In the USA, political parties have always been LOOSE and rather informal (and flexible) alliances of interests...... They are held together (to the extend they are) mostly by the felt need for each other. SOME of these make sense, often they don't (for example, what does Pro-Gun have to do with Pro-Life?)
As they say, money talks. When a political animal is put into office through the efforts of rich contributors, they are often nothing but puppets with strings being pulled by these special interest groups. That is why Trump is so interesting as a candidate -- he literally is richer than most of these special interest groups combined. As such, he has no debts to repay to any such groups and would be an independent politician who pulls his own strings.
Often, parties STRUGGLE for pecking order.... priorites .... of these various groups. One we see in the Republican party for example is the "social conservative/Christian" side (often strongly aligned with the pro-life bunch) struggling with the libertarian side and the "lesser government is better government" group, and the various gun groups, and the "Reagan Economics" group - etc. etc. They all struggle for pecking order - especially as we head up to the Convention. NORMALLY, the primaries would reflect that but even with this historical HUGE field, that's not really happening this time. Alliances can even come apart. Consider that blacks use to be Republicans - and that whole movement went to the Democrats in the late about 60-70 years ago' or that Democrats use to be pro-life and republicans largely libertarian on that.
It is amazing to me how the blacks are so closely aligned with the Dems. Consider that it was essentially the Dems who enslaved them 150 years ago and it is the Dems that murder their children in the womb through their act of abortion -- and it is amazing that any black would want anything to do with the Dems. But they began aligning with the Dems many years ago, especially after LBJ's "Great Society" program began throwing welfare payments to them in exchange for their votes. The resulting mess virtually demolished the black family structure -- which used to be very religious and moral. Before the projects were torn down in Chicago, the local joke was that mass confusion overwhelmed Cabrini Green, or the Robert Taylor Homes, every Fathers Day. A very sad situation, indeed.
I think for the observer, all this looks very messy and at times hypocritical and inconsistent. Because it is. But all these various factions, they KNOW that on their own, they would get nowhere. They have to bond with others who will bond back with a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" approach. It's how we do politics in the USA. It's messy and it's dirty. And above all, PRAGMATIC.
A very good observation, especially concerning the Repubs. While there are many good conservative Repubs, they are at the mercy of the weak sisters who run the show -- John "Boner" Boehner as Speaker of the House; and Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader. Both are political cowards and are more interested in getting along with the other side -- and not being bullied in the press -- than they care about doing what is right for the country.
I "get" all that..... what bothers and offends me is the deception.... how politicians in their ENORMOUS egos and quests..... manipulate us. Saying WHATEVER to get elected - and then it all just goes "poof." As if we won't notice (and generally, we don't). It's ACTORS..... on a STAGE..... and we buy into it. I think of Clinton and Gore who both were passionately pro-life (Gore was even a keynote speaker at a Right to Life Convention) - because in the south then, most were prolife. But INSANTLY, when they ran for president and vice-president - a 180 degree reversal. (Not picking on Democrats, Bush the first and Ronald Reagan did the same in reverse). Romney was pro-life in Utah, pro-choice in Mass, then pro-life when he ran for president. Need I go on? I feel like I'm at the theatre, watching actors.... and it offends me. Is it like this in every country? As I understand it, yes. I know of no better system than democracy, but it stinks nonetheless..
Indeed, both Clinton and Gore were pro-life when their political careers were at the local level. But, as soon as they emerged on the national stage, they immediately transformed themselves into huge anti-life, pro-abortion Democrats. Hypocracy does not get any more lethal than that.
Chuck
