#Political Division

[asm5129]

…after the civil war, a few key mistakes were made.

the south’s economy was destroyed because it was reliant on slave labor, and never really fully recovered. And suffering breeds resentment.

On top of this, no one *wants* to believe their ancestors fought for something objectively evil. So the states rights narrative was appealing.

And in trying to heal the divide in America, many confederate leaders were not granted simply mercy in the form of a pardon, but actively given power once more.

And while slavery was dead (outside of prisons, anyway), black Americans were still considered inferior. The Reconciliation era included tremendous violence against black Americans.

In many ways white Americans healed through white supremacy.

Essentially, concessions were made to heal the divide that ultimately failed to address the problem that caused the war in the first place—whether anyone other than white men were included in the phrase “all men are created equal”.

Healing division inevitably includes concessions and compromise, but the way it was done in the aftermath of the civil war was fundamentally flawed because it treated a problem that still existed as if it had been solved. When you let racists back in power, they will do more racist things, whether or not the institution of slavery for African Americans still exists.

When we try to heal from where this country is now, we must learn from that history. People in the south don’t deserve for people to see them get hit by a deadly hurricane and hand wave it away as “they got what they voted for”, but neither should we allow those who have lead red states down the path of fascism have a say in what healing looks like.

In order to reconcile with one another, we have to be willing to sit down and have conversations with one another like people. There will be people who are not willing to do that, or who will try to take advantage of it, and we can prepare for that.

But we do need to be able to coexist.

We can start with the basics. Do people have enough stability? Can they afford food? Do they have support when they need it?

And then we can talk to them about what they need to address that.

It’s telling that the main issue people voted for Trump for was the economy. People are suffering, and even though Kamala’s economic proposal was very good she didn’t always do the best job explaining it, especially for those who would need it most who are often not super educated. And ultimately it wasn’t enough of a change, and what’s more, it asked people to be patient and not angry. Trump is able to gain the support he has because he taps into deep suffering and anger and gives it a target.

Kamala didn’t give legitimacy to that anger the way they needed.

these are my thoughts on healing the division in America, i suppose. I hope you find them interesting.

**Btw, these thoughts are mainly informed by information from the documentary *Civil War (or Who Do We Think We Are)* and the book *Democracy Awakening* by Heather Cox Richardson, both of which I highly recommend to help grasp a deeper understanding of why America is where it is today.

[contemplatingoutlander]

America has legislated itself into competing red, blue versions of education

This is an excellent article in The Washington Post about how our school systems have begun to reflect the political divisions in our nation, with many red states legally banning discussions on racism, sexism, and gender issues, and many blue states legally requiring those kinds of discussions. This is a gift🎁link, so anyone can read the entire article, even if the don't subscribe to the Post. Below are some excerpts:

Three-fourths of the nation’s school-aged students are now educated under state-level measures that either require more teaching on issues like race, racism, history, sex and gender, or which sharply limit or fully forbid such lessons, according to a sweeping Post review of thousands of state laws, gubernatorial directives and state school board policies. The restrictive laws alone affect almost half of all Americans aged 5 to 19. [...] The divide is sharply partisan. The vast majority of restrictive laws and policies, close to 9o percent, were enacted in states that voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, The Post found. Meanwhile, almost 80 percent of expansive laws and policies were enacted in states that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

The explosion of laws regulating school curriculums is unprecedented in U.S. history for its volume and scope, said Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studies education history and policy...states have never before stepped in so aggressively to set rules for local schools. [...] [A] nationally representative study from the Rand Corp. released this year found that 65 percent of K-12 teachers report they are limiting instruction on “political and social issues.” “What the laws show is that we have extremely significant differences over how we imagine America,” Zimmerman said. [...] In practice, these divisions mean that what a child learns about, say, the role slavery played in the nation’s founding — or the possibility of a person identifying as nonbinary — may come to depend on whether they live in a red or blue state. [...] Almost 40 percent of these laws work by granting parents greater control of the curriculum — stipulating that they must be able to review, object to or remove lesson material, as well as opt out of instruction. [...] Another almost 40 percent of the laws forbid schools from teaching a long list of often-vague concepts related to race, sex or gender.

[...] At the college level, among the measures passed in recent years is a 2021 Oklahoma law that prohibits institutions of higher education from holding “mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling,” as well as any “orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping.” By contrast, a 2023 California measure says state community college faculty must employ “teaching, learning and professional practices” that reflect “anti-racist principles.”

Some experts predicted the politically divergent instruction will lead to a more divided society. “When children are being taught very different stories of what America is, that will lead to adults who have a harder time talking to each other,” said Rachel Rosenberg, a Hartwick College assistant professor of education.

