Political tribalism isn't the real reason America is divided (opinion)

SE Cupp is a CNN political commentator and the host of "SE Cupp Unfiltered." The views expressed in this commentary are solely hers. View more opinion on CNN.

(CNN)It's become the political buzzword over the past few years, increasingly used to describe the root cause of our divisions and our resentments: tribalism.

The idea that Americans are more divided than ever, entrenched in ideological camps and unwilling to meet in the middle, is so pervasive that one hardly goes a single hour without hearing about it on a cable news show.

Since 2016, numerous books by very smart people, including Jonah Goldberg, Amy Chua, Steve Kornacki, Stevan E. Hobfoll, Sarah Rose Cavanagh and others have been devoted to tracing, explaining or solving America's tribalism.

But is tribalism really to blame? It's more complicated than that. Tribalism, after all, is part of our evolutionary DNA. The need to identify with a group, to belong and commune with like-minded people is not only biological, it's what has helped motivate our desire for and devotion to all kinds of important cultural institutions, from organized religion to sports fandom.

was practically giddy We are more and more defined not by our friends but our political enemies — collecting them like badges of honor. It was actually a question at a 2015 Democratic debate: "Which enemy are you most proud of?" None of the five candidates batted an eyelash, eagerly rattling off their political hit lists. Hillary Clinton was practically giddy : "Well, in addition to the NRA," she said, "the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the Iranians. Probably the Republicans."

wrote in his 2013 book As UCLA professor Matthew Lieberman wrote in his 2013 book , "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect," "Mammals are more socially connected than reptiles, primates more than other mammals, and humans more than other primates. What this suggests is that becoming more socially connected is essential to our survival. In a sense, evolution has made bets at each step that the best way to make us more successful is to make us more social."

award showsfootball gamesfavorite coffeefast food On the minus, it feels impossible to civilly discuss politics — or avoid it altogether — when tensions are so high. It infects every aspect of our culture, from award shows to football games , our favorite coffee and fast food . Political "teams" may build enthusiasm and loyalty, but they inherently pit American against American, citizen against immigrant, young against old, and so on. That, as we've seen, can lead some to vengeance and violence in defense of their political tribe.

moremovingnew study It's not just tribalism in politics that's the problem — it's our outsized belief in its significance in our lives. We're spending more on political campaigns, moving to places where our political views are popular and, according to a new study in the American Journal of Political Science, our politics may even be overriding our morals. As Peter Hatemi, one of the study's authors, explains: "We will switch our moral compass depending on how it fits with what we believe politically."

The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers The paternalism of the presidency was baked in from the get-go. George Washington recoiled at the notion of being called "the father of his country" in newspapers, and, as Thomas Fleming writes in " The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers ," Washington did "his utmost to avoid acknowledging this tendency to view him as a demigod." But our view of the chief executive as a fatherly figure who is there to guide us and care for us only grew.

The American president, it is believed, must solve all our problems, both complex and mundane. He or she must reflect to us our idealized best selves and represent all we hope to become as a nation over the next four years. Whether we seek a Republican or a Democrat, a strong man or a caretaker, a traditionalist or a progressive, we truly believe we can find and deserve the Aaron Sorkin version of a president — a leader who is omnipresent in our lives and reflective of our values.

writes By nearly every metric of human well-being, the world around us is a much better place than it was a century or two ago. As Max Roser, an Oxford University economist, writes in "The Short History of Global Living Conditions and Why It Matters That We Know It," we're freer, more democratic, healthier, richer, better educated and more literate than we ever have been.

But there's reason to believe change is possible. And it's important that we start looking inward, to our own communities. Over the past half-century, we dreamed big, looking outward to the horizons to expand our global opportunities and connectivity. That was a good thing, but in doing so we often ignored our own backyards. Instead of marching on Washington, imagine marching on your town square for smaller class rooms, cleaner water, less crime. Instead of tweeting about Trump or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, what about doing some community service or volunteer work. Instead of teaching our kids to parrot our political views, let's teach them civic engagement and how to make small differences in their own communities.

If our political identities are how we build our own individual community, how we weed out friends from foes, how we judge each other above all other things, the logical conclusion is an America that sees politics as religion, that justifies intolerance and exclusion as virtue and righteousness, that rationalizes patently bad behavior in the name of a cause.

Source: CNN

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