Anchor9, I do not agree with your assessment of the situation. Among other issues, you are assuming that every argument being made is being made in good faith. They are not.
For your example on Global Warming: Their is a major profit incentive to simply ignore the problem. Car companies unload massive amounts of cash into Washington. In exchange, right wing politicians and the media ecosystem they have developed loudly cry that it's a hoax, or say the vague changes are too much. Car companies get what they want, and spend less money making their product. It does not matter what evidence comes on Global Warming, there is profit incentive for the right to act as if it is an issue, and reject it. Positions against global warming as they stand in US politics are not being preached in good faith.
The wind is scary.
For your example on border patrol: The US has an incredibly cruel stance on southern border patrol that has incarcerated thousands of children and families seeking asylum into the US. This has stayed mostly the same between the Trump and Biden administrations. It is bipartisan cruelty, and exists mostly now as the democrats have tried to appeal to republicans on their desired terms for some act of compromise. The exact same claims that the southern border needs protection that have rung out since before you and I were born are still being thundered by the right wing. Despite everything, despite all that has been done, despite the death caused by Joe Arpaio and border vigilantes, despite numerous demonstrations that a proposed wall is effortless to get around and wastes money, the republicans / wider right claim not enough is being done. This has been the case since even before the 1950s when
Operation [Mexican Slur] deported huge amounts of legal Americans because they "looked" illegal. The driving force behind all of this is not any sincere worries about the border. It is a very long and storied history of racist intolerance to anyone who doesn't look white.
The right in the United States repeatedly uses bad faith arguments to turn facts into ongoing issues. This can be seen in some previous hot-button issues that have since lost steam and mostly died in the united states, and have always looked ridiculous outside of it. The matter of evolution vs creationism got major airtime under the disguise of "teach the issue" in the mid 2000s. Teaching the issue as a debate implicitly gave both sides of the position value, despite one being routed in science and the other being a theological idea not widely held in many Christian circles, and not necessarily at all in competition with evolution. The desired outcome, allowing creationism and letting legislators put their religion as on par with science in schools, has unfortunately come to pass in a few states.
The right does not care about what is the truth, or in consistently maintaining their espoused beliefs. They are making these arguments in bad faith, and are only interested in whatever can mask their actual beliefs. Any rightwing leader who praises state's rights does not give a shit about the actual rights of a state. It is a well documented dogwhistle that has survived since the
southern strategy let Republicans sweep up disgruntled racists in the wake of the civil rights act into their herd. It's a hydra that grows a new head every few years, sometimes with concepts like Obama's birth certificate, sometimes with words like DEI now or CRT two years ago. If you're not listening, it can be easy to mistake it as genuine argument, but the family tree is very clear.
It is very tempting to excuse Dem vs Republican issues as "These two sides are in fundamental disagreement and neither's gonna understand the other". I've seen a lot of good natured people do this over the course of my life. It has problems. It's lazy. You're not engaging with the content of what they're saying. This stance is very good at letting these people acting in bad faith to turn a settled matter with an outcome they dislike into something of debate. Several debates just do not have two valid positions; they are hoping for raw unfamiliarity with the people / positions driving the argument to give it weight and draw something into question. They want you to be lazy enough to only look at the water, not stick a foot in there and see where all that water's coming from. This revisionism is the roots of many of our most vile problems, like vaccine denialism or Holocaust denial. It's the favorite option in the right wing playbook. Be very cautious dismissing things this way, because the worst people love to prey upon it.
If you want to inoculate yourself against this sort of thing, I say educate yourself when they come around and learn what other pies the participants have their hands in. Look at recent election denialism claims, for example. The dominion lawsuits show that the initial claims were patently false and mixed in with insane conspiracy theories, but folks like Tucker and the rest of the right ran with it anyway for money, even with staff complaining it was obviously false. Maybe look at any future opinions Tucker has on things, and that he might be masking monstrous concepts like the great replacement theory with very thin masks. Maybe look into that too and realize how disgusting a history it has, and dismiss people arguing in that space as operating in bad faith. Don't settle on civil war litigation just being an unsolved issue of "oh, was it states rights or slavery?" as it was taught to me as a child. Go look up the
cornerstone address and see with your own eyes the vice president of the confederacy declaring that races are fundamentally not equal. Don't let a politician rope you into honoring these people. This whole world of hateful telephone game can seem impenetrable at first, but in the long run, you learn a roster of shitheads who are taking advantage of unfamiliarity with their arguments made in bad faith for disgusting profit.
This post got out of control, sorry. I've done my best to make it coherent. Nothing against the poster, but I felt compelled. The state of us politics is not the left and right bashing each other. It is a right transparently acting in bad faith with another party that doesn't really care at all because it's still getting paid.
Also, as an aside, It's also just not true that a lot of democrat and republican legislation is in opposition. They repeatedly, enthusiastically pour embarrassing amounts into military budgets. Ultimately they very much agree on matters of US imperialism, to all of our detriment.
