Partisan Hate Is Becoming a National Crisis

[nota bene]

I have heard other people say that political division has affected their lives, relationships, and family get togethers. I am simply asking if it affects your personal life, but it's also an open ended question so you can define it differently than me.

I have no underlying motive in asking the question, other than observing you seem bothered by the division.

I am deeply, deeply troubled by the national division, but I learned long ago how wise it is not to "engage" in some topics during family get-togethers. (One of my siblings was a witch, so you can imagine.)

 

[SheWolf]

I certainly feel the article is accurate and it addresses concerns I have had for a while. But I would be curious to know just how much things HAVE changed in the past decades. Are we actually more divided or has the internet and 24 hr news cycle just made us more aware of how divided we are? Maybe we have always been this divided but just didn't know it? In the past we lived in our geographical and cultural bubbles. But then things like social media started popping those bubbles and people who grew up with completely different assumptions about fairness and equality and right and wrong found themselves interacting with and observing the behavior of people who are radically different...and we didn't like it.

Technology has brought us all so much closer, but we still haven't overcome our tribalism, which is a product of our evolution and apparently not so easily ignored. It will take some kind of paradigm shift to fix things, but I think things will get worse before they get better, though I don't think we will resort to civil war. We are pissed off...but comfortable. War is uncomfortable. So we will continue to be pissed off and comfortable, waging our battles through nasty comments online.

I don't think we have always been this way. Somebody else already came in the thread and pointed out Fox New's role, and we shouldn't deny it. Fox News is basically right wing talk radio on television 24/7. They have made inflammatory and hyperbolic speech, basic news speech, and it has changed the Republican Party and politics.

The fact that Fox News exists today, plays a big role. Nixon and McCarthy didn't have anything like Fox News. Today, people have their own bubbles of reality, and it's scary. Reports say Trump calls Hannity on the phone nightly, and they discuss policy and news stories and Trump solicits advice. If McCarthy and Nixon did that, had that media influence, history would have looked a lot different.

 

[SheWolf]

I am deeply, deeply troubled by the national division, but I learned long ago how wise it is not to "engage" in some topics during family get-togethers. (One of my siblings was a witch, so you can imagine.)

I try to not engage in it in real life either, but it's hard to not see other people do it and things go wrong. My family is deeply divided by many factors, and it does impact how we spend the holidays.

I believe you are deeply troubled by the division, but I am trying to understand why if it's not affecting your personal life. Does that make sense?

 

[Geoist]

Good luck with that. The left are stuck in TDS anti-Trump resistance mode.

Aaaand here we go. :roll:

 

[Geoist]

Thanks for proving my point. Does this mean you are ending your TDS against Trump?

If the left has TDS then what did you guys call it when you were all foaming at the mouth over Obama, Hillary, and now AOC?

 

[Geoist]

"Sane" republicans got us into this mess. "Sane" republicans voted for Trump. I'm not betting on "sane" republicans for ****.

The sane Republicans (the few that are left) most likely did not vote Trump (the George Wills, Joe Scarboroughs, and Charlie Sykes of the world).

 

[Geoist]

Putin owns the Democratic Party. No foreign government needs spies when they have the Democratic Party as their agents.

Do you really believe anyone is going to buy that horse****?

 

[Geoist]

In other words, you can't find any crimes he has done to charge him with so you want him to confess. Until then, you will keep on investigating until you find a crime.

Even if Trump got his best case scenario with the Mueller Report, he is royally screwed when it comes to the SDNY. He already looks guilty as sin when it comes to bank/tax fraud alone.

 

[bongsaway]

Irrespective of "tribe" or nationality, admitting when in error and apologizing when wrong are becoming humilities, don't you think? Isn't this really about individual character?

If it's about individual character, the GOP has demonstrated individual accountability is no longer a part of being a republican. If that's not true, tell me how some on the right twist themselves into knots defending our president. How do the so called religious folks support a ***** grabbing serial lying person? How do fiscal conservatives not see the debt of the country rising? The tax breaks for the rich when he told us the middle class would get the biggest benefits of his tax cuts. The bigger, better, health care he told us we would have in place of the affordable care act. The wall that mexico is paying for and on and on. Let me be clear, it's not both parties. Until the republicans get their heads out of their rear ends and stop voting for people whose agenda is to pass laws to hurt the poorer parts of our society while enriching the already wealthy, there will be no compromise. Republicans used to bad mouth the dems and the dems hid their heads in fear. Now they fight back and people complain about our society being polarized. I blame republicans and make no bones about it.