[gregor-samsung]

Iyah May - Karmageddon (2024)

I open up my phone on a Monday morning Staring at my screen I'm tired and a little lonely Mr. Musk, he said some shit, the Lefts are angry Twitter wars and Gaza, man, it's overwhelming

Maybe that's how life becomes when People less important than a profit line No one cares about your dreams Just pay your tax on time Keep scrolling Hold me near to you now Gender, guns, religion and abortion rights You better pick a tribe and hate the other side Keep scrolling (But did you see Taylor live?)

Man-made virus, watch the millions die Biggest profit of their lives Here's inflation, that's your prize This is Karmageddon Turn on the news and eat their lies Kim or Kanye? Pick a side Cancel culture, what a vibe This is Karmageddon

Corporations swear they never lie Politicians bribed for life More than war, it's genocide This is Karmageddon Welcome to the chaos of the times If you go left and I go right Pray we make it out alive This is Karmageddon

It's fashion week, celebs lose ribs Balenciaga, how's the kids? Just ask Drake, he's losing beef Kendrick killed him in his sleep

Diss tracks about beating up your queen While women dying doesn't cause a scene While we're fed all these distractions Kids are killed from Israel's actions

I'ma speak my mind Sick to death of all these crazy lies A circus for humanity's decline We just want a peaceful life Give the people back their rights

And I've still got a beef 'Cause Fauci's laughing and we've been asleep And WHO's a liar and it's running deep Big pharma finna eat They a devil, make them weak

Man-made virus, watch the millions die Biggest profit of their lives Here's inflation, that's your prize This is Karmageddon Turn on the news and eat their lies Kim or Kanye? Pick a side Cancel culture, what a vibe This is Karmageddon

Corporations swear they never lie Politicians bribed for life More than war, it's genocide This is Karmageddon Welcome to the chaos of the times If you go left and I go right Pray we make it out alive This is Karmageddon

[still-searching-for-something]

[ace-of-clubs]

On Political Division in the United States of America

or: How the Fuck Did We Get Here?

Something that's struck several of my friends, especially international friends, lately is the stark political divide between the two parties in the United States. While adversarial relations between political parties is nothing new, and indeed present in other countries so far as I understand, the US seems to be increasingly divided along political lines. I think it can be helpful to understand how we have arrived at this state so that there might be a more complete understanding of the nature of our political system. Our discussion begins under the cut. Buckle up folks, it's a long one.

The divide between American political parties began even before the creation of the United States and while that history is fascinating in its own right, we shall concern ourselves with more modern events.

In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as the 32nd President of the United States. At the time the country was suffering from the Great Depression, one contributing factor of which was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, and Roosevelt had campaigned on a promise of economic relief. During his first 100 days in office he and a Democrat-controlled Congress passed a bevy of legislation to fulfill his promises and establish several new federal agencies with the sole aim of lifting the US out of the depression. While some of the steps taken ultimately failed, Roosevelt's New Deal succeeded in ending the Great Depression even if it was through some means he did not intend. I thoroughly recommend taking a deeper dive into the history of Roosevelt's presidency and the actions taken by Congress, it's an interesting topic and very applicable today.

We begin with Roosevelt as this is now considered to be a period of political realignment, specific to US history this is a time where there is not a clear progressive or conservative party. The party divide is mostly between South and North, Roosevelt allowed the Democrats to win races in Northern states and set the stage for the shift into the parties we see in the United States today.

The finalization of the shift to the modern Democratic and Republican Parties began with the election of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States in 1980. Reagan ran on a platform of tax cuts and a simultaneous increase in military spending, as well as open criticism of the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter. Reagan won the election of 1980 in a landslide victory, securing 7.5 million more popular votes than Carter and netting 489 of the 538 electoral votes. Reagan had previously run against Gerald Ford in the 1976 primaries, viewing Ford as being insufficiently conservative. Reagan's handy defeat of Carter was arguably the result of his cultivation of the evangelical vote as well as his ability to appeal to the working class by appearing more casual and relatable than Carter. Reagan's victory would not have been so assured had it not been for one more factor, a growing conservative movement in the United States that most closely aligned with traditionally conservative Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans.

