I voted never. This trend started well before the conman, he just exploited it better than anyone. Go back to Gingrich and his bloodsport politics, back to Limbaugh. The right wing became more interested in hating every Democrat and less interested in debating policies, Democrats went from being the opponent to being the enemy. They’ve discovered that demonization brings power and it works, so they have no interest in being nice now- it’s everything that a Democrat supports is evil and must be fought with a scorched earth policy. Social media and the end of the Fairness Doctrine have guaranteed that this will never end.
That’s why I said “two years”. I’m not laboring under any illusions that in 2024 we’ll all be lighthearted and singing happy songs, but I think that once the pandemic’s effectively over, and that the lingering Trump hangover dissipates, we’ll all be MORE open-minded and light-hearted than we’ve been in 2020 and 2021. Not fully open minded or light-hearted, but more so.
I think if and when when the GOP finally repudiates Trumpism and politics centered on FUD and retreating to some hypothetical better past, and starts offering solutions to modern-day problems, that’ll help too.
I don’t think it’s hopeless. So much of this animosity and darkness resides in the online sphere. But the media can’t control how we conduct ourselves with our loved ones, or our acquaintances we may disagree with. It can’t control how we choose to act at the local level. It’s up to me whether I disown my grandmother or welcome her into my home. I can’t blame the media for that.
In the end we are accountable only to ourselves.
Entropy continues. Special interest groups, lobbies, all that will work against uniting people. People criticized when Trump was saying to “Make America Great Again” because he was talking about a past when everything went the way of the privileged. Now we have some legacies to deal with.
I can’t speak to the rest of the world, but I think the US will remain a mess. As long as people aren’t starting from the same “facts,” there can’t be a consensus.
If you spend most of your time watching news networks, listening to talk radio, or on sites like this one, well the answer is probably never.
But if you spend more of your time with real people from diverse backgrounds, enjoy museums, baseball games, meeting friends for coffee or wine, playing golf or hunting or cycling with friends, then the answer is it was never negative.
In a nutshell, it has more to do with you than those around you.
The thing that bothers me most about these divisions are that both sides seem to be convinced that the other side wants something entirely different. I still believe that both sides want roughly the same thing but see a different way of getting there. Simply providing premises surrounding issues gives people an opportunity to evaluate solutions in a more logical way.
I just did a Google image search of these terms:
polarization republicans democrats years
All the plots show Democrats and Republicans becoming more and more polarized since 1980.
Assuming this trend continues, I am not sure what sure the end game is.
I would say, between two different world views. To me the fundamental split is between authority-driven belief systems, including most fundamental religions, and live-and-let-live with consideration and respect belief systems. I think the reason the split is more pronounced is that the second of those belief systems has learned a lot about people who are abused by the system and left behind by the system, and wants to do something about it, and the first one hasn’t and doesn’t. One is moving to improve humanity, and the other is stuck in its authority-driven, obedient roots.
I don’t see that division healing itself in what is left of my lifetime. I think the best hope is to win over those in the middle, so that the authority-driven system becomes less and less relevant, and as more and more people abandon it (I know, faint hope) it will wither.
Well, that’s the crux of it really. The middle has dwindled down to a precious few, and all of the power/money resides at the extremes. The only way we can get out of this mess is if the middle somehow becomes the majority, and I don’t see that happening anytime in the next 50 years. Does anyone?
My parents weren’t religious at all (as an example) but I’m pretty sure they voted Republican most of the time (1950’s-1960’s anyway), having raised themselves from Depression-era poverty to post-war middle class through hard work, intelligence, and frugality. They had compassion on a personal level, because they remembered being hungry, so their biggest charitable giving was to the local food banks.
I’d hate to think where they would be now, though. I would hope that they would be able to find some middle ground and examine issues and candidates on their individual merits. That would make them rare birds these days I guess, but then so they were.