Tangle (Youtube Channel) on the Political Compass
Political Commentator Isaac Saul Names the Political Factions
The following quotes are taken from the source included at the end of this article, from an auto-generated transcript at the time marks noted.
Interviewer Challenges the Utility of Left Versus Right Polarity
Interviewer: What are the tribes then, because I agree with you completely and I hate using terms like right and left, because they're inaccurate generalizations; however, there are tribes that clearly are at loggerheads with each other right now, as they always have been, frankly. What is the—is it, some people talk it's pro-establishment anti-establishment, but I don't imagine a lot of progressives think of themselves as being pro the establishment. They think they're radical. People who are changing the nature of society, they don't think of themselves as having control of every institution as the “right” would see them, right? So what are the tribes, how are we to to break ourselves down? (35:07)
The Left and Right Coalitions
Isaac Saul: Yeah, it's a great question. I think I can answer that in terms of what's happening in the United States. I would have a harder time talking more broadly about global politics….fundamentally the tribes of the Republican and Democratic party, when you talk about voters, I still think it's the duopoly of the two parties. One of the reasons that we see fewer and fewer landslide elections is because party allegiance is really strong among voters and it doesn't matter how bad a candidate is or how much they're violating…that person's political world view. If they have an R or a D against their name, voters are just really likely to vote for them. That being said, in America I do think that we basically have what I would call, I view it as four main tribes, two on each side (35:53) ….and they're all kind of at war with each other. (40:22)
Pew Research Center Survey Results
A Pew Research Center survey of the U.S. general public, in 2021, showed clusters of political beliefs and values. The origin of these Pew labels and type descriptors are detailed in an earlier post. The Pew type characteristics are included in the quadrants for convenience in matching them with the quoted content. I add one comment of mine in brackets. I’ve underlined characteristics that emphasize the what Isaac Saul discussed or that emphasize why a type is less involved in the political debates.
Isaac Saul Describes Four Main Factions
Within the quadrants, the Pew type best matching Issac Saul’s description has a quote by Saul beneath it.
Conspiratorial Thinking by Both the “Trump Right” and Progressive Left
Interviewer: Do you think that this fragmentation of society has been exacerbated by the fact that no one really trusts the mainstream media anymore? Not left, not right, because we've been let down and been betrayed so many times by them, whatever institution it is. So as a result of that, a distrust creeps in which means also people are likely to think in a more conspiratorial manner? Whenever I think about progressivism, to me it's quite a conspiratorial way of thinking. There's this systemic thing in place that is keeping certain people down and that means certain people can't progress. And if you think about the right, especially the sort of the Trump right, they believe that as well, just in a different form. (42:42)
Thanks for reading. Here’s a related post: Interpretations of the Pew Political Types.
Repeat of Quadrants Content
This section repeats the writing in the quadrants, for any who have difficulty reading in that format. Groups are presented in order of political party size. This includes only the four Pew types that most match Isaac Saul’s description.
Auth-left Quadrant
Pew type: Democratic mainstays
Most identify as moderate [so they fit less into Isaac Saul’s description]
Pew type: Establishment liberals
More likely to back compromise
Very politically active
Isaac Saul: “On the left there's the maybe traditional or establishment Democrats. I would call them the corporate Democrats, which I know is a derisive term, but I think A is accurate and B isn't always necessary. Doesn't always necessarily mean that they have bad policies or the wrong policies, but this is the more elite donor class Democratic party that has a lot of power, a lot of influence at major institutions, corporations, colleges, those kinds of things. And they're interested in some regard in keeping the status quo, which I think is very different from the kind of establishment or the kind of Trump right and the progressive left. they they want things to be stable. They're fighting for progress, but they're doing it in a very sort of incremental way. and they're really interested in in doing it via bipartisanship. Joe Biden I think for the most part is a member of this sort of party. Nancy Pelosi I would definitely put in that kind of Democratic establishment” (38:14).
Auth-right Quadrant
Pew type: Committed conservatives [corporate globalist hawks]
Fans of Reagan but not Trump
Very politically active
Isaac Saul: “On the right we have the sort of old guard. You call it the establishment Republicans. Some people call it traditional Republicans. I'm talking Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, that sort of era of Republicans that really talk about being aligned with small government and some semblance of bipartisanship, tons of respect for the traditions of the country, constitutionality, that kind of thing” (37:05).
Pew type: Faith and flag conservatives
Strong trump supporters
Bracketed note by Ardell: [I believe the faith and flag conservatives are part of the “Trump right” faction Isaac Saul speaks of, in the quote below, which could be conceptualized as an orange coalition, where the red faith and flag type mixes with yellow populist right. Yet this type shares with committed conservatives the “respect for the traditions of the country, constitutionality” Isaac Saul mentions.]
Lib-right Quadrant
Pew type: Populist right
Strong Trump supporters
Very politically concerned
Isaac Saul: “This new era of right-wing conservatism that existed 20 years ago—but I think has really been elevated and escalated by Donald Trump, which is battling the culture wars—it's stopping the progressive left from making changes that they view as being really dangerous to the country. It's really focused on immigration. It doesn't necessarily matter whether something is a big government or small government type policy or whether it's constitutional or unconstitutional. In the very traditional sense of the word, it's about winning. It's about making sure that Republicans get off their knees and start fighting for the country that they really believe in. And that's the attitude of that new right” (37:29).
Pew type: Ambivalent right
Most are not Trump supporters
Not as politically active [so they fit less into Isaac Saul’s description]
Lib-left Quadrant
Pew type: Progressive left
Extremely liberal policy positions
Very politically active
Isaac Saul: “Then you have the progressive left. And I think those are maybe closer to the Trump right in terms of attitude and respect for norms. Obviously to your point, they get put against each other. All of a sudden you have progressive lefts trumpeting FBI talking points, which makes my head want to explode. But generally speaking I think these are people who are “we've had incremental change forever we we want real broad changes to the country now. We want to upend the systems that have produced a lot of inequality in the country a lot of the problems in the country.” And i think similar to the trump right, the progressive left is interested in winning. They feel they've had many years of being dismissed or ignored and they are the activist type who are like, “We're gonna do whatever it takes to win. We're gonna play dirty, fight hard,” and try and make the real broad overhaul to the country systems that they want to see” (39:14).
Pew type: Outsider left
Less politically active; less reliable voters [so they fit less into Isaac Saul’s description]
Reference
Note. Quotes have omitted repeated words and fillers like, kind of, um, uh, I mean, and you know et cetera.
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