The last 12 years at least have shown an increasingly fractured country. The election and response to it shows it is close to a fracture. Below is a commentary by a British SF writer who like de Tocqueville has a pretty perceptive view of our country. It doesn’t matter who you supported in the election or your view of the results if we can’t find a path forward there is little hope for a positive future. Musings on the US 2020 Election by chrishanger I spent a bit of time putting together lists for each candidate, ideas for reasons behind their victory/defeat ... without committing myself, because I couldn’t say, with any real certainty, that one candidate had an edge over the other. And most of those reasons were inaccurate. I listed reasons that the winner would win. Many of those reasons appear to have been largely irrelevant. I listed reasons the loser would lose. Ditto. Both sides predicted a landslide victory, propelled by a wave of silent voters. Both sides appear to have had a wave of voters. Trump may have lost, both in the popular count and the electoral college, but he did astonishingly well in many ways. This bodes ill for the future. Indeed, in many ways, this result was the worst possible. First, Trump may have lost the election, but ‘Trumpism’ has not been discredited. The populist vote cannot be discounted. Indeed, now that Trump himself is shuffling off the political stage, it will be easier for his lukewarm supporters to raise the banner of his ideology - insofar as it really exists - without the colossal inconvenience of the man himself. In short, as I have said before, Trump is a symptom rather than a cause of the US’s problems and the election result proves it. Second, Biden did not deserve to win. The Democratic Party as a whole did not engage in a period of soul-searching, reconfiguring and eventual production of a candidate who could appeal to lukewarm right-wing voters as well as the left - in short, someone who could appeal to the majority of the country. Biden himself was parachuted into the nomination by the party elites, while Harris failed to get through even the first hurdle when she tried to snare the nomination for herself. The party, in short, learnt nothing from 2016. Biden won, at least in part, because he wasn’t Donald Trump. Ironic as this is, it promises problems for the future. Third, the media - both the mainstream media and social media - completely abandoned all pretence of impartiality. This is, as far as anyone on the right is concerned, blatant foul play. Open censorship - openly biased - undermines trust in the media and the system itself, ensuring - for example - that if a recount was held tomorrow and Biden won fairly, a sizable percentage of the country wouldn’t believe it (even though it was true). The media - too - learnt nothing from 2016. Instead of realising their mistake and cooling down, they created a fertile ground for conspiracy theories. Fourth, and perhaps worst of all, trust in the voting process has been badly undermined. The red flags may or may not be signs of fraud, as is currently being alleged, but it should go without saying that they should be investigated openly. Given the importance of the process, every precaution should have been taken to ensure that the voting system - mail-in ballots, for example - was airtight. Instead, there seems to have been a degree of sloppiness that would be unacceptable elsewhere. Again, this created a fertile ground for conspiracy theories. It is common, these days, to blame everything on Donald Trump. And yet, the problems facing the United States - the problems that propelled Trump into the Oval Office, existed well before the idea of ‘President Trump’ was anything more than a Simpsons joke. Upon taking office, Biden will have to tackle them or face a far stronger challenge in 2024. This problems include: One - a political/economical/corporate elite that has become increasingly detached from the realities of life, both in America and the rest of the world. This elite, lacking understanding of how things really work, repeatedly makes mistakes that do immense damage to America’s power and prestige. Worse, this elite is steadily closing ranks against newcomers both Left and Right. They worked hard to exclude Trump, but they are doing the same to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk. Two - a federal bureaucracy that is increasingly incompetent, unrestrained, uncontrolled and indeed uncontrollable, working more for itself than for the country as a whole. Three - an ever-growing network of activists, both Left and Right, that are making increasingly absurd demands and, now they see Biden as President, will expect him to produce (or else). This is matched by increasing loathing for such activists. Four - a media complex, as I noted above, that is longer remotely impartial and thus untrusted (even by the people it favoured). Five - an endless series of economic problems that are making citizens increasingly desperate and thus more likely to turn to populists like Trump and Ocasio-Cortez (who has a fair claim to being the left-wind version of Trump). Six - a worsening global climate, caused by elitist mismanagement and geopolitical realities that the US was unable or unwilling to tackle. Seventh - a growing sense of political disenfranchisement, amongst both the Right and the Left. The Right believes that Washington doesn’t give a damn about them (and, now, that the election was stolen): the Left believes that Washington forced them to accept Biden and Harris as its candidates, rather than Sanders, Warren or anyone else. None of these problems were caused by Trump. But it cannot be denied that Trump, and the response to Trump, made them a great deal worse. The problems facing Joe Biden would daunt Lincoln, who was perhaps the last true American statesman. It is very easy to carp and criticise when one is not responsible for actually fixing the problems. It is a great deal harder to actually fix the problems, particular when one side regards you as an illegitimate president and the other expects you to bring a New Heaven and a New Earth (as Trump will happily testify). Biden must follow a policy calculated to steer between those two poles, a task that would be extremely difficult for a man in his prime. He must push for sensible politics and, perhaps more importantly, shut down the nuts on his side of the aisle while reaching out to lukewarm Republicans. This will not be easy. The loonier left-wingers could say whatever they liked, as long as there wasn’t much chance of them ever being anything more than a tiny vocal minority. Now, with the prospect of actually having to govern the country looming ever-larger, Biden must keep them under control. They will see this as a betrayal, of course. There’s a sense that Biden’s victory means a return to normal politics. That, I think, is not true. Trump failed to fix many of the problems facing the United States. Biden will not find it any easier. And, as Trump recedes from the stage, the problems that put him in power in the first place will start to loom large once again.
