Why are Democrats so undisciplined and Republicans so regimented?

The asymmetry explained

Friends,

Chuck Schumer couldn’t hold his senators together at a time when their unity and toughness were essential. Yet Trump cracks the whip and gets all Republicans to do his bidding.

Does this mean Schumer should go? Yes.

But the problem runs deeper — to a fundamental asymmetry at the heart of American politics: Democrats are undisciplined. Republicans are regimented.

For as long as I remember, Democrats have danced to their own separate music while Republicans march to a single drummer.

That was the story in 1994, when Bill Clinton couldn’t get the Democratic Senate to go along with his health care plan, on which Clinton spent almost all his political capital.

And when Al Gore didn’t demand a statewide recount in Florida in 2000.

And when a majority of Democratic senators voted for Bush’s 2002 resolution to use military force against Iraq.

And when Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema blocked Biden’s agenda.

And now, when Democrats appear weak and spineless in response to Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the government.

I don’t want to over-generalize. Of course Democrats have on occasion shown discipline while Republicans have fought one another bitterly.

But overall — and even before Trump — Democrats have tended to cave or come apart when the going gets tough, and Republicans have tended to hold firm.

There’s a psychological-structural difference between the two parties.

Democrats pride themselves on having a “big tent” holding all sorts of conflicting views. Republicans pride themselves on having strong leaders.

People who run for office as Democrats are, as a rule, more tolerant of dissent than are people who run for office as Republicans. Modern-day Democrats believe in diversity, E Pluribus. Republicans believe in unity, Unum.

Research by the linguist George Lakoff has shown that in our collective subconscious, Democrats reflect the nurturing mother: accepting, embracing, empathic. Republicans represent the strict father: controlling, disciplining, limiting.

The reason why the Democrats’ “brand” has been weak relative to the Republican brand, why Democrats often appear spineless while Republicans appear adamant, and why the Democratic message is often unclear while the Republican message is usually sharper has a lot to do with this asymmetry.

Even over the last few weeks, as Democrats tried to hold the line over expiring health care subsidies that could send millions of Americans’ insurance prices soaring, voters have still favored Republicans on the economy and cost of living. Why? Because the Democratic message has been so garbled.

I don’t mean this as either criticism or justification of Democrats; I offer it as an explanation.

As America has grown ever more unequal and contentious, people who identify as Democrats tend to place a high value on the tenets of democracy: equal political rights, equal opportunity, and rule of law. That’s a good thing.

People who identify as Trump Republicans tend to place a high value on the tenets of authoritarianism: order, control, and patriarchy. (In fact, Trump authoritarianism is the logical endpoint of modern Republicanism.)

A majority of the current Supreme Court, comprised of Republican appointees, is coming down on the side of order, control, and patriarchy — which they justify under the legal fiction of a “unified executive” — rather than equal political rights, equal opportunity, and the rule of law.

None of this lets Chuck Schumer off the hook. He failed to keep Senate Democrats in line at a time when they finally had some bargaining power, and when the public mainly blamed Republicans for the shutdown. And none of what I’ve said exonerates the seven Senate Democrats and one Independent who broke ranks to join with the Republicans.

What’s the lesson here? Not that Democrats should adopt a more authoritarian organization or process. If they did, they wouldn’t be Democrats.

The real lesson is that when we — their constituents — want Democrats in Congress to hang tough, we need to force them to hang tough.

Republican voters can pretty much assume their senators and representatives will be unified and tough because that’s what Republicans do: they march to the same drummer (who these days sits in the Oval Office).

But we Democrats cannot and should not make this assumption. When we want our senators and representatives to be unified and tough, we have to let them know in no uncertain terms that we expect them to be unified and tough. We must demand it.

And if they’re not, we must hold them accountable.