The USA is divided and there is no easy way out

Look around you, the USA has already split into at least 2 groups, and the groups are incompatible with each other. One group ("progressives") has been working for over 100 years to take over, another large group (conservatives) has finally woken up to the threat. The USA is in a civil war and there is no easy way out.

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The United States is in a civil war in every way short of using arms. The institutions won’t save us any more because they no longer mean anything. There are two sides which are equally unchangeable in their minds. Both sides are not driven by the same principles ... but in principle both sides are largely unmoved in their beliefs and direction.

The issue is that until very recently we thought that there was only one side that was rising every day (the Left) and another that was slowly dying (the Right). The leaders of the Right themselves were into some sort of pathological approval seeking path to appease the Left even to their own detriment (as long as they were not labelled as “-ists” of any kind). .....Meanwhile, their constituents, who are despised by the Left, were always feeling like there was only one way of doing things and that the best they could hope for was to slow down their eventual demise.

Trump changed all of this. The Right realized that they don’t owe the Left ****. They could still believe what their eyes and common sense dictated to them without going through any PC filter or seeking institutional approval.

There is no way for the political situation in the US to become better. .... It is total war at this point. It is a war of attrition. There is no scenario where everyone starts liking (or even accepting) everyone in the other side. The Left was so close to actually kill the dragon in it’s sleep. Trump awakened it but it doesn’t mean that the Right will win. It only means that it will either prevail or it will go down fighting. No middle ground.

Make no mistake that both sides are out to win this thing by any means necessary. Kavanaugh doesn’t matter. The Supreme court will not matter when 70 million people from one or the other side view it as illegitimate. Nothing matters anymore.​

No institution is trusted any longer.

Nobody trusts the government. The integrity of elections is gone. The courts including the Supreme Court are as political as legislative entities.

Fantastically wealthy people buy their way into government, or buy politicians. Corporations are half commercial and half political. The oligarchy is alive and well.

Politicians break the law with impunity. The rule of law is gone.

Schools from public elementary schools to Universities are more political propaganda outlets than places of education.

Even the military, the one institution that held respect when all other institutions failed, is losing support.

Is there a peaceful resolution to this?

Should the USA split into multiple nations?

Or should the groups drop the fig leaf, stop pretending the system is still in place, and just fight it out until there is only one group standing?

 

Putin is creaming his jeans at this success. The right wing has taken up his agenda, and ran with it. We CANNOT exist together. One group must be ejected, says the right wing. Otherwise all the guns we have assembled into our arsenals will be used to determine which group must go.

 

It isn't as divided as portrayed. Liberal progressivism is a fad. Once the goofy millenial generation matures many of them will become conservative. Also the next generation, Generation Z, is said to be more conservative than the baby boomers.

 

A couple things come to mind.

One, yes, the politics of this time have divided the nation. The technology of these times makes it appear even more so. This time will pass, and life will move on again.

Keep in mind, the 60's were a polarizing time, and the country found a way out.

Consider the collective mind set that brought about Prohibition in the early parts of the 20th Century. It took some time, but a way out was found.

Then there was the Civil War.....

Great Societies, filled with a cross section of humanity, seem to go through these periods. Human Nature, outside influences, fads, whatever, time passes, and the beat goes on.

 

At best laughable, at worst to damn dumb to be believable. If anyone is in league with Putin it is the progressives as they strive desperately to undermine a duly elected US president shout down speakers on college campuses and harass opposition leaders in public places.

 

You have the gift of ******** on many good threads, congrats. Your deficiencies are alarming and although you may consider yourself normal, you are not. Your trolling is brain numbing to the point that retardation must be considered when one converses with you on any level.

My only request is if this nation splits, falls into chaos or civil war I would like you out front leading your tribe.

Darwin will take care of the rest.

 

"Is there a peaceful resolution to this?" is the question of our time. Clearly, a house so divided cannot stand. At this juncture, I fear the answer to the question is, "No." This seems to be an extension of the American Civil War; Left v. Right, Blue v. Red. What brought us together was ultimately two world wars.

