Politics & Power Quote by Thomas E. Mann

“More naturally critical” is the kind of phrase that pretends to be neutral while quietly smuggling in a whole theory of democracy. Mann, writing as a social scientist, isn’t just reporting polling movement; he’s grading the health of the electorate. The line implies that skepticism is the default setting for citizens who aren’t captured by team identity, and that drifting back toward criticism is a return to equilibrium after an abnormal spell of partisan loyalty.

The first clause is doing the heavier political work. “Universally supportive” flattens the messy reality of any coalition into a near-totalizing bloc, suggesting not merely approval but a kind of discipline. The phrasing invites the reader to treat Republican support less as persuasion than as a hardened partisan reflex: voters aren’t evaluating a president; they’re defending a symbol. In that sense, “their President” is telling. It’s possessive, almost tribal, and it hints at personalization of power over institutional accountability.

The second clause creates a contrast that sounds observational but functions as diagnosis. Democrats and Independents aren’t suddenly discovering policy disagreements; they’re “returning” to criticism, as if the public had briefly suspended judgment and is now resuming a civic responsibility. Subtext: the political system can survive polarization only if enough people remain capable of conditional loyalty. Contextually, it fits an era of asymmetric partisanship and negative polarization, where approval becomes less about performance than about which side you imagine is under threat. Mann’s sentence is a polite warning: when one camp treats critique as betrayal, democratic feedback loops start to break.