An almost unfathomable gap divides public attitudes on basic issues involving gender, race, religion and politics in America, fueled by dramatic ideological and partisan divisions that offer the prospect of more of the bitter political battles that played out in Washington this month. Source: ABC via Drudge Report http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/10/polll-finds-vast-gaps-in-basic-views-on-gender-race-religion-and-politics/ Judging by the bitterness I have seen on this site, I believe it. Is this divide permanent? How serious is it? Has it always existed? If so, is it worse now? Solutions: States rights? Wait and it will go away? Additional parties? A foreign enemy? War?
Its human nature to pick sides and demonize the opposition. Getting people to look at problems independently and consider all solutions equally might help. Political parties are unlikely to do this, it has to happen with voters. If voters approve of their leaders arguing about problems rather than looking for solutions to them things will stay this way. Thats not to say argument is unnecessary. I would be happy if they spent 80% of their time arguing if they would just spend the rest of the time hammering out solutions. There are a lot of reasons for the current political impasse. Chiefly the current tendency to campaign all the time rather than doing the work they are elected for. I hope I am not the only voter tired of hearing non stop rhetoric.
Of all people...Sarah Palin has some interesting ideas I think we all can agree on. Anyone not agree with a majority of what she says? Any ideas on how to accomplish them? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/us/10iht-currents10.html?_r=4&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1315569719-RpR5AuX40tZqZl8xOiUg7g
I AM the left Mac. I'm as lefty as they come, but there is pretty much nothing in there that I disagree with.
She said it two years ago and has basically been screaming the opposite ever since. Maybe someone just wrote that on her hand as a joke.
When most of what she does is name-call, what reason does anyone have to like her? She perpetuates the stereotype that the right is dumb and bigoted.
They don't even know what she's saying so it isn't her ideas that they agree or disagree with. American libs are driven by labels not ideas and Palin is considered the enemy.
Comment on her comments in the article? Does calling a political party Terrorists ring a bell? How about racist? How about coming up with 101 stupid child like insults involving the word Tea? How about calling the NRA terrorists? etc etc etc.. If you want name calling look at a progressive.
Have you read the article? Admittedly it's an old article, but I was shocked to see how much of it I agreed with and I'm to the left of most people on this site. It's VERY anti-establishment and I like that.
Today, the BBC's Mark Mardell wrote a fair assessment of what is currently happening inside Washington D.C. and also perhaps inside the head space of the rest of the nation. Indeed, only in the last paragraph or two did the journalist perhaps stray into his own version of leftwing ideology. All in all it's fair in nature and it explains a few things: The answer to your questions is that nobody knows what's going to happen to this nation in either the short or the long run. All any of us can do is guess. In my estimation we are seeing the middle of the middle class vanish so that now instead of the lower middle class (not quite poor) the true middle class (doing okay but not wealthy) and the upper middle class (just a trembling decimal point from being labelled lower level wealthy), it's going to be divided into only the lower and upper middle classes. The public educational system will continue to mount in expense and degrade in performance in general until finally the U.S. government simply assumes control of the mess -- which probably still won't result in any sort of meaningful improvement but will skyrocket costs. The -- by the time Obama leaves office -- national debt of 20 trillion dollars will economically cripple this nation and even perhaps finally bump it out of first nation, super power status. There are other things that will probably happen but just this stuff alone is depressing enough as they stand.
Although a country divided is not beneficial, division can benefit a particular party. What will the political landscape look like when that one particular party eventually dominates the country? We will certainly lose the checks and balances our founding fathers built into our system. And that alone can't be a good thing for this nation. But I believe this divide was inevitable, and has been taking place long before Obama took office. I also believe the shortage of funds is exasperating the division. Strength in numbers increases the chances of gaining a bigger piece of the ever shrinking pie.
Unfortunately, I believe you're right. I remember the rancor and bitterness that divided this country during the Vietnam War, and although the situation then was more volatile (probably because this pointless brush-war got 60,000 American soldiers killed), the hatred I see in America today is far deeper and fundamentally much worse. Vietnam was about a stupid, useless war in an unimportant third-world pisspot that was thousands of miles away. The hatred between Socialists and Capitalists today is right here in our laps, and it affects us in our homes, our jobs, our very future as a nation. Half the country has decided to quit working and make the other half support them. The other half thinks these socialist bums are nothing more than leeches and parasites, sucking the life's blood out of the nation. Right now the parasite faction is in control of the government, but when the "makers" are back in power, and the "takers" are thrown out on their asses, THEN you will see what all this building hatred and anger has festered into.... The alternative is that the socialist "takers" remain in power and the working "makers" say "To hell with it!", and join them. Then the conversion to Socialism will be complete and the country we used to know as the United States will never surface again....
Unless the Citizens United ruling of the SCOTUS is reversed, no, nothing can be done about it. Since corps are not people, yet have been granted personhood, and since money is not speech (dictionary anyone?) yet has been declared speech, and since congress illegally represents the will of the highest bidder rather than those who elect them (Representative Republic), the class war will continue un-abated. To answer your questions in your earlier posts, yes, it has essentially always been this way, though not exactly this bad or, at other times much worse. There are many reasons for this but the common denominator is the essence of conservatism, to resist change, to conserve the status quo. The staus quo was for eons a feudal system, Paupers and Lords, haves and have nots. All humans are innately conservative, it is instinctive not to waste for base survival purposes alone. Hence guided more by instinct than intellect, those less capable of critical thought, the gullible and the stupid, and in many cases the simply selfish support the conservative cause. This is incredibly damaging since conservative policy benefits at best 10% of the population (if not less, possibly much less) yet through lies, distortion, bribery, lobbying, gerrymandering and vote tampering, the GOP maintains the support of aproximately 50% of the population, in other words almost half of our country votes against their own best interests in every election. One excellent book which quickly defines the GOP agenda, explains class warfare and the urgency of educating the general population to the realities of the GOP lies is "The Wrecking Crew". I highly recommend it.
If this was true how can you explain a Democrat as President?.... If you are that out of touch about this country perhaps you should stick to your own god knows it has enough problems!
Because I don't think she believes it. The right loves big corporate America. They're the ones who unleashed it in the first place- with no corporate taxes and deregulation. The right would not let her say that for long, when corporatism is what they want inthe first place.
Its both parties unless you think Glass-Stegall was killed by a Republican President. You do know Clinton was a Democrat right?
Here's a good reason for the divide. The Vietnam War was necessary to stop the spread of communist. But too many people fail to see that.