What kept us together was the mutual fear and loathing of a powerful adversary during the Cold War. Once that threat vanished, we turned on each other. Americans react favorably to war. If we didn't we wouldn't be dropping $700 billion a year on a huge, powerful military. We love our toys. It's entertaining to watch "shock and awe" on our flat panels but it faded like a bad sit-com.

9/11 served the purpose for a few years but then degraded into a bothersome set of rules and regulations for shoes and air travel. We crave something that will drive us to our basement arsenals to oil our guns. Something BIG.

 

The division will be somewhat mitigated when the coastline of California cracks off and becomes food for the dolphins.

 

I hope you are correct but I believe you are wrong, push will come to shove and technology will only amplify the violence.

 

Eliminationist rhetoric whether it is by the hand of GOD, or right wing, is eliminationist rhetoric. It is un-American, unpatriotic, and downright unneighborly.

 

There have always been those that have looked around and said "there must be a better way" and there has always been those the have said "no, things need to stay the same". There have always been progressives and conservatives and always will be. Sure, sometimes, one group will gain more influence than the other, but the pendulum is always swinging.

Now, with the current political climate, it does seem that the two sides will never come to an agreement, but I do not believe for an instant that we are headed for a civil war nor is there a reason to. The Internet has become a huge echo chamber that amplifies the tribalism inherent in humans and this leads to a amplification of the differences between different ideologies. However, this is not a permanent condition. We just need to teach the up and coming generations to ignore the echo chamber and think for themselves.

Violence should always be the last resort and we haven't even come close to exhausting all of our options. As for splitting up this country, don't forget, we are called the UNITED States of America. We can our power through being united, not separated.

 

There has been violence in our history. There may be violence this time. In fact, one side has already engaged in it. But the country will move on. It always has, and I believe the foundational qualities of this country will insure that happens.

 

Not sure if you know this, but I'm going to put it here for those that don't. The San Andreas fault does not work that way, California is not going to fall into the see.

 

I think those comments are unnecessary and inappropriate.

 

No nation has longevity of security and every nation on this planet has fallen, reinventing itself or been taken over. Europe along with other continents has slaughtered its own, redrawn nations and borders.

The US is not immune to this fact,

I also share in your optimism because it is the healthy thing to do but knowing the history of mankind do not be surprised that optimism was traded for war, by our own hand or from a foreign land.

 

It is but needed to be said.

 

I'm not naive to the history of nations. The US most certainly is not immune to the fate that has befallen most.

And war is the story of the evolution of the human species. There will always be war. It's an element of our kind.

Those who think that war can be stamped out are ignoring this fact.

 

What a pity.

 

I have been lectured repeatedly that the oceans were rising and LA and NYC were to be underwater very soon. Something like it's "settled science" and "the debate is over". I think Al Gore name was brought into play.
Given this revelation, by washing away the leftie coasts, America can be well on it's way to becoming one unified nation, don't you think?

 

Not true. In the long term the pendulum does not stay centered. Governments always move in the direction of increasing government power and control, that's a basic historical fact seen throughout all of human history. Its that understanding that drove the Founders of the USA in their writing of the Constitution.

You can see the move toward totalitarianism clearly in the trajectory of the USA. From the late 1700's until today, the USA has moved from a small decentralized federal government to a near dictatorial entity.

The USA is in a civil war right now, just without open warfare.

The name means nothing. Conservatives and "progressives" are mutually exclusive, they cannot even tolerate each other.

 

Well done.

 

Well said.

 

Nations do not stand still. What was the resolution of the Civil War? Increased federal power, decreased state power. How did the USA find its way out of the 60's? Increased federal power, decreased state power. The same for the Great Depression, WW2, the housing collapse in 2006-2009.

And the process has accelerated.

The trend is to centralize power in the federal government. That's the trend in all governments, throughout human history.

 

Sadly true.

 

Agreed. What we are seeing are a few loud-mouthed fringe partisans on both sides screaming and their voices amplified by both the Internet and a 24-hour news cycle. Most people are in the middle and a helluva lot quieter. We're no where close to "civil war" despite all the fear-mongering and clamoring of a relatively few partisan assclowns.