 

[Geoist]

Although he says he's skeptical about whether what Pelosi has said about not going down the road to impeachment unless the reason is compelling "represents a true shift from toxic partisanship," David French says that at least she's doing what more politicians should do, looking beyond one's one "tribe" and thinking of the larger body politic, and argues that this is a "national necessity." From his article:

This morning the New York Times’ Thomas Edsall published an important essay highlighting a new study that analyzed the extent of “lethal mass partisanship.” As Edsall observes, the paper contained some disturbing statistics. Among them, “42 percent of the people in each party view the opposition as ‘downright evil.’” A stunning 20 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of Republicans believe “we’d be better off as a country if large numbers of the opposing party in the public today just died.” And if the opposing party wins the 2020 election, 18 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans “feel violence would be justified.”

We hear quite a bit about “dehumanizing rhetoric” in American public life. Well, it appears that tens of millions of Americans now have dehumanizing beliefs. “One out of five Republicans and Democrats agree with the statement that their political adversaries ‘lack the traits to be considered fully human — they behave like animals.’”

...It’s in this atmosphere that I’m increasingly of the view that the vanishing, bipartisan class of civil libertarians represent an important ingredient in the glue that keeps America together. The fundamental idea that we should defend the rights of others that we would like to exercise ourselves often requires that we gain greater sympathetic understanding of our opponents’ points of view. After all, the defense of liberty in the public square can never be merely legalistic. To be effective it also has to humanize. Nancy Pelosi & Trump Impeachment -- Partisan Hate Is Becoming a National Crisis | National Review

If you see those with whom you disagree as "more jackal than human," then you're "justified" in the impulse to ruin their lives and livelihoods. But at what cost to the nation?

Come, let us reason together, showing respect for all and malice toward none.

While both sides can share blame, that blame is definitely NOT equal. Who is the Democrats' equivalent to Trump? Who is the pathological liar, the narcissist, the egotist who cannot help but put him/herself up on a pedestal or play the victim card every time they talk? Who is the one who constantly uses dog whistles intended for the extreme (and sometimes violent) right, only to back down later and say, "I was just kidding!" Democrats/liberals have their share of low-lifes/egotists for sure. None of them are on this level of insane.

 

[Mach]

If the left has TDS then what did you guys call it when you were all foaming at the mouth over Obama, Hillary, and now AOC?

It was Obama derangement syndrome.
They supposedly coined it during the Bush years though, based on non-right opposition to Bush, the ignorant president.

As it became clear that GWB had no intelligence, and no interest in policy, and no interest in really understanding anything, it concerned many non-idiots that he was running the executive branch of the United States Government.
When 9/11 happened, it smoldered as a concern...we're at war with chief frat boy at the helm?
When it was obvious Bush had turned the reigns over to Cheney, it intensified.
When the Trump administration took us to war under false pretenses, it exploded.

They call that derangement, we call it being concerned for good reasons.

Compare that to all the scandal directly related to Obama, in the Obama administration.
"" <- the stuff between those two quotes.

Now compare it to Trump, and we exceed the character limit a few times over.

The great Republican equivocation.

 

[eohrnberger]

Although he says he's skeptical about whether what Pelosi has said about not going down the road to impeachment unless the reason is compelling "represents a true shift from toxic partisanship," David French says that at least she's doing what more politicians should do, looking beyond one's one "tribe" and thinking of the larger body politic, and argues that this is a "national necessity." From his article:

This morning the New York Times’ Thomas Edsall published an important essay highlighting a new study that analyzed the extent of “lethal mass partisanship.” As Edsall observes, the paper contained some disturbing statistics. Among them, “42 percent of the people in each party view the opposition as ‘downright evil.’” A stunning 20 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of Republicans believe “we’d be better off as a country if large numbers of the opposing party in the public today just died.” And if the opposing party wins the 2020 election, 18 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans “feel violence would be justified.”

