I ask because Americans are divided today as they never have been, before. In earlier phases of our history, the parties were assemblages of interest groups and tended to have a focus on particular, concrete issues. Today the divide is increasingly ideological, and Americans are becoming segregated by particular political worldviews, worldviews which seem to ramify right down to a person's personality. I can scarcely believe that I share citizenship with the people of the other side. How can this process of mental (and increasingly physical) seperation go on, before people start to be motivated in the direction of political partition? Could such a process possibly be peaceful?
Once we get the over-influence of money out of our politics and elections... more important things will be taken care of effectively. Now, we seem to have a Wall of Separation between government and people; that "wall" is made of MONEY.
Spoken like someone who never lived through the civil rights era. Um, no, Americans are not divided more than they have ever been. Not even close. The divide has always been ideological. That has not changed. In fact, the ideologies of today have far MORE in common than they used to, even though they are more polarized. No one questions, for example, that blacks are completely equal to whites and deserve equal rights. That has not always been the case. Both sides fully agree on this now. LOL! You are definitely young. Hyperbole FTW!
Ever read the war of words between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton? It's been far worse before. The people will throw Obama and his cabal of socialists on the dung heap of history and repair the damage.
