A critique of the 'Divided America' Trope
A critique of the 'Divided America' Trope
We seriously need to start pushing back on this Divided America Trope. It is absolute propaganda.
America is more divided than ever.
Wrong. there are a lot of antisocial criminal elements in a America. Though the problems do get more aggravated, there are far fewer violent crimes, political or otherwise per capita than ever before. It is also my sense that even among people who differ in their political views, most people would pick up someone who fell without considering who they were or what sort of politics they practiced.
The American Congress is frozen by Partisanship.
At least mostly true. But it doesn't really represent a new state of affairs, at least not in the last decade or so.
We're headed for a civil war
Maybe; there certainly seems to be an element that wants one, and a revolution in government on the side. But they have proven to be a relatively tiny, if startling, sliver of the population, the military, and the police. At least, when the chips came down.
I think that this is a media narrative that feeds on itself in two ways. The first being that it is an insidious 'both sides' framing of the state of affairs. The Democratic party is not just another flavor of political party; the GOP Republicans are not just another flavor of political party.
The fact is, the Republican party can be shown to be composed of two basic types of people: those being charged with felonies, and those trying to protect or defend them from those charges, often becoming tainted with their crimes.
The Democratic party is the other half of a previously functional government (I'm being generous here) that has been left holding the bag while the other first half turns to crime, conspiracy, and the craft of procedural sabotage.
This has all been predicated on the moral tenets of a religion that they neither understand nor practice, and that has opened the door to nationalist authoritarianism and outright fascism as they have been emboldened and supported by the most most crass and self serving of the evangelical 'personality' churches out there.
The second way it feeds on itself is that by framing the question in this way, the media makes it safe to be someone who endorses what is clearly a criminal cabal run amok. After all, if the axios site all but loads a balance for you (the two sides of this 'divide'), how can it be anything other than just two different teams, with two differing perspectives? You can feel free to substitute just about any 'news' outlet, for 'axios'; because not only is axios not the only one; I don't think I've ever seen a 'news' outlet framing it any other way.
While it is true everyone is innocent until proven guilty, there is a statistical ratio, given a level field of activity, that asserts that someone is very guilty, given the large number of charges, and a lot of others are accessories before and after the fact, accomplices, and every other variation as we ride the Bell curve.
Many will be quick to claim that the playing field isn't level; but you'll notice it's always the ones without a defense in the face of a mountain of charges.
Hell no they don't have, and shouldn't anticipate a level playing field, other than in a court of law.
Being found at the scene of a murder isn't a good look, whether you're fucking guilty or not.
Overall I think the conversation needs to shift away from "Americans are divided" and instead be shifted towards "The rich are dividing the working class for their personal benefit". They're destroying the planet too. The rich need to be made responsible for what they are doing and suffer the consequences.
Yes, why can’t people see this? This goes right along with people being mad at the poor for needing resources from the public fund while also saying we can’t tax the rich and their businesses because they will take their money and go (or some crazy fucking idea that the rich deserve to be there because they “worked hard” to get there, or worse - the idea that we shouldn’t “punish” them for being rich by asking them to pay their fair share).
I completely agree that the Joe on the street, and jean as well, are the regular targets of manipulation. I'm not sure if we'd agree on how or by whom.
I think as more of the southwest realizes that their water is literally being sold out under their feet to the oil cartels there might be a real sea change. But that is dependant on them wanting to continue living more than they want their opponents to die. And um. They don't really seem super into that yet.
Yeah, that's sort of the downfall of the whole "they'll come around eventually" mindset. The identity some people possess and want to be known by is "nothing is worse than being a Democrat". Death is preferable to losing to Democrats, so the lengths they'll go to are pretty damn far.
One huge problem for the SouthWest is that Nestle is out in the West pumping out fossil water that will take an eon to replace. If it can ever be replaced.
Oh it's more than just nestle. The governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE are purchasing swaths of land with headwater rights to the Colorado River and using them to grow hay year round. We're talking 300 foot wells sucking the bottom of aquifers people have lived on for centuries.
And the Arizona state pension fund is invested in the companies doing this. This is Captain planet villain shit.
California here. They wont. People don't notice those kinds of things. The central valley in CA though is sinking and has been sinking since the 60s. For the same reasons.
I'm okay reaching across the aisle until they'd like to do me harm for my beliefs. Then I really don't want to reach across the aisle any longer.
OK, perhaps. But then there's this...
See, we weren't as divided back when there weren't literal Fascists trying to anti-democratically hold onto power.
The true and deepening divide is absolutely necessary. And we need to crush them, like we crushed Hitler, and for the exact same reasons.
There's no denying that some are really far gone, nor that that element hasn't been here all along, hiding in the back. The litmus test for many of them will end up being whether or not they surrender.
@sparseMatrix
Yeah, we can't legislate (nor prosecute) thoughts & opinions. Only actions.Well, the GOP surely had members of a fascist bent all along. But those elected to national office had not acted in a fascist way often. But once Obama was POTUS, McConnell couldn't abide acting non-fascist anymore. And it all went nuts.
So yeah. We're absolutely very divided, more than any time since the Civil War. Fascist *actions* of *elected* dudes is why.
This is the rightwing minority pretending that they hold half or more of the country no matter what.
It's Trumpists who are at about 40%.
The gun lobby, which is about 32%.
The evangelicals are about 30-35%.
Good ol' fashioned racists are at less than half.
These people all want to represent themselves as majorities but are not.
It's even worse for them than that. There's is a whole lot of overlap among those groups.
Indeed
In Canada we get a lot of similar discourse around division. Usually it is convincing folks that "the Liberals hate you and want to make your life hard and think you are the worst and are diving the country". If you don't actually engage constructively with the other side of the political spectrum, it is easy to be convinced that you are are some kind of victim. The so-called division is being whipped up by the very elements that decry it.