Don't corollaries to your comments also apply at a higher level globally, or is there something special about considering countries as a grouping vs political parties?
Surely they're all just games we play in our minds and people kind of arbitrarily just agree that countries most definitely exist and this is my in-group, whereas others are enemies.
But this view is also a win for "them". A society that cannot look to itself, see its failings and divisions and address them and move past them is doomed to stagnation and failure.
The thing about divide and conqour strategies, is they don't create the divisions out of nothing. They exploit what is already there. Suppressing the divisions without resolving them is like surpressing an emotion. Eventually the pressure builds until there is an explosion. It is as much a losing strategy as letting differences spiral into animosisty and hatred.
Sucessful strategies (such as stoking division) usually don't have an easy answer of what you can just do to defeat the strategy. If they did, people wouldn't have been using such strategies for thousands of years; People use them because they are hard to counter.
> Understanding that your political opponent is not an enemy, or a bad person
J.D. Vance, Donad Trump and Putin are bad people. They are all my political opponents.
What a difficult challenge to determine which one to support.
ah yes, understanding the people who want to kill people like me is a great win.
Understanding that your political opponent is not an enemy, or a bad person, is key to resolving differences between you. And disrupting that ability is a way to destroy a country from within.
Adversaries such as China, Iran, Russia, and others know they cannot physically destroy the US or the collective West. Yet they can, if done right, cause self destruction. They can spread lies, misrepresent, spew distrust, and entice youth's natural dissatisfaction to grow and flourish.
Destroy the US from within, and they succeed without a shot fired.
It matters not what actor is currently on the stage. Whether left or right, this president or next or prior, the hostility exists. And it exists in large part, thanks to our enemies seeking our doom.
When you hate your political opponent without knowing them? When you blindly follow political dogma without questioning? When you take a stance because a party does?
You become a useful idiot.
And sadly?
In this day and age, we all are idiots.
Seek that part of the picture you are missing. Work to get your opponent to do the same.
You may still disagree, but even the tinest expansion of view is a victory for you both. Even the briefest glimse of otherness, a win.