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There was always political differences but they didn’t last until the next election.
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Originally Posted by personone
When did it start? In my opinion it started during the Obama era, but it has reached its peak now. Although a lot of it has to do with the expansion of social media over this time period. Technology and social media are so big now, that every little incident is on the radar, and adds fuel to the fire. But I honestly felt the level of division starting as soon as Obama became president ..........and it has reached new heights during the Trump era.
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Originally Posted by eddie gein
Started when they removed the fairness doctrine which allowed Rush Limbaugh to go national with daily 3 hour rants against democrats. Got a boost with with cable news which allowed networks to be partisan. Was supercharged with the internet, message boards. Partisan web sites and facebook have made it white hot.
Now Trump has basically introduced Limbaugh style decorum in Washington at the presidential level. It ought to be interesting from here on out.
All of the above. Yes, I agree, the animosity took on a whole new level during the Obama campaign and continued unabated during his presidency. I remember during the 2008 campaign Hannity ranting every night in the most horrible inappropriate manner, I was shocked. Rush Limbaugh, as well. R-wing talk radio got pretty bad around here, as well. Ignorance abounded.
Obama did make an effort to meet with GOP leaders immediately after he was elected at the DC home of George Will, irrc. When he left, they all laughed at him. That's when McConnell said it was their goal to make Obama a one-term president.
Obama then nominated Judd Gregg, a GOP Senator, as Secretary of Commerce. I remember the announcement on TV and the two shaking hands. A few days later, Judd withdrew because of party pressure.
The GOP was bound and determined NEVER to cooperate with Obama or find common ground.
Then the passage of the ACA, essentially railroaded by Democrats when GOP refused to give input or cooperation any way, enraged the party base, egged on, of course, by all r-wing commentators.
Yes, cable news, the internet, far too many sources of "information" - a lot of it completely wrong - as I read every day on this board - and no matter how often correct information is provided, those same people continue to spew lies and falsehoods.
Trump, of course, has made it worse because all his rhetoric is lies, falsehoods, personal attacks, baseless innuendo, and whatever else will keep his supporters ginned up.
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Originally Posted by lottamoxie
How would you recommend someone in a leadership position right now (not 10 years ago) help bring peace and more balance and less anger to the citizens of this country? What would assuage it? I'm assuming angry people are hurting. So many are angry and frustrated. It's not normal or healthy to be in a near constant state of anger. It's on all sides.
What politician can appeal to reason? None. On the GOP side, I could live with a Kasich or Huntsman. Both are unelectable because they are reasonable. People these days are so polarized, middle of the road is anathema. Bipartisan and compromise are code words for disloyalty. Anyone not voting the radicalized base issues is primaried out of a job. Gerrymandering only exacerbates the poor odds of a reasonable politician being elected.
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Originally Posted by lottamoxie
It's 2+ years later. The campaigning continued; the rallies are one example of that. The campaign is long over. The past is the past. Why live in the past?
Trump feeds on the adoration. His rallies are a means to pump him up and keep his base ginned up, no matter how nonsensical or outrageous his utterances. If you're not watching TV, you're not seeing this.
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Originally Posted by mike1003
obuma was the match and gasoline that caused years of discontent to explode.
Absolutely.
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Originally Posted by atltechdude
It started with the orange maniac.
He debased our political discourse and made it about personal insults rather than issues.
Probably began earlier than that during Bush's 2nd term. I attended a political rally for the first time in my adult life when GWB ran for his second term. I had had enough of his swaggering, so went to a Kerry rally. Continued in earnest with hatred for Obama. It has now gotten much worse under Trump. His carnie-barker hateful rhetoric, namecalling and neverending lies - which he perpetuates on a regular basis at his never-ending ego-feeding rallies.
Last edited by Ariadne22; 03-26-2019 at 11:25 PM..
I started to notice pure hate when i occasionally tripped over a Limbaugh show then the same when listening to the early FOX broadcasts,it really picked up when Obama became President as it seemed republicans just couldnt accept their President was black.
I would say it started when Obama was president... The GOP wanted to make deals with Obama who then told the GOP, my way or the highway (the ego of that ahole)... So, nothing happened because Obama wouldn't negotiate with the Republicans and started doing executive orders and p issed everyone off... So now Trump is preisdent and Trump says let's negotiate, border wall for DACA and the Democrats told him never... So now the border wall is happening and DACA will eventually be repealed... And the Democrats are still not up for negotiating... Same then, same now... They can go to Hell...
All of the above. Yes, I agree, the animosity took on a whole new level during the Obama campaign and continued unabated during his presidency. I remember during the 2008 campaign Hannity ranting every night in the most horrible inappropriate manner, I was shocked. Rush Limbaugh, as well. R-wing talk radio got pretty bad around here, as well. Ignorance abounded.
