Race, class and sex no longer as divisive as political ideology

The pride in all politicians trying to work together comes and goes, what with us having had a Civil War and all.

 

Republicans are the ones in the closet. Get it straight.

 

Who's fucking whom, now?

 

I think you're with Creosote. You guys can argue pitch vs. catch if you want.

 

MC is fucking you, but don't worry, he'll give you the courtesy reach around.

 

Gimme Vaughn.

 

Maybe it's my experience as a sports writer (when I suddenly realized that because someone wears a different team's uniform doesn't make them evil) - but I notice the same certainty and passion in politics these days as I do with sports.
My politics are fairly obvious, but half the time I talk politics with people on my side, they make me feel like a closet-GOPer because I'm not spouting the party line or believing in the same theories trotted out on the talk shows.
Koch Bros., Single-payer, Citizens United, 1%, Karl Rove...there seems to be a belief on both sides that there is a simple solution to our nation's ills if something was just removed from the equation - instead of working through the issues that are holding our country back.
One other takeaway - Red/Blue seems to be about the only thing that hasn't been fractured into smaller bits and pieces in the last 20 years. You think of the TV and cable universe, magazines, websites...as a people we've been sliced and diced into a million little pieces. It's almost a miracle the two parties have been able to keep their various coalitions together.

As for the religion thing - it does seem curious to me that the thinking is that there is something wrong with the people not going to church, rather than there might be something wrong with the churches not being able to attract churchgoers anymore.
But hey, that kind of thinking has done wonders for the newspaper biz.
I've always thought a great idea of a church would be a mall, where you have several rooms for the various denominations and at the end you all gather in the food court for donuts.

 

The tribal has nearly always triumphed over the rational.

The only "recent" development is the recognition of this and the attempt to simply game the tribal instinct. And I'd argue even that is not anywhere near recent.

In other words, twas ever thus, and likely ever thus shall be.

The people who think they're moderate and rational? Just belong to the tribe of "moderate" and "rational" people.

 

The Tea Party is trying its hardest.

 

I'm sure Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton would be interested in the civility of our current system.

To me, things really began to turn after the Election of 2000 (and maybe even before then, the Clinton impeachment). With Clinton, it was a case of "was it obstruction of justice or was this just the GOP trying to reverse the results of the election?" (or "was it a high crime or was he just being impeached for having sex," which is how it was usually framed).

2000 was a close, disputed election, and the fact that Bush was reelected in another close election (although one that wasn't nearly as disputable) kept the frustrations from the left at a fever pitch for eight years. At that time, the Democrat party took a pretty hard left turn after Nader basically cost Gore in 2000 and the more moderate Kerry lost in 2004. Meanwhile, the hard right of the GOP got really frustrated with Bush's centrist economic policies, and went on a RINO-hunting purge. The frustrated liberals became elated when a Democrat won -- and not just a centrist Democrat, but the first really truly liberal Democrat since Carter (or even LBJ). Obama, naturally, moved the goalposts far to the left of where they had been before, the more right-wing GOP has done everything in its power to prevent it. The hard-left got frustrated that it couldn't remake America, and the hard-right got frustrated with the fact that someone thought they needed to remake America.

What has characterized this decade to me are 2 things. One is mistrust -- leftists are generally mistrustful of big business and believe a strong, central government are necessary to keep the excesses of big business in check (or, better yet, replace big business with government-run or government-controlled functions). Right-wingers are generally mistrustful of a domineering government that can seize everyone's income by law through taxation and redistribute it to whomever it sees fit, which harms businesses' ability to hire workers, harms charities' ability to do charity (due to fewer donations due to higher taxation) and harms individuals' ability to start businesses or spend money on their products.

The other is the sheer hardening of two very different value systems and the belief that one should impose them on the other. We tend to hear that traditional-values Republicans "impose" their beliefs on others through anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage policies (and get pilloried as a result). But there are also groups trying to ban smoking (been done pretty much everywhere inside one's own home or vehicle, and some states are even trying to make that illegal if children are present), ban or limit eating certain types of food (note the documentary a few years back, and Mayor Bloomberg's recent war on both trans fats & sugary sodas), and even driving one's own car (there are proposals to tax people for parking in front of their own homes). Recent fights where governments have forced private businesses like eHarmony and religious organizations like the Catholic Church and some Catholic-affiliated adoption agencies to either violate their religious values, pay for things they don't support or shut down are a greater harm.

There seems to be two value systems emerging, both of which are pretty intolerant of the other.

One is the liberal/progressive value system, which basically values city-dwelling, eschews cars for public transit, tends to be areligious or more accepting of multiple different religious systems, demands that people shop at independent stores or chains like Whole Foods, is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, believes that it's extremely important that we all fund, appreciate and support the arts above all else, and thinks all Republicans are either a bunch of slack-jawed rednecks who don't know what's good for them or a bunch of greedy CEOs in gated communities who are building their wealth off the poor and have never worked a day in their lives. There's an anti-suburb, anti-car, anti-McDonald's, anti-Walmart attitude, and a desire to keep all of those things out of their communities as much as possible.

The other is a conservative value system, which basically tends to be more prevalent in suburban or rural communities, prefers the individuality of driving a car to having to rely on transit, prefers the individuality of owning one's home, doesn't look down on big-box stores and will enjoy a pizza or Big Mac every now and then, is more likely to watch NASCAR, but is also more likely to be out working on a farm. It prefers traditional institutions, and therefore is more likely to be religious, more likely to be pro-life and anti-gay marriage. It is generally going to want the government to leave them alone in all other issues and areas. It views city-dwellers and liberals as a bunch of lazy kids and welfare queens who don't understand the value of hard work and want a free ride on the backs of the hard-working, and want us to subsidize their self-indulgent way of life. They may not eat at McDonald's or watch NASCAR or shop at Walmart, but they won't step on the toes of others who do or try to ban those institutions, but rather respect the way they've been able to make money.

Essentially, what we have are two groups trying to push their value systems on each other, and you either have to belong to one or the other, it seems. I get tired of being looked down upon because I choose to live in the suburbs, go to church, eat a quarter pounder every now and then and have used public transportation once in my community in 37 years -- and never have plans on doing it again. I get tired of being told that I should have to reform my value system and way of life because it doesn't match others' value systems, or that mine is intolerant when others' value systems are just as intolerant of my way of life.

I've heard the term "some are trying to fight the French Revolution rather than the American Revolution" -- by stamping out all who are unenlightened or not following the correct value system, rather than allowing all to thrive within democratically-elected institutions bound by a strictly-followed constitution.

There's a reason I became a libertarian -- I got tired of watching two groups of people get further and further divided from each other and trying to impose their value systems on each other. I'd prefer to be left alone -- and not be called a bigot or an idiot because I voted for a Republican or eschewed a Republican idea, or a sloth or a hippie because I voted for a Democrat.

 

crimsonace, that's a hell of a lot of words to summarize political discord of the last decade without ever once using the word "Iraq."

 

Ragu, you get off Crimson's log-on this instant!

And I ain't in 'Sote's tawdry lair unless I'm the pitching coach.