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Why is there such hatefilled vitriol between the two ideologies?
Is the country more polarized than lately?
Is it possible the popular media outlets are creating this divide in order to: divide and conquer?
As a liberal, I think some of the sentiment from my fellow liberals is disgusting. Just because there is disagreement does not mean that person is an ignorant redneck!!
As for the right, my friend who IS a conservative Baptist is appalled people would great children with anger. She stated these are CHILDREN.
I tend to believe we are operating under divide in conquer, who prospers if we are at each other's throats and not focusing on issues?
It's a pleasant surprise for a liberal to say what you've stated. I'm neither liberal nor conservative, but more in the middle with a little of both sides in my thinking. I also think some of the vitriol is pathetic.
It's a pleasant surprise for a liberal to say what you've stated. I'm neither liberal nor conservative, but more in the middle with a little of both sides in my thinking. I also think some of the vitriol is pathetic.
What is going on is just plain mean and NON productive.
Why is there such hatefilled vitriol between the two ideologies?
Is the country more polarized than lately?
Is it possible the popular media outlets are creating this divide in order to: divide and conquer?
As a liberal, I think some of the sentiment from my fellow liberals is disgusting. Just because there is disagreement does not mean that person is an ignorant redneck!!
As for the right, my friend who IS a conservative Baptist is appalled people would great children with anger. She stated these are CHILDREN.
I tend to believe we are operating under divide in conquer, who prospers if we are at each other's throats and not focusing on issues?
A very good book was written a few years ago about why the country is polarized. It's called "The Big Sort: Why The Clustering of Like Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart" by Bill Bishop. Here are 2 sources of information about the book:
"America may be more diverse than ever coast to coast, but the places where we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote like we do. This social transformation didn't happen by accident. We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood and church and news show — most compatible with our lifestyle and beliefs. And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation. Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away."
"Bishop investigates "the Big Sort," tracking patterns of migration that reveal that Americans have, over the past three decades, been increasingly sorting themselves into communities where people share the same lifestyle...As geography becomes the most significant predictor of political orientation and liberals and conservatives become concentrated in separate communities, cross-party interaction is whittled down to a minimum, minimizing opportunities for civil discussion that might help to foster political tolerance. The Big Sort is, according to Bishop's findings, responsible for political imbalances that grow more and more pronounced each year. The end result of this mass movement are "balkanized communities whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incomprehensible; a growing intolerance for political differences that has made national consensus impossible; and politics so polarized that Congress is stymied and elections are no longer just contests over politics, but bitter choices between ways of life.""
I highly recommend the book if you are interested in this topic. I recommended it to my nonfiction book discussion group and they all liked it. I'm conservative and they're all liberal. You'll see Bill Clinton has been known to talk about the book.
IMO because about 40 years ago the Left decided to follow people like Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers, who
weren't just interested in winning political debates, but with literally destroying their opponents. And their
philosophies have slowly gained more and more influence over time.
Debates between Right and Left were not nearly so vitriolic prior to this time.
IMO because about 40 years ago the Left decided to follow people like Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers, who
weren't just interested in winning political debates, but with literally destroying their opponents. And their
philosophies have slowly gained more and more influence over time.
Debates between Right and Left were not nearly so vitriolic prior to this time.
And we can point to Newt Gingrich--who, unlike Alinsky and Ayers actually held national public office and exerted direct policital pressure on his colleagues--and say the same thing.
Up until Gingrich, Democrats and Republicans played their political games while in public, then met at parties and golfing to hammer out compromises to keep the government running.
Gingrich as leader of Republicans in the House, for the first time forbade Republicans from meeting socially with Democrats. The politicians no longer got to know each other as human beings in the social settings human beings normally get to know each other. Their ony contact was on the House floor where Gingrich could control the rhetoric.
At the same time, the Moral Majority rose as a political factor in the Republican party, and because it is a religious movement, it defined politics in absolute terms of good and evil...and there can be no compromise or even discussion with evil, evil must be destroyed. The Religious Right makes politics impossible.
I grew-up in a family of liberals, I was a liberal. Almost over night, at age 30, I became a conservative. It was at age 30 that I started to think for myself and realized that the left had no workable solutions to any problem. My whole family was a bunch of whiners and complainers that just wanted the government to provide as many benefits as they could get. This didn't work for me, I wanted to work for my prosperity.