We hear quite a bit about “dehumanizing rhetoric” in American public life. Well, it appears that tens of millions of Americans now have dehumanizing beliefs. “One out of five Republicans and Democrats agree with the statement that their political adversaries ‘lack the traits to be considered fully human — they behave like animals.’”

...It’s in this atmosphere that I’m increasingly of the view that the vanishing, bipartisan class of civil libertarians represent an important ingredient in the glue that keeps America together. The fundamental idea that we should defend the rights of others that we would like to exercise ourselves often requires that we gain greater sympathetic understanding of our opponents’ points of view. After all, the defense of liberty in the public square can never be merely legalistic. To be effective it also has to humanize. Nancy Pelosi & Trump Impeachment -- Partisan Hate Is Becoming a National Crisis | National Review

If you see those with whom you disagree as "more jackal than human," then you're "justified" in the impulse to ruin their lives and livelihoods. But at what cost to the nation?

Come, let us reason together, showing respect for all and malice toward none.

The left needs to stop it already.

 

[haymarket]

The left needs to stop it already.

The left needs to stop what exactly?

 

[eohrnberger]

The left needs to stop what exactly?

The hate. The intersectional politics.
It's been 2 years already.
Time to get over it already, don't you think?

 

[haymarket]

The hate. The intersectional politics.
It's been 2 years already.
Time to get over it already, don't you think?

Has Trump left office in the last ten minutes and I missed the announcement?

 

[eohrnberger]

Has Trump left office in the last ten minutes and I missed the announcement?

The legitimately elected president is still in office.

Looking at the Democrat's presidential candidate primary field, looking like he's going to get a 2nd term, if the nation is lucky.

Heck, Rahm Emanuel, the failed Chicago mayor, and a number of others in long time Democrat leadership positions, are warning the Democrats and the candidates, but none of them seem to be listening.

 

[uptower]

The hate. The intersectional politics.
It's been 2 years already.
Time to get over it already, don't you think?

When Trump stops spreading hate I suppose people might stop bothering him about it. But till he cuts it out there's nothing to 'get over.' It's still happening.

The right says despite the hate he peddles people should forget it because he's president and that's that. In fact it is precisely because he is president the nation should keep his feet to the fire and hold him to a higher standard.

 

[noonereal]

The truth is unpleasant, isn't it?

How would you know? You don't do truth. No Trumpet does. It's a basic tenet of the cult.

 

[calamity]

We all know it's the Right who are prone to violence, be it blowing up abortion clinics and shooting doctors to beating up gays and killing people who look Muslim.

Let them continue, and we lock them up one at a time.

 

[haymarket]

The legitimately elected president is still in office.

Looking at the Democrat's presidential candidate primary field, looking like he's going to get a 2nd term, if the nation is lucky.

The legitimacy of Trump is up for question with each citizen.

 

[calamity]

Although he says he's skeptical about whether what Pelosi has said about not going down the road to impeachment unless the reason is compelling "represents a true shift from toxic partisanship," David French says that at least she's doing what more politicians should do, looking beyond one's one "tribe" and thinking of the larger body politic, and argues that this is a "national necessity." From his article:

This morning the New York Times’ Thomas Edsall published an important essay highlighting a new study that analyzed the extent of “lethal mass partisanship.” As Edsall observes, the paper contained some disturbing statistics. Among them, “42 percent of the people in each party view the opposition as ‘downright evil.’” A stunning 20 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of Republicans believe “we’d be better off as a country if large numbers of the opposing party in the public today just died.” And if the opposing party wins the 2020 election, 18 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans “feel violence would be justified.”

We hear quite a bit about “dehumanizing rhetoric” in American public life. Well, it appears that tens of millions of Americans now have dehumanizing beliefs. “One out of five Republicans and Democrats agree with the statement that their political adversaries ‘lack the traits to be considered fully human — they behave like animals.’”

...It’s in this atmosphere that I’m increasingly of the view that the vanishing, bipartisan class of civil libertarians represent an important ingredient in the glue that keeps America together. The fundamental idea that we should defend the rights of others that we would like to exercise ourselves often requires that we gain greater sympathetic understanding of our opponents’ points of view. After all, the defense of liberty in the public square can never be merely legalistic. To be effective it also has to humanize. Nancy Pelosi & Trump Impeachment -- Partisan Hate Is Becoming a National Crisis | National Review

If you see those with whom you disagree as "more jackal than human," then you're "justified" in the impulse to ruin their lives and livelihoods. But at what cost to the nation?

