a house divided upon itself cannot stand

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how much longer has america got before it fractures along social fault lines?

problems? what problems?	2%	[ 1 ]
not too much longer, find hiding places now	23%	[ 10 ]
we will rise above our differences and unify within a few decades at most	14%	[ 6 ]
I don't know	16%	[ 7 ]
I believe things can continue just as they are	9%	[ 4 ]
a tyrannical ruler will launch a coup and bang everybody's heads together, what other way is there?	5%	[ 2 ]
I resent this line of questioning	7%	[ 3 ]
just gimme my @#$% icecream	23%	[ 10 ]

Total votes : 43

auntblabby
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28 Feb 2016, 6:36 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:

You know, I never even considered the nuclear weapon question. And on the international pariah issue: while we Americans like to b***h and moan about having to be the world's policeman, are we seriously going to happily lose our international influence?

losing our "influence" will be the least of our worries then. we may well end up looking like something out of "lord of the flies."

Kraichgauer
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28 Feb 2016, 6:50 pm

auntblabby wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

losing our "influence" will be the least of our worries then. we may well end up looking like something out of "lord of the flies."

That's the disunity you can expect if America is allowed to break apart.

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B19
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28 Feb 2016, 6:50 pm

As an outside observer, when I read this essay on the political divide in the USA, it made a lot of sense to me. You can see the divide it discusses very clearly every day on PPR I think:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/th ... s-liberals

auntblabby
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28 Feb 2016, 6:57 pm

B19 wrote:

and in the News Forum as well, increasingly each side has its own news and sees the news in its own way, has its own reality incompatible with the other side's reality. each side needs its own country.

Kraichgauer
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28 Feb 2016, 7:03 pm

B19 wrote:

I think you're right. But in all fairness, going by the article in question, liberals aren't wrong to be contemptuous of anti-intellectualism on the right, especially when it comes to fear of the dumbing down of America.

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B19
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28 Feb 2016, 7:12 pm

The linked essay on that page about anti-intellectualism discusses that too:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wi ... wn-america

PS I find it hard to believe that 18% of Americans in the Gallop poll believe the sun revolves around the Earth.. wonder what the degree of error was in that poll (?)

auntblabby
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28 Feb 2016, 7:25 pm

god help us.

Kraichgauer
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28 Feb 2016, 8:22 pm

B19 wrote:

Niel DeGrasse Tyson, while on Larry Wilmore's The Nightly Show, had had a wonderful response to a cretinous rapper who had ridiculed him in a song for insisting the earth isn't flat. That Dr. Tyson had to defend himself for supporting a fact as simplistic as that the earth is round speaks volumes about the popularity of idiocy in modern America!

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auntblabby
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28 Feb 2016, 8:54 pm

the late steve allen coined a term that IMHO should get more use these days- "dumbth." the working definition of dumbth is "don't bother me with reality."

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28 Feb 2016, 10:02 pm

I read your article B19, it blames both ideologies, but the left in particular. According to the writer, being dismissive is worse for a relationship than being belligerent.

I personally never thought it was nice to poke fun at Bush or Palin for their perceived lack of intelligence. I also get along pretty well with most of the right-wingers that I personally know. But I think that the Republican party in particular has committed more heinous acts than the Democrats have. What happened during the last presidency was criminal, not just the war, but Cheney's petty act of revenge against an undercover agent, his own ties to Halliburton, the list could go on. Our current president hasn't done anything half as outrageous as the last one, yet the Republican party has been working in lock-step to vilify him. They find less on him than they do on Hillary, so they resort to poking fun at him for wearing mom-jeans. The final straw for me was the promise to block any Supreme Court confirmation. Its a corrupt move which indicates their intent to game the system for a personal gain. I'm not even looking into ideology here, just conduct, the Republican party has displayed worse conduct than the Democrats.

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auntblabby
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28 Feb 2016, 10:05 pm

karl rove the turd blossom [shrub's nickname for him] has repeatedly said words to the effect of "all's fair in love and war" - a diabolical justification for perpetual evil and an eventual destruction of the earth, AFAIC. THAT is the mentality that is ruining this country and by extension this world.

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28 Feb 2016, 10:07 pm

MDD123 wrote:

As far as I know, the very fact that any new democratic appointee would swing the Supreme Court to the left is the main reason why the Republicans are seeking to block any nomination.

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MDD123
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28 Feb 2016, 10:16 pm

Deltaville wrote:

As far as I know, the very fact that any new democratic appointee would swing the Supreme Court to the left is the main reason why the Republicans are seeking to block any nomination.

1. A moderate appointee is not a swing to the left

2. Why weren't Scalia, Thomas, or Kennedy blocked to keep the court from swinging to the right? Because blocking an SC nomination in hopes that a new president will choose your way has never been done in US politics. Its a bad-faith move that deserves more attention than it's getting.

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Deltaville
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28 Feb 2016, 10:18 pm

MDD123 wrote:

Deltaville wrote:

As far as I know, the very fact that any new democratic appointee would swing the Supreme Court to the left is the main reason why the Republicans are seeking to block any nomination.

No candidate has been nominated yet to the court, so we cannot conjecture the jurisprudence of any candidate at this moment of time. However, democratic presidents have been known to appoint left leaning candidates so such an assumption is very much a real possibility.

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cathylynn
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28 Feb 2016, 10:25 pm

GGPViper wrote:

Over the next couple of decades Conservatism will likely die out in the US due to several significant demographic changes - decreased religiosity and a greater Latino and Asian share of the population being the most important.

Conservatives may be able to hang on in the House of Representatives for quite some time due to gerrymandering, but the Presidency and the Senate are both immune to such shenanigans and will adjust themselves to the new demographic reality much more quickly.

As such, the major fault line in US politics - the Liberal/Conservative divide and the political polarization it has created - is a temporary phenomenon largely created by the fallout from the 1964 US presidential election.

As such - despite the FUBAR state of current US politics - I am not overly pessimistic about the long-run trajectory of the US. All that's needed is a little...

^^^this.

MDD123
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28 Feb 2016, 10:25 pm

Deltaville wrote:

No candidate has been nominated yet to the court, so we cannot conjecture the jurisprudence of any candidate at this moment of time. However, democratic presidents have been known to appoint left leaning candidates so such an assumption is very much a real possibility.

Sentence 1: Lets not make any assumptions
Sentence 2: My assumption is probably right though

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