We have seen the enemy and it is us.
Hyper partisanship and the culture war are tearing the very fabric of America apart.
Hyper partisanship and the culture war are tearing the very fabric of America apart.
The US is fascinating, because unlike other countries with extreme wealth inequality it has an admirably free press and speech. There are few things that gets you in serious trouble – it’s almost all carrot-regulated. To get a lot of influence you have to play by the “rules”. A simpler way of saying this is of course that media is just aggressive for-profit ventures. Thus censorship is mostly deemed unnecessary (except during Covid when the stick came out for a while).
For example, there are some on the left that very seriously want to label all Republican voters as far-right extremists, which is itself a very extreme position to take.
I've known people who straight up left the party after voting red their entire lives because of Trump. They, sincerely, believe in smaller government and less spending, both things the party has totally abandoned even ignoring Trumps horrific actions.
They're, for the most part, liberal in other aspects to varying degrees (abortion, drugs, whatever. Lots of "I may not like all of it but if that's the way it is i'll live with it"), but are tired of being told they're equivalent to the KKK because they're not sure how they feel about gender pronouns.
Focusing on questions that'll never have clear answers has been one of the best things to split apart power for reasonable and critical change. The little discussion that occurs seems to be around nebulous goals rather than concrete examples like housing, food, science.
And honestly, I've got little sympathy for them if they really are drawing an equivalence between being called names, and a party who is on a path to re-nominate a candidate who conspicuously violated national security and spread conspiracy theories about the election. (The indictment is quite clear that he was told they were false.) They just don't seem even faintly on par, and it's frankly dishonest to suggest that the name-calling is Democratic policy.
Even most of what they supposedly believe about "small government" is partisan lies. The Republican party hasn't even pretended to make a significant cut in government spending. They just point at a few culture-war elements that amount to a rounding error, and then balk at actually authorizing debt for the massive programs their own budget calls for.
Right now those people have a choice of at least trying to make a difference -- either within the Republican party by insisting on the nomination of non-insane candidates, or by trying to transform the Democratic party. They'll find a lot more moderate Democrats who believe very similarly, and who are much closer to the levers of power than the most extreme elements who are the only ones that make Fox News. But right now it sounds like the people you refer to are heavily invested in partisan propaganda, even if they're not willing to actually vote for it.
Democrats have some policy positions that are troubling for a lot of voters. Gun control is a big one. Much of rural America will vote against Democrats every time just on that one issue alone. Also, defunding the police is unpopular with many voters. There are also many who have moral concerns about gender transition surgeries for minors or allowing biological males to compete in women's sports.
Also, the quality of Democrat candidates for 2016 and 2020 was very low.
I don't particularly care if you voted for Biden only because he wasn't Trump. That seems like kind of the absolute bare minimum level of agreement -- one that tens of millions of Americans fell below. With it, we can at least pretend to hold a national conversation about policy issues you're discussing. Without it, the entire proposition of democracy appears to fall apart.
What crime was Trump convicted of?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_and_business_legal_af...
and accused of many more, additionally, indicted for over a dozen more.
His foundation was convicted of stealing from a cancer charity, his fake university defrauded students: "Donald Trump was found to have defrauded students, and was forced to pay $25 million in restitution." At this point, if you ask such a question, you are exposing yourself as either ignorant, a blind supporter, or a sea lion. This is not acceptable behavior and you should know it, just like Trump's behavior. Especially the highly documented criminal behavior related to Jan 6th and stealing classified documents, hiding them from investigators, lying about it, etc. At this point if you are not aware of this.....it appears that you have decided to be for whatever reasons you chose. It is time to reevaluate how/what you believe in.
Now if it's the politicians driving people to be more extreme, or a more extreme population being reflected in politics, I don't know.