Why are we a divided Nation?

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Hyde Park 63, Oct 5, 2019.

  1. Hyde Park 63

    Hyde Park 63 Newly Registered

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2019
    Messages:
    28
    Likes Received:
    38
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Gender:
    Male
    I believe it started with Obama right after the Ferguson incident. He sided with the criminal and not the officer before the evidence came out. It continued with other police shootings as well. And then came Donald Trump. That election was a shock to almost everyone. The polls where wrong on that one. From day one, the liberals where in war mode. All we heard was crying, screaming at the sky, and threats of impeachment. Everything that has been mentioned so far has been controlled by the press. Yes, CNN and MSNBC is fake news. Their ratings are plummeting, but they would rather go after President Trump.
    We are a divided Nation, not because of the President, but because the Democrats and the liberal News Media wants it that way.
     
  2. ronv

    ronv Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2018
    Messages:
    20,312
    Likes Received:
    8,774
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I think it has less to do with politics (before Trump).
    I think it has more to do with wage inequality. There is a large part of the population that has lost the vision of the American dream because costs have surpassed their income for quite some time. These people have become Trump supporters because he gave them an excuse for their problems. Thing such as immigration, trade and taxes.

    The WSJ had a nice article on it.

    Democrats and Republicans Live in Different Worlds

    September 19, 2019 at 12:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 163 Comments

    Wall Street Journal: “America’s political polarization is almost complete. Its two main political parties increasingly represent two different economies. And they barely overlap.”

    “Democrats can be found in educated cities and suburbs where professional jobs are plentiful. Republicans live in working-class and rural communities, home to agriculture and low-skill manufacturing.”
     
    Pants, Bowerbird, Len_A and 2 others like this.
  3. Robert E Allen

    Robert E Allen Banned

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2018
    Messages:
    12,041
    Likes Received:
    5,750
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    There are lots of reasons. Lots of Republicans were truly shocked how far left Obama took us.
    Democrats had no doubts about Hillary's victory and were totally shocked when Trump won.
    The Democrats and the media took lots and lots of Trump's quotes out of context and made people think very badly of him. Some justified some not.

    Now trump supporters have had enough of Democrats BS and respond with plenty of their own.

    Now we each want what we want and oppose what the other guy wants and we'd rather fight than compromise.
     
    Max Fanta likes this.
  4. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2013
    Messages:
    38,026
    Likes Received:
    16,042
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Political correctness and diversity
     
  5. SEAL Team V

    SEAL Team V Banned

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2019
    Messages:
    2,749
    Likes Received:
    3,559
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    We are divided because controversy and hate sells and is pushed by leftist liberal media sources like CNN, MSNBC, Facebook, New York Times etc. There is over 330 million people in this country. I guarantee there is at least 100 million random acts of kindness everyday yet the left media only reports the hate. Furthermore if a hateful act is committed by a white male the media makes sure the identity is known asap.

    Yesterday an arrest was made in New York City for the beating death of 4 homeless men while they slept. A fifth is in serious condition. The media reported the arrest and even an accurate description of the weapon used, yet omitted the identity of the suspect. Anyone want to bet why that identity is being withheld by the media? I'm guessing because the suspect isn't a white male.

    Take Jussie Smollett or the MAGA hat wearing Covington High School students on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial or the Muslim female student at U of L Lafayette or most recently the 3 white students personally accused by a black girl of holding her down and cutting her dreads. The leftist media immediately exploded with racist accusations. In some cases for months until the stories were proven false. Then many in the media didn't even report the false claims.

    The left media knows how naive and gullible many Americans are, especially Millennials. It is very easy to get liberals all worked up. Just report or post anything you want, get some leftist athlete or entertainer to endorse that anything and you could easily sway the thinking of 50 million idiots. Remember when the left not only endorsed but loved Micheal Avenatti? Let me refresh your memory of the left's love for a man that is now facing 36 Federal Indictments.
     
  6. Starjet

    Starjet Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2009
    Messages:
    5,805
    Likes Received:
    1,678
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    We are divided because we’ve abandoned reason and selfishness in favor of faith and altruism.
     
    Adfundum likes this.
  7. cd8ed

    cd8ed Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2011
    Messages:
    41,830
    Likes Received:
    32,496
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    We are a divided nation because we have a two party system that cannot exist unless we are divided.

    “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
    ― John Adams, The Works Of John Adams, Second President Of The United States
     
  8. Wrathful_Buddha

    Wrathful_Buddha Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2008
    Messages:
    5,581
    Likes Received:
    1,370
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I don't know if we're as divided as we're led to believe. I think there are people that don't know how to do anything but hate Trump, and there's everybody else. The former is very noisy, but relatively small. It's an illusion, im my opinion.
     
  9. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2012
    Messages:
    150,180
    Likes Received:
    62,818
    Trophy Points:
    113

    the reality is, the country is divided 50\50 and the rich are getting richer and the middle class is getting poorer and both sides want someone to blame

    the real issue is foreign outsourcing and foreign imports... corporate greed.. corporatism is destroying this country
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2019
  10. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2012
    Messages:
    150,180
    Likes Received:
    62,818
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Trump likes to stir up the hate, but the reason he is able to do that is people are having a harder time than past generations, and looking for others to blame, I am glad I grew up when I did, I hope for future generations though that we can get back on track and grow the middle class
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2019
    Colombine likes this.
  11. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2012
    Messages:
    150,180
    Likes Received:
    62,818
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Obama did not take us far left, Obama was actually a pretty center left President - just the right has moved so far right, they do not see it
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2019
    redeemer216, DavidMK, Len_A and 3 others like this.
  12. roorooroo

    roorooroo Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 14, 2017
    Messages:
    2,814
    Likes Received:
    3,091
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Some good replies above.