I think it's natural for the younger people to be liberal. When you are young, the maturity to run your own life has not developed yet. When the maturity gene has developed, the light goes on and you realize that you do control your life and you can become the person you should be. As a mature person you can make responsible critical life decisions and take responsibility for ALL your actions. My liberal family will always blamed someone else for every mistake they make. This makes them habitual victims.
I'm 60 now (30 years later) and have been retired for 13 years. When I talk to my family, all I hear is, how did you get so lucky? They don't have the ability to understand that hard work, making the right decisions, and being responsible as an adult is my luck.
I grew-up in a family of liberals, I was a liberal. Almost over night, at age 30, I became a conservative. It was at age 30 that I started to think for myself and realized that the left had no workable solutions to any problem. My whole family was a bunch of whiners and complainers that just wanted the government to provide as many benefits as they could get. This didn't work for me, I wanted to work for my prosperity.
I think it's natural for the younger people to be liberal. When you are young, the maturity to run your own life has not developed yet. When the maturity gene has developed, the light goes on and you realize that you do control your life and you can become the person you should be. As a mature person you can make responsible critical life decisions and take responsibility for ALL your actions. My liberal family will always blamed someone else for every mistake they make. This makes them habitual victims.
I'm 60 now (30 years later) and have been retired for 13 years. When I talk to my family, all I hear is, how did you get so lucky? They don't have the ability to understand that hard work, making the right decisions, and being responsible as an adult is my luck.
Two quotations come to mind. The first came, I think, from Sarte stated something to the effect that "a man who is not a liberal in his twenties has no heart but a man who is not a conservative in his thirties is a fool."
Another, from a black American comedian went something like, "A man becomes a conservative when he has something to conserve."
Males, especially, tend to hit a turning point at around 35. I heard an interview with a police chief who stated the opinion that prison sentences for men should take their age into factor. In his experience, a man committing a crime under 35 might yet turn himself around and a young ex-con should be given enough chance in society to make something of himself; but if an ex-con is still commiting crimes after 35, just put him into prison and throw away the key.
Males seem to reach a point in our early thirties that we solidify as the men we will be for the rest of our lives.
To follow up on Garther and Ralph,
My point came much earlier, in my early 20s. I was 20 years old and in the Navy. I was carefree and my only concerns were work and having a good time. A pretty carefree existence by all accounts. Then the first gulf war broke out and I realized what kind of power and influence politicians had over us as I was sent over for 9 months. This was the beginning and it evolved over the next few years as I saw a lot of changes in the military and politics over the next few years with the way Clinton handled the military. I found myself in the Bosnia ordeal for 6 months in 1994. By my late 20s I had gotten out and had a firm grasp that whatever I was to become was going to be because of my efforts. I understood that politicians had a great deal of power over me while I was in the military and politics was not a game or some abstract term.
I went back in after 9/11 with my eyes wide open and hope to finish up my military career in 3 or 4 more years.
OP,
if people on both sides would actually listen there is a lot of sincerity on both sides of the isle when people make their arguments for or against an issue. I think the term balkanization describes us best today. I plan to travel as much as I can with my 8 year old son so that he has exposure to various cultures and experiences. I don't want him to lead an insular life. My wife, bless her heart, has lived her life in the same county. Aside from vacations and the odd road trip this area is what she knows. Its amazing the difference between our views when we have political discussions.
OP,
if people on both sides would actually listen there is a lot of sincerity on both sides of the isle when people make their arguments for or against an issue. I think the term balkanization describes us best today. I plan to travel as much as I can with my 8 year old son so that he has exposure to various cultures and experiences. I don't want him to lead an insular life. My wife, bless her heart, has lived her life in the same county. Aside from vacations and the odd road trip this area is what she knows. Its amazing the difference between our views when we have political discussions.
Traveling is a good way to open a child's eyes---as adults we learn events just don't happen overnight and come with 5 minute solutions.
What disturbs me both parties cannot find middle ground. It's truly sad.
I don't hate white three piece republicans nor white three piece democrats-I DO hate how public servants don't understand the word SERVANT.
I hope Americans can learn people are more important than politics.
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