Addendum...
Someone wrote to Glenn Reynolds with similar observations to mine (smiley in original):
Science fiction writer Sarah Hoyt emails:
I was thinking about this today at breakfast, actually, because I’m plotting my second space opera for Baen (no, first hasn’t come out yet) which involves a revolution — and wondering if a lot of the blind partisanship as well as the tendency for people to fall into cult of personality (No, not a new thing, recall attachment to Washington in revolutionary times) aren’t evolutionary remnants.
I think humans were designed by evolution to be loyal to a small group, a "tribe" (though most groups when humans were evolving were smaller than most tribes. Somewhere between extended family and clan) and for reasons of cohesion within the tribe to fall into hierarchical order — i.e. to be loyal to the "big man."
I think this is responsible both for people’s tendency to fall in with the opinions of their social group seemingly without thought and for the "celebrity president" thing (Yes, Obama is perhaps the most obvious celebrity president, but Reagan had a bit of that to — and used it.)
In the light of this, a government like the US's — of ideals and laws — seems like an aberration that goes against our evolutionary urges. So how we survive is a puzzle, and the visceral hatred so many of our citizens have towards the constitution and which most of the world has towards us is no longer surprising.
We are the muties… 😁 Must be brought back down to normalize the species.