Come, let us reason together, showing respect for all and malice toward none.

The term, "Tiller the baby killer," came from the Right. And, guess what? He's dead, shot by a Right Wing nut.

Oh, but now we all gotta stop hating each other. :roll:

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

When a topic like this comes up, some pundits go back generations or even a century to show how the parties have always demonized one another, that this is nothing new. In my life I have seen the latter stages of McCarthyism

The contempt being hurled at journalists is the New "Hollywood Blacklist".
I take issue with the entire notion advanced by the OP that Nancy Pelosi should be condemned for "having the temerity to even utter the "I word" at all, as if to do so in and of itself signals hatred.

Impeachment is a constitutional remedy and whether anyone likes it or not, it was put forth in our founding documents for a reason.
Congratulations to the author for highlighting and illuminating the very worst in our society, the very thing being advanced by the rancor of the hyperpartisans themselves, I didn't realize that they needed any help, nor did I realize that Mr. French's skepticism is warranted, or valid.

Here's what might be considered valid, the fact that a large number of people have a problem with Mr. Trump, not with conservatism, a problem with Trump's effect on the Republican Party and not Republicans themselves, a problem with the fact that Trump's most ardent fans are throwing their own principles in the fire.

I've often said that, while I would be disappointed with a Republican administration in the White House, I could view it as a survivable event, if only because for our entire history, both Republicans and Democrats in the White House have been just that.
I lived and worked in a primarily Republican stronghold state for thirteen years, and when I lived in California prior to that, it too was a Republican stronghold. I've lived and worked with conservatives for the majority of my entire working life, in fact.

Don't like talk of impeachment? Don't put impeachable people in power, then.
Don't want to hear anymore about impeachment? Then stop filing articles of impeachment every goddamn time your opposition is in power.
Don't want to hear about how so many in the opposition don't think you're human? Stop gloating and snorting about how much you love that your hero is "sticking it to the libtards" then.

Pot meet kettle, I'm going to put an TILDE+ASTERISK+TILDE (~*~) next to every single response I make if I am responding to a post that looks, sounds, and feels like "gloat-bombing" from now on, and at the end of the year I'll try to tally up the number of posts.

Should be interesting.

 

[eohrnberger]

The legitimacy of Trump is up for question with each citizen.

The legitimacy of the election results are already history.

Sure, the #Resist movement can continue in their alternative reality, if they wish, as they marginalize themselves further and further to the extreme left, and into well deserved obscurity and political powerlessness. :shrug:

All that would then be, irony of ironies, self inflicted.

 

[HumblePi]

Putin’s Playbook for Discrediting America and Destabilizing the West

In June 2017, journalist Jules Suzdaltsev wrote:

"Just wanna make sure you all know there is a Russian handbook from 1997 on “taking over the world” and Putin is literally crossing **** off."

The book in question is The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia by neo-fascist political scientist Aleksandr Dugin, whose nickname is “Putin’s Brain”. The book has been influential within Russian military & foreign policy circles and it appears to be the playbook for recent Russian foreign policy. In the absence of an English language translation, some relevant snippets from the book’s Wikipedia page:

The book declares that “the battle for the world rule of [ethnic] Russians” has not ended and Russia remains “the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution.” The Eurasian Empire will be constructed “on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us.”

The United Kingdom should be cut off from Europe.

Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because “Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics”.

The book stresses the “continental Russian-Islamic alliance” which lies “at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy”. The alliance is based on the “traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilization”.

Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke “Afro-American racists”. Russia should “introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements — extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics.”

Ukraine, Brexit, Syria, Trump, promotion of fascist candidates in European elections (Le Pen in France), support for fascism in the US…it’s all right there in the book. And they’ve done it all while barely firing a shot.

 

[calamity]

The legitimacy of the election results are already history.

Sure, the #Resist movement can continue in their alternative reality, if they wish, as they marginalize themselves further and further to the extreme left, and into well deserved obscurity and political powerlessness. :shrug:

All that would then be, irony of ironies, self inflicted.

The illegitimacy of the election results are already history.

True.