I didn't answer a lot of your specific Jack, because we are on such different planets. To even begin to address that I have to make it more clear where I come from.

Your points and arguments seem to be developed from a lot of misconceptions about who I am, what I believe in and what experiences are.

Everything somebody write will be interpreted in a context. That contex is often based on preconceptions the other party has about that person.

For instance you conclude that you have an issue with me becuse your daughter married somebody who was a "socialist" democrat whatever that is.

You build your conceptions around me based on the realities of the society you live in, but I don't live in the US. Norwegian politics and ideologies are very different from the US.

From my point of view calling somebody a socialist and a democrat sounds utterly ridiculous. Liberalism and socialism are entirely different ideologies. That you conflate the two is either due to mockery, ingorance or simply the sorry state of political discourse in the US. You are stuck with a corrupt two party system, which means there is little to no ability within the American system to really reflect the beliefs and values of voters.

Every voter in America has to pigeon holed into one of two camps. Your focus on not having party loyalty I believe comes from that experience. The US because of that two party system has developed into a very partisan society, where each party has almost become a tribe and American society itself has become tribalist.

You ask me these questions about these sorts of tribal loyalities because you are implicitly assuming that the society I live in is exactly the same as yours. That we have somehow gone through the same political transformations as you. But we have not. It is profoundly different here. The kind of polarization and tribalism you have experienced over many years is not an issue here.

We have a rich multi-party system with around 10 different parties represented in parliament. People here don't put each other into one of two camps and demand loyality and issue ideological purity tests.

In short you whole question "What do you value most, ideological victories or good will?" is just alien to me. I get it makes some sense in an American context, but it doesn't where I live.

Norwegian politics isn't that tribal. People vote a lot more on issues. Historically I have primarily picked parties based on their programs, even when I didn't like the party leader at all. I am a pragmatist.

Most parties are a package of beliefs, ideas and ideologies. I never agree with all of them. I find things I agree with in almost every party on the spectrum. Thus it is more a question of picking something that aligns best with the things I care most about.

I used to vote on social liberals because their platform was free market oriented, focused on innovation, startups education and evironmental policy.

Currently I vote on democratic socialists, not because I really am one but because I think social democrats have had poor leadership the last years and not been good at pushign their issues. 8 years of conservatism blended with right-wing populism made me really desire a hard turn left after seeing all the negative effects of their policies.

Mind you I don't hate them the way Americans seem to hate the party on the other side. I have the outmost respect for our former conservative prime minister. She was an honest, dedicate politician who did a decent job.

I really don't have much against most politicians here. I don't put labels like dishnest, liars, immoral etc on them. I think most of them are simply following their ideological persuation. They do what they believe is best for Norway.

You talk about becoming estranged from your daugher. I am sorry to heard that, but i also think that is something particular to how American society has developed. I have many American friends here who are sad about loosing friend after Trump got elected an politics got really polarized.

People don't stop being friends over here due to politics. In the Norwegian partliament there are in fact socialists and right-wingers who are very good friends.

The uncompromising attitudes of both leftists and right-wingers in the US is in fact something I quite dislike. Even if I am pretty far left myself, I frankly cannot stand a lot of the ones who show up on social media. I like many of the lefty comedians like John Steward, Colbert, Trevor Noah and I think AOC and Bernie is pretty awesome. But you know, they got a very different rethoric and style from leftists here in Norway.

At the end a little correction on some misconceptions. I had studied economics long before 2008. I mentioned 2008 as a moment that changed my perspective on economics.

It seems we agree on Alan Greenspan. So at least we have one thing in common ;-)