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I came across a very old post from this sub's mod. The post was made shortly after Obama was elected president for the 1st time. The message from the post was simple: "I did not support this individual, but it's time to come together and support our president and hope that he or she chooses the best advisors to get us through the next four years".
I miss those days. I hate the toxicity and polarization that has consumed our political discourse.
I don't mean for this to turn into a finger pointing squabble; "Well if that side would do this" or "Well if that side would do that", then we could get things done. No, not that.
Can't we take an issue, any issue, and brainstorm a solution together? Civilly? All while respecting one another's unique perspectives arising from diverse backgrounds. We do it at work. We do it at school. We do it during some of the worst human tragedies. We are capable of pulling together, as it has been demonstrated numerous times in history.
I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not without guilt--this should not be taken as a holier than thou account. There are times where I've stopped listening and only cared about getting my own point across. Personally, I don't enjoy the feeling that follows from those contentious debates. Not only that, but there is the ultimate realization that nothing was achieved other than a fleeting moment of satisfaction over trumping someone's "flawed reasoning" in an otherwise meaningless internet kerfuffle. Surely, I'm not the only one who feels this. After all, we are all human beings who share the same emotions, feelings, desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Thanks for that reminder, ibginnie, of what we can be capable of.
In terms of America, we could start by realizing the fact that most of us already do agree, on a lot of things. It's a misconception that America is polarized down the middle ideologically, or at least on most of the actual issues. It just seems/feels that way all the time, because we are definitely very polarized emotionally about every damn thing. And then we have this whole ridiculous traditional 2 party system which has been terrible for democracy (the founders notably disliked parties in the first place, and yet here we are, and look what they've done to us).
Implementing ranked choice voting, IMO would probably be the very best thing that we could do, to depolarize and strengthen democracy and increase consensus/compromise/moderation/etc.
Eliminating the electoral college would do a lot of good things to break up the polarization, and de-emphasize the 'red states' and 'blue states' mentality. It would increase voter participation, because people in non-battleground states wouldn't feel like their vote doesn't matter.
Abortion, obviously as divisive an issue as it gets emotionally, but it consistently polls at around 60-62% in support for legality in all/most cases. So there's that.
Also, to give one to the other side, right around the same majority numbers of us think that illegal immigration is a problem. That issue polls at around 61% as well.
With the gun control topic, every various proposal polls differently, but support for universal background checks is 89%, including 84% of Republicans:
We're at 88% support for legal cannabis, with 59% support nationwide for recreational.
Support for gay marriage I think is up over 70% now, so that's consensus territory.
Support for Social Security and Medicaid is very high.
And there are a lot of other things that there is a majority agreement on. So, maybe we could exclusively focus on those things, if we want to squabble slightly less?
As far as bipartisan things in government, seems like they could take a Democratic issue with 55% support, and a Republican issue that has 55%, and do both things, and call that a compromise package. And so forth. Getting more things done, by doing 1 for 1 for each side.
Especially where the issues intersect. Like the Republican half of the country has a big concern on the southern border, and the Democratic half has a big concern with illegal guns. Well, there you go. Seems like room for something bipartisan there.
I came across a very old post from this sub's mod. The post was made shortly after Obama was elected president for the 1st time. The message from the post was simple: "I did not support this individual, but it's time to come together and support our president and hope that he or she chooses the best advisors to get us through the next four years".
I miss those days. I hate the toxicity and polarization that has consumed our political discourse.
I don't mean for this to turn into a finger pointing squabble; "Well if that side would do this" or "Well if that side would do that", then we could get things done. No, not that.
Can't we take an issue, any issue, and brainstorm a solution together? Civilly? All while respecting one another's unique perspectives arising from diverse backgrounds. We do it at work. We do it at school. We do it during some of the worst human tragedies. We are capable of pulling together, as it has been demonstrated numerous times in history.
I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not without guilt--this should not be taken as a holier than thou account. There are times where I've stopped listening and only cared about getting my own point across. Personally, I don't enjoy the feeling that follows from those contentious debates. Not only that, but there is the ultimate realization that nothing was achieved other than a fleeting moment of satisfaction over trumping someone's "flawed reasoning" in an otherwise meaningless internet kerfuffle. Surely, I'm not the only one who feels this. After all, we are all human beings who share the same emotions, feelings, desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Thanks for that reminder, ibginnie, of what we can be capable of.
Until we stop our current culture of violence/death/killing...there is no hope for change.
Thousands are killed every day in this Country, and many bad habits and ways lead to death.
It's like polluted water...until you get all the toxins out, it won't be good to drink.
... Can't we take an issue, any issue, and brainstorm a solution together? Civilly? All while respecting one another's unique perspectives arising from diverse backgrounds ...
No, we cannot. Because those of us 'moderate' enough from either side are overwhelmed by the 'radicals'. People on the right or left alone can't even do anything civilly.
I don't like sounding negative but our society has changed from when we were more united in spite of our differences politically and socially. Today there is far more hatred which has resulted in insults, intolerance and even breakups of families and friends over these issues. Wish I knew how to tun this around but I am at a loss for words of how we can accomplish it. It truly saddens me.
This forum is far more splintered than the general,population is, with members who are more extreme in their views.
Most people can get along with each other while disagreeing politically.
I don't like sounding negative but our society has changed from when we were more united in spite of our differences politically and socially. Today there is far more hatred which has resulted in insults, intolerance and even breakups of families and friends over these issues. Wish I knew how to tun this around but I am at a loss for words of how we can accomplish it. It truly saddens me.
Good post.
I think the problem is that Americans are generally more atomized than ever. We don't know our neighbors, don't go to church or participate in as many communal activities like scouting, bowling leagues, etc. This kind of socialization used to create bonds between opposing political partisans. As we lose these bonds, I think we dehumanize political opponents.
A solution is probably to get more involved in real world socializing.. but at this point: it's easier said than done.
We're in too deep. Critical theory has divided us, accusations of racism and other isms has dehumanized us, and the process is accelerating. "This too shall pass" as all things do but things are going to get worse, possibly much worse, before they get better.
This forum is far more splintered than the general,population is, with members who are more extreme in their views.
Most people can get along with each other while disagreeing politically.
THIS right here ^^
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