House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing his full support for Donald Trump was huge news in the media and inside the beltway, the endorsement heard 'round the world.
But for most Americans, writes John Daniel Davidson
in The Federalist, it was crickets and tumbleweeds – very few cared.
The ship has sailed on party unity because most Americans lost confidence in our political system long ago, Davidson writes.
Most Americans now, regardless of party, are just interested in winning; or, more specifically, keeping the other party from winning. It's a concept called "negative partisanship," Davidson writes.
Americans "care about the Senate, and the rest of government, only insofar as it can be used as a weapon to destroy their political opponents," Davidson declares. "They don't want compromise; they want total war."
Further, Davidson cites polls that say not only have most Americans lost faith in the entire political system, voters don't even believe that their candidate, be it Trump or Hillary Clinton, represents their views.
"In this mood, divided Americans don't want their side to win as much as they want the other side to lose—even if it means holding their noses and voting for Clinton or Trump," he concluded.
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