Why is there so much political discord in America today?

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It seems like everywhere I go on the internet, I hear liberals insulting conservatives and vice versa. It's so sickening! And nobody in our political system seems to get anything done either, and even at that, most of them have that "ME! ME! ME!" mindset.

I wonder- why is there so much discord in our political system today? I think it could because of our mass media sensationalizing the negative side of things.

It's the same everywhere in industrialized countries, don't worry.

At least, your poor people are shamed into not revolting because they are told it's their fault. In some places, the poor and disadvantaged tend to revolt violently, and the rich and powerful, to repress just as violently, but with better guns. A two-decade civil war? That's what I call political discord.

not to the extent it appears in the us, not by a longshot.


you are right that i isnt violent, but many places you dont have the stark us and them attitude, to be honest i think the issue lies with a two party system, it creates a far too pervasive divide.

if things keep going in the way they are now that mite not to to far off. just think america has 88 privatly held guns for every 100 people.

As long as the American people are fighting amongst themselves, they are not challenging the corrupt establishment.

The Swiss have about 50/100 gun ownership and nearly all of them are military weapons.
But they also have a very low gini score and nearly no violence.

The topic query could be asked of any American population at any point in the past and the responses would not be dissimilar to those already posted.
That being said, I don't know. As (pretty much) a democrat, I feel my ability and the ability of other democrats to seriously consider the perspectives of the republicans is greatly harmed by the strong influence of the religious right and corporate interests within that party.

I suggest the internet has played a large role in this change of American society. The internet allows minority groups to develop non-local identities and gives them a public forum.

I blame Rupert Murdoch and Hate Radio.

That's true. You could probably get the tea party and occupy to agree that corruption and apathy is a problem, but the deadlock occurs over where the root of the problem is and how to address it. 90% of people are unhappy with congress, yet last I checked, little turnover was expected this election because of the polarization over how to fix it.

Well, I don't have an "it's both sides' fault" view, but there are even republicans who say that the Rebup. party has gone crazy and/or been hijacked by extremists.

The simple answer....money.

I get the feeling American conservatism is a kind of post-modern thinking, that liberal egalitarian values have made modern society "soft" and "spoiled" and that the current recession is somehow a consequence of that. Americans don't want to face the humiliation that their work is no longer needed, that they are 99% dependent on multinational corporations that no longer rely on them as anything but mindless consumers because other less well off people around the world will make things for a fraction of the pay. They think somehow that will all go away if we just turn the clock back and go back to the good old fashioned values of "hard work" and "sacrifice" and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" and then all will be great again. The engine of capitalism will just surge us all back to the forefront if we can just get rid of all the deadweight "softness" (entitlement programs, help for the needy, etc... "handouts") that they see as "sinking the ship".

Yes but it's a very dangerous game that's being played, inciting polarization. This has happened before, in Europe. They pick everyone's pocket while this is going on and then run off with the loot before the s**t hits the fan.

I think the US is headed for a civil war, probably during an election. Not this one though. More likely when there is a Republican president who is defeated after his first term by a Democratic incumbent, then the losers' guns will come out and all Hell will break loose. There will be a massive flight of capital shortly before that, I suspect.

In some ways, I hope there is some kind of mass uprising as the American system is broken. It looks public discourse will be unable to restore the American dream without some kind of revolution, hopefully but unlikely peaceful.

Doubtful. It looks like both sides will just get angrier and angrier as we all get poorer and poorer. If the republicans win they will immediately pass massive tax cuts. They will completely abolish capital gains and corporate taxes. They will try to erode the social safety net in order to compensate for the loss of revenue but that will fail and the deficit will skyrocket even higher. US bonds will get downgraded once again and there will be a run on the treasury. Then when things still don't improve even with record low tax rates and interest rates investors will really panic and the economy will tank once again. Then expect s**t to get really ugly.