or even generates the perception of) what we lack and distracts us from appreciating what we have.

This reflects the modern “RepDem” political playbook. Social media keeps the “Red” and the “Blue” people at each other's throats by highlighting perceived lack … even though Americans have so much to be thankful for.

Can’t we all just be purple?!

The "unseen" massive improvement over time

vs.

the "seen" comparative unfairness

In Personal Finance class, we are decidedly not political, but we use these examples to show why data curation is critical to financial success and how social media can distract from long-term wealth goals.

One lesson we teach students is to be active curators of unbiased, high-quality information in the hunt for making informed financial decisions. When fulfilling our civic duty, the "free" information found on media outlets like Fox or CNN has a cost; the cost is tribal-indoctrinating bias.

Want to learn more? Check out our article: Seeking what not to seek: How to align achievement and happiness