Last 12 years? Try more like the last 40 years...it accelerated with W. The writer is full of shit. Take away the scamdemic of Covid and the sensationalized anomaly of George Floyd - both used to seize political power, and the US is more prosperous and the world more peaceful than before Trump. The extremist wackos are almost entirely on the left. The writer watches to much CNN.
Exactly right. If you were to flash everyones memory and then just list the accomplishments of DT they would rant and rave about how great he was. Idiots like winston have this ridiculous opinion formed from the corrupt media and there is just no getting it out of him. He is beyond help at this point. Haters gonna hate
Trumps policy complaints (I budgeted 10 minutes for this, so I am sure I have left out some pretty big ones): 1. Denier of and exacerbates the impact climate change. Surprised you LA boys are still in denial on this one after this year’s hurricanes, but . . . oh well. 2. Locking up illegals at border in cages. Separating children from parents . . . never a winning idea 3. Taking money from Military Construction projects (many to benefit wretched conditions that our troops and families face) and putting it toward the idiotic wall. 4. Passing on an infrastructure package that should have been day number one. About the only certain thing GOP and Dems would agree on, and he whiffed. NOTHING to improve our crumbling infrastructure on his watch. 5. His promise to scrap Obamacare on day 1. Fail. It is disgraceful that so many Americans lack health insurance. I’m living this. My daughter lost her USMC coverage on 11/16 and started corporate coverage on 12/1 (today). Unfortunately, she had an ER room visit with overnight stay in the interim. She is not a low life and will pay her bill but this is near catastrophic financial event. To quote Trump, “Who knew health care would be so hard.” A fool! 6. Pulling out of the WHO during a pandemic. Again, the answer is “hard work” to improve and use US influence to make better…oh yeah, US influence has all but disappeared under Trump! 7. Denial, minimization, and politicization of Covid. Total lack of leadership, Total failure as a president and as a human being. Failure to set example. Going out of his way to mock masks and social distancing rules, creating super spreader events. Then, getting priceless treatment and saying “everyone” should have it. His failure to implement the Defense Production Act to create tests and PPD for healthcare professionals. Oh yeah, about forgot, “Bleach” anyone? 8. Executive Actions to roll back environmental controls, lots of them 9. Tax cuts for the rich. Any moron that thinks “Trickle Down Economics” is even a thing should be taken out to the woodshed, again! 10. Embracing dictators, destroying alliances forged over last 80 years and beyond. 11. Policy on NK is a joke as well as dangerous 12. Continually lying to his gullible base about the election being rigged. He started this over a year before the election and has maintained it since. He has made a fool of himself, and had degraded the United States’ standing and thus influence in the world. He conditioned the dimwits to believe it, now 70% of Republicans think the election was fraudulent, with NO EVIDENCE, just the word of Trump. 13. He is determined to trash the US Civil Servants, those that keep the nation going. He truly believes in the nebulous “deep state.” Probably the Easter Bunny, too! 14. Walking away from the Iran Nuc Deal. It needed to be made better, not scrapped. 15. Walking away from several treaties with Russia related to weapons/nucs. Again, they needed to be improved, not scrapped. Was incapable of doing the hard work/intellectual effort to improve. Like a toddler, he simply quit. Times up!
So the point of the article was the division we are seeing right now. It appears that there’s a 50/50 split between ideas and at least 80% of either side see the other as irredeemable. Also most on either side see themselves as moral and carrying on in the tradition of our country. Unlike 1860 this isn’t a geographic division so there are no clear lines. In fact the split goes right down to the family level. There are extremes on either side whose only object is destruction and radical change but most aren’t. So what are you going to do with the other 60-70 million people in this country who don’t agree with you....either side? Are you going to take their rights, property, lives? Are you going to expel them? What are you going to do with the “libs” @LSUpride123 @shane911 @Frogleg? What are you going to do with the irredeemables @tigerinnc? Unfortunately this is becoming more of an old fashioned feud that won’t end without both sides devastated. We have antifa causing riots and destruction and militias preparing for battle. Who’s going to be left standing. This isn’t about blame....there’s plenty enough for all. This is about stepping back from the brink. It will take both sides. Unfortunately neither side seems willing.
