A for-fun poll here - setting aside political affiliation for a moment - whatever your stance may be - does America *feel *like a liberal or conservative country to you?
Depends on where I am. Where I live right now, it feels liberal. Watching the whacked out shit happening in politics, it feels like whacked out shit. I don’t know if it’s fair to call it conservative. I know a lot of people got rooked into voting for Trump as a conservative, but it’s hard to say that he really is one. I think he’s a nut job. Presumably since this is IMHO, I am free to express my NSHO.
I don’t think there is one America. Blue State America is liberal, Red State America is very, very conservative. I think they are two distinct cultures now.
It feels like it’s trying to get more liberal, but there are a bunch of people trying to go backwards.
I look at what California and other states are doing and all I can think is that liberal insanity is running amok, and it’s starting to infect other states as well.
Where’s the option for I’m a _______, and it feels like a dysfunctional schoolyard.
ETA: Seriously though. Red areas are red, blue areas are blue. And everyone is doubling down rather than trying to fix anything.
When I am in urban cities it feels liberal. When I am in suburbs and small towns it feels conservative.
I look at states like Kansas and Tennessee and see the conservative insanity running amok that is infecting other states.
Good.
Yup.
These two.
Blue areas are mildly conservative. Red areas are batshit insane. Seriously: positions that would have been considered too extreme for a Disney villain in my childhood are now mainstream.
Right, but what’s the vibe overall as a country?
Freedom Justice Democracy Equality - These all seem like standard American concepts, but they were radical ideas once upon a time. ISTM that a country that promotes those ideas would be considered generally liberal. Even the folks who consider themselves conservative reap the fruits of the liberals who have labored in the past to achieve these ideals.
So, to me, in spite of the best efforts of those Clothahumping around this great country, it still feels liberal to me.
Failing dysfunctionality with a thread of religious fanaticism.
This.
I’m a moderate (so, where ARE the donuts?? :p), but I agree with those saying it depends. Not just on where you are but on the issue at hand. I know liberals with conservative takes on some things and conservatives who are pretty socially liberal…and vice versa. So, depends on where you are and what the issue is. The country is the size of a continent after all and has over 300 million people, so trying to quantify how it feels is kind of difficult unless you focus on specific parts or areas and specific groups.
Overall, the vibe I get is dysfunction…liberals and conservatives at the extremes are, IMHO, tearing this country apart with their partisan bullshit and the government is basically grinding to a halt because of it. Our government and system were built to work on compromise and, basically, no one wants to do that anymore. I don’t see this as something likely to change, in fact, I think it’s becoming more and more entrenched as the nut jobs on both sides become more strident.
JMHO and all that. Now…where are those donuts???
If you think there *is *an overall vibe you’re not paying attention. There are two warring worldviews that increasingly see the other (or at least their strawman version of the other) as utterly illegitimate and unfit to be allowed in government.
Some things you can blend. Other things refuse to blend no matter how hard you stir them together. We’re moving rapidly away from the former and farther and farther into the latter territory.
This.
Mark my words: the California secession campaign which is now greeted with an eye roll will become a serious political movement.