Obama did make an effort to meet with GOP leaders immediately after he was elected at the DC home of George Will, irrc. When he left, they all laughed at him. That's when McConnell said it was their goal to make Obama a one-term president.
Obama then nominated Judd Gregg, a GOP Senator, as Secretary of Commerce. I remember the announcement on TV and the two shaking hands. A few days later, Judd withdrew because of party pressure.
The GOP was bound and determined NEVER to cooperate with Obama or find common ground.
Then the passage of the ACA, essentially railroaded by Democrats when GOP refused to give input or cooperation any way, enraged the party base, egged on, of course, by all r-wing commentators.
Yes, cable news, the internet, far too many sources of "information" - a lot of completely wrong - as I read every day on this board - and no matter how often correct information is provided, those same people continue to spew lies and falsehoods.
Trump, of course, has made it worse because all his rhetoric is lies, falsehoods, personal attacks, baseless innuendo, and whatever else will keep his supporters ginned up.
What politician can appeal to reason? None. On the GOP side, I could live with a Kasich or Huntsman. Both are unelectable because they are reasonable. People these days are so polarized, middle of the road is anathema. Bipartisan and compromise are code words for disloyalty. Anyone not voting the radicalized base issues is primaried out of a job. Gerrymandering only exacerbates the chances of a reasonable politician being elected.
Trump feeds on the adoration. His rallies are a means to pump him up and keep his base ginned up, no matter how nonsensical or outrageous his utterances. If you're not watching TV, you're not seeing this.
Absolutely.
Probably began earlier than that during Bush's 2nd term. I attended a political rally for the first time in my adult life when GWB ran for his second term. I had had enough of his swaggering, so went to a Kerry rally. Continued in earnest with hatred for Obama. It has now gotten much worse under Trump. His carney barker hateful rhetoric and lies - which he perpetuates on a regular basis at his never-ending ego-feeding rallies.
Given your posts that I have read, it's hard to imagine you ever watching Hannity every night, let alone listening to Rush every day .
My understanding is that although there was always some tension, the real animosity (at least in modern times) started with Newt Gingrich, who urged his fellow republicans to weaponize politics, and who use the language of war rather than of compromise and teamwork. Around that same time was the Grover Norquist, whose organization tried (and largely succeeded) to make all Republicans sign his "no tax" commitment, and who promised to destroy anyone who compromised. This all was shortly followed by the Tea Party. All of these drove Republicans to extremism and away from "crossing the aisle", and this was followed by Democrats doing the same thing.
The age of civil and respectful discussion between the parties was over.
I disagree. Newt was demanding a return to a constitutional government and Norquist was demanding a return to the limited small government envisioned by the Founders....so both are demands for the government to exist only within its charter and that is NOT an extremist position. Its actually extremist to insist that it exist BEYOND its charter...there is no justification for that at all. And that's where the left took us, in fact you can argue, every major instance of the government stepping beyond its charter was done by a "liberal" bloc.
This idea of compromise has no basis in our political system at all. The government was designed to have checks and balances, not a bunch of traitors all conspiring to screw over the American people by "Crossing the aisle" to defeat the entire idea of any check or balance on government power.
Trump brought it to a new level with his communistic tsar like dictatorship and his followers brainwashed to follow him. Have you ever seen the movie The Manchurian Candidate?
I do think technology and social media access has proliferated it.
But again, what happened to the individual? They certainly weren't born angry. I often think "how did they get to this point?"
YOu have to look closely at whats going on...there is definitely an agenda at work, I have a sneaky feeling their end game is to completely divide the people, keep them 'distracted' with all this nonsense.
I would even go as far to say there may not even be 2 separate political parties anymore, the 'dems and repubs' are only an illusion, to make people believe they have a say, but in reality, we dont, we are being played like fools by a single 'entity'.
Trump brought it to a new level with his communistic tsar like dictatorship and his followers brainwashed to follow him. Have you ever seen the movie The Manchurian Candidate?
Its ironic you make that claim when it was Obama who started literally calling his appointees "Czars".
I disagree. Newt was demanding a return to a constitutional government
Let me clarify a bit what I was saying. Newt advocated positions that were not THAT extreme, but what was different was the language that he used. The Democrats became the ENEMY, the dregs of the earth, etc, and he advocated using violent, war-like language against them. It was not that the positions were so extreme, but that he said basically, "you can't be friends with them; you have to hate them." That is what I think made us all turn the corner. And in sort of a similar way, Norquist's goal was not too much more extreme than others before him, but he said basically "I will destroy you if you don't agree with me."
It is the rhetoric of alienation, of warfare, of hatred that changed with these two, not the particular policy. Doing this drove a wedge between the parties, and both are now still using that nasty, black-and-white language. The idea that if you do not agree with me, you are my enemy is not far more prevalent than it was in the mid-century.
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