    I'll say a key point is that personal responsibility is no longer important to many. It was a gradual thing, but more and more think they deserve free housing, free health care, free food, and a free education. One side doesn't care that someone else must work to provide those free things. And those that do have to pay for that free stuff are on the opposite side.
     
  13. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2017
    Messages:
    27,705
    Likes Received:
    21,104
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Its because the establishment (political power base, corporations, media) are bing used to push collectivism as a means to impliment neo-feudalism. The elite controllers, descended from ancient dynasties, manipulating the top of the pyramid from behind the curtain of bureaucratic obfuscation for centuries, want to overturn the liberty We The People took in The Enlightenment. They want their thrones back, and they think appealing to the soft-hearted, the downtrodden and the oppressed is the best way to go about it. Equality of opportunity can be anulled by instituting equality of results. Resource scarcity is manufactured to build the perception that we must all be austere to be equal. They push the institution of authoritarian collectivism promising this austere equality, and only after 'we'(they) achieve it and our (common folk) influence in the market is anulled by the consolidation of their power, their hidden wealth and influence will be made apparent.

    This is nothing new. They've been using the innevitable cycle of prosperity> decadence> complacency> tyranny> revolution> to consolidate power over the masses since recorded history. The difference this time is that the technology exists to lock the cycle in at tyranny for all time.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2019
  14. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Costs don't surpass your income, your expenditure does. An important difference.
     
    roorooroo likes this.
  15. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    .
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2019
  16. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Try remaining a rich, safe, free, First World nation without democratic capitalism.
     
  17. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I see the opposite. The Right is no longer really even socially conservative. As a life-long Leftie, I can say in all honesty that this is the first time I've seen that. As far as I can tell, the Right has never harboured such a mixed and varied cohort as it does today.

    To me it's very clear that the Left has gone awry. Infiltrated by ideologues and bolstered by the rise in political comment from celebrity etc. Even abandoning tolerance and liberalism. Very sad.
     
  18. ronv

    ronv Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2018
    Messages:
    20,312
    Likes Received:
    8,774
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Your playing with words.

    Inflation Examples
    For example, the Bureau of Census reports that the average price of a new home in May 1999 was $193,900. According to the inflation calculator, that price today should be $298,774. The same report places the average sale price for May 2019 at $377,200, more than 26 percent higher than the price when accounting for inflation alone.


    The same method can be applied to see if household incomes have similarly increased. The median household income in 1999 was $42,000, according to the Census Bureau. According to the inflation calculator, that price today should be $64,716. The most recent year with full data available is 2018, which places household income at $61,227, meaning that it has failed to keep up with inflation and is 5% below where it should be.

    I would call that costs surpassing income.
     
    Pardon_Me likes this.
  19. Robert E Allen

    Robert E Allen Banned

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2018
    Messages:
    12,041
    Likes Received:
    5,750
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male

    The right hasn't budged an inch in decades.

    Obama was very far left
    Bill Clinton was slightly left of center.
     
  20. TheKeefer

    TheKeefer Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2016
    Messages:
    175
    Likes Received:
    123
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Republicans never really had a voice within the media until people like Limbaugh came along.

    The left couldn't handle having voices of opposition, especially one with the huge following that Limbaugh has, and they have been in a hissy fit ever since. It's been a war ever since.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2019
    roorooroo and yabberefugee like this.
  21. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2018
    Messages:
    7,683
    Likes Received:
    4,171
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    We've always been divided. It blew up into a civil war once. Almost did again on several occasions. I remember a pretty divided nation back in the 60s. I remember an intentional use of language by politicians in the early 90s to establish a clear divide between Republicans and Democrats. The use of technology seems to have made it so much easier for us to feed our biases and to fuel division. Trump is a highly divisive president, and is active in using division as a tool of politics. He is not alone in that.
     
    Idahojunebug77 likes this.
  22. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Not at all. If COSTS go up, your EXPENDITURE must go down. The increase in COSTS will only be a problem if you fail to lower your EXPENDITURE. That is a crucial point, not made in your post.

    Costs continously rise (with minor fluctuations along the way .. none of which change the overall rise). For the 99% of us who aren't rich, that means our expenditure is the key to - not just survival in spite of increase, but even prosperity. It's entirely possible to prosper in the face of rising costs and stagnant wages, simply by adjusting our lifestyle. Since we know that's possible, then rising costs are not the cause of our failure .. expenditure is.
     
    roorooroo and Idahojunebug77 like this.
  23. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Add to that the non-establishment media voices representing the Right (or anything but the Left). That's entirely new, and they can't do anything about it because they're non-establishment.
     
    yabberefugee likes this.
  24. Robert E Allen

    Robert E Allen Banned

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2018
    Messages:
    12,041
    Likes Received:
    5,750
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male

    I wish my wife and i made 42 grand a year.

    How much bigger are houses today, and what kind of ammenities are in those houses?
     
  25. ronv

    ronv Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2018
    Messages:
    20,312
    Likes Received:
    8,774
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    It has nothing to do with failure. We are talking about why we are divided. I would agree with you to the extent that adjusting our lifestyle - not being able to buy a house for example is part of that divide.
     
    EarthSky likes this.

Share This Page