OPINION: This might be your tribe. But is it still your party?

It’s Super Bowl season, which came just after College Football Bowl Season, and is soon to be followed by March Madness.

Much of the nation has been, is now, or soon will be in the thrall of these or other sports.

There’s something special about being loyal to your team, that feeling of camaraderie, a brotherhood or sisterhood, a sense of belonging. Some call this sense of strong solidarity “tribalism.” It’s a funny sounding word, but it turns out that loyalty to your “tribe” is a really strong force. As you may have seen in sports, it can be powerful enough to cause otherwise normal people to do crazy things.

When you’re part of a tribe, you stick with them through thick and thin, and whether they’re wrong or right. You don’t care so much whether someone did something good; you care about whether that someone is on your team (or in your tribe). Because if they’re in the other tribe, no matter what they do — by definition — it’s not good.

That relativism shows the power of tribalism.

Speaking of the sports season, it’s also that time of year when counties throughout Idaho (and the entire country) host “Lincoln Day Dinners.” Typically, these are more or less pep rallies and fundraisers for the Republican party.

Republicans are rightfully proud to claim Abraham Lincoln as the founder of their party. We recently reflected on the connection between Lincoln and today’s Republican party.

Sometimes tribes change, and this one certainly has.

The original Republican Party did not stand for small government and traditional social values. Instead, author Peter Balakian said, “Lincoln’s administration gave us big government.”

As the nation struggled against the scourge of slavery and of Southern secession, the GOP provided both the moral directive and strong federal intervention.

Lincoln’s party also brought us the first income tax, the first national banking system, and big agencies like the Department of Agriculture. There was an explosion of government funding for the war, and the Pacific Railroad Act to fund the intercontinental railroad. Lincoln also signed the Morrill Act which funded the land grant universities — something that fundamentally changed America.

“For nearly 100 years, from the 1860s to the 1960s, the party of Lincoln was considered progressive,” Janice Ellis said, writing in the Missouri Independent. It took the lead in abolishing slavery and establishing civil rights for former slaves.”

Over time, the party changed, including in its approach to civil rights. One monumental shift occurred starting in the 1960s with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which was signed by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. Many who had been lifelong Democrats began migrating to the Republican Party.

But it wasn’t just a change in the approach to civil rights that redefined the GOP. As William S. Becker noted last year in “The Hill,” President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, created 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, five national parks and 18 national monuments on over 230 million acres of public land.

“If only by their signatures,” Becker writes, “history credits Republican presidents with some of the most important achievements in U.S. history: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, … the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Equal Rights Amendment, the Voting Rights Act and the Clean Air Act.”

Eventually, the GOP became the party of Reagan, focusing on lower taxes, free enterprise, smaller government, national defense, and traditional values.

“Once upon a time, the Republican Party held up inspiring ideals which motivated our predecessors to aspire to something greater than themselves. Better angels of our nature. A shining city on a hill.”

Much has changed in the Republican party in a short time. Very much.

What does today’s Republican Party stand for? Although there are a few notable exceptions — including among some of our local Republican state legislators — here’s a quick stab at trying to answer that question:

Of course, it depends who you ask. But if today’s Republican Party stands for anything, then above all, it is for the reverent adoration of The One. And on any other issue, what the GOP stands for now is just as likely to be the exact opposite of what it once did not long ago.

Then again, maybe the issues don’t really matter. Maybe it’s just the tribe.

The One who now rules the GOP inspires his followers in a way quite different from Lincoln or Reagan. Many would say he embodies certain distinctive characteristics — or inspires them in others: Anger. Fear. Demagoguery. Adulation of authoritarians. Violence. White supremacy. Vengefulness. Hate. Division. Cruelty. Dishonesty. Shrewd manipulation by propaganda.

For those who don’t share that perspective, however, one thing does seem clear. The GOP has now become whatever a certain strongman says it is.

But the party of Lincoln?

The tribe is still called “Republican.” But in a very real sense, today’s GOP is — to borrow a phrase — Republican in name only.

There is power in tribalism, especially when you’re fighting against the other tribe. The people who rely on us to keep them in power understand this very well. You can be sure of that. And so they manipulate our tendency toward tribalism to make us into their marionettes.

John Adams once wrote to a colleague, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

America has hung in there for 247 years. But if it is to last much longer, we must come to its defense — and soon.

“Republican” may be your tribe. But is it still your party?