To me, it all comes down to linguistics. One of the core tenets of descriptive linguistics is that everyone’s grammar is internally consistent. Even if someone appears to be breaking the rules, or is speaking an undefined creole, there’s an underlying and consistent framework that our brains naturally create. I don’t know of any research to support this supposition, but I operate under the assumption that a person’s politics work pretty much the same way: that he or she may appear to act contradictory or opportunistic or what-have-you, but internally, there’s a consistent framework that the brain has written to keep it all together.

When I look at people who I don’t agree with, or whose politics just leave me confused, then my main goal is to understand their political grammar, because otherwise it’s pointless trying to communicate with them using my political grammar.

Does that make sense?