What is your tribe? Democrat or Republican? That the political parties are expressing feuding tribalism as almost never before is the concept introduced by Reuben E Bridget II in an article called The Fractured Power, How to Overcome Tribalism in Foreign Affairs magazine March/April 2021. The author is a scholar who is “Vice Chancellor and President of the University of the South and Adjunct Senior Fellow for African Peace and Security Issues at the Council on Foreign Relations.”

When it comes to foreign countries, their divisions and stability are are measured by a tool called a Conflict Assessment Framework (CAF) by the US Agency for International Development. This intense method of assessing takes months to administer in order to predict conflict and suggest interventions to stop it. When the assessment shows a high likelihood of turmoil and violence in a particular country, other countries and agencies get involved to help the factions or “tribes” to work together toward a common good.

When the same assessment was applied to the United States of America, our country failed miserably.  The likelihood of further divide, violence, and government turmoil and inaction is inevitable, unless we can get over our tribalism. Tribalism in American politics happens when our citizens retain a strict loyalty to an identity which is usually based on race, religion, or region. The organizing principle of the identity politics is more important than policy. When coupled with distrust amongst each other and within politics, it makes it nearly impossible to solve our nations problems.

Future violence and division seems inevitable, unless we can accomplish some vital processes and procedures. I’ll further comment on the accommodations suggested by the author in a later post.