To understand this conservative movement we must examine two key pieces of United States history: the Southern Strategy and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Southern Strategy was an electoral strategy that sought to use the deepening racial tensions of the 50's and 60's to the advantage of the Republican Party. The strategy relied on innuendo and references to race without directly stating that was the driving force. The Republican Party ran on platforms that played up the fear of white voters, especially in the South, as the civil rights movement gained traction. The Southern Strategy is the driving force behind the realignment of many white voters, especially Southern white voters, to the Republican Party. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson and was designed to provide more tools to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution. The passage of the Voting Rights Act was not widely popular among Southern white voters. Combined these two factors lead to a large wave of conservatism in the United States that bolstered Reagan to his ultimate victory.

As much as this site loves to bash Reagan, I shall continue under the assumption I need to explain his policies. This shall be a high-level overview only and by no means comprehensive nor shall it list every policy he supported. Reagan promoted the idea of laissez-faire economics and pursued deregulation across almost every industry. He championed tax cuts, focusing mostly on the higher tax brackets and insisted the money would "trickle down" through the economy (this has yet to happen). Reagan attempted to cut Social Security and only backed off due to massive public backlash before proceeding to cut funding for nearly every other federal assistance program. Reagan was anti-union and appointed like-minded individuals to the National Labor Relations Board who allowed companies to institute wage and benefit cutbacks resulting in declining union membership. He vocally opposed civil rights and worked alongside his appointees to erode enforcement of civil rights legislation. Under Reagan defense spending ballooned to massive proportions and may have contributed to raising tensions during the Cold War. Reagan initially refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic which began in 1981. It was not until 1986 that he appointed Surgeon General C. Everette Koop to write a report on the epidemic, it is reported Reagan never read the report.

This is where we diverge from facts and into opinion.

Reagan's policies reveal a man friendly to conservative evangelicals and the wealthy with little to no regard for the working class and members of marginalized communities. While this is not entirely surprising, nor was it new at the time for conservative presidents, his presidency set the stage for the modern Republican Party. This, naturally, would cause the Democratic Party to define itself purely as being oppositional to these conservative policies. The divide begins to form. The divide we see in modern United States politics is the logical endpoint of these identities. The modern Republican Party is defined entirely by its hate for marginalized communities and drive to continue enriching the wealthy, it has convinced its working class members that they're all future millionaires. Conversely, the modern Democratic Party lacks an individual identity, it derives the entirety of its identity from opposition to Republicans. I suspect the reason so many members of marginalized communities identify with the Democratic Party is because of this opposition, the enemy of my enemy is my friend (please correct me if I'm wrong). Were third parties to be viable options, I have little doubt the Democratic Party would splinter. The fact that only these two parties are viable is the reason for such a large divide, at least among the voters. It is impossible for anyone on either side to understand the justifications of someone on the other, and the oppositional nature of this political system serves only to continuously radicalize members of both parties. Republicans become more and more right-wing while Democrats simply become more and more anti-Republican.

Anti-Republican does not equal left-wing, as I'm sure many will be quick to point out. The Democratic Party has been running to the right for years in an attempt to court the wealthy and a rapidly disappearing moderate vote. While representatives of the Democratic Party may support progressive policies, the principle interest of any political party is to remain in power. This drive to retain power is the reason behind the increasingly divisive rhetoric in the United States, as well as the sprint to the right seen in the Democratic Party.

If you've made it all the way though, congratulations and thank you. I realize I may simply be screaming into the wind, but having a platform with which to post my thoughts and analysis allows me to better structure those thoughts. The ability to articulate my thoughts and feelings on modern politics grants me a weapon to be used in the political arena.

"The greatest danger to a democracy is an uninformed electorate where legislators bow to the demands of the ignorant majority instead of governing based on the best interests of greater society." -Thomas Avant

[salonnierealexis]

Today we face another great civilizational question: How can we create a morally cohesive and politically functional democracy amid radical pluralism and diversity? I don’t see any cultural movement akin to the social gospel movement of the 1890s. The libraries groan with books diagnosing our divisions, but where is the new social ideal? Where is the set of values that will motivate people to put down their phones and dedicate their lives to changing the world? Some days I do think the civic revival part of the formula is coming along nicely. Through my work at Weave: The Social Fabric Project, I meet local leaders who are striving to rebuild solidarity and serve the marginalized at the neighborhood level. But so far these kinds of efforts have not been able to reverse the catastrophic decline of social trust. Our nation still lacks the sense of social and psychic safety that would allow us to have productive conversations across partisan difference. We still lack a national creed or a national narrative that would give us common ground among competing belief systems.

By David Brooks

Opinion Columnist

The Election Is Happening Too Soon

Oct. 24, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/opinion/polarization-harris-change.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20241025&instance_id=137765&nl=today%27s-headlines®i_id=43453557&segment_id=181333&user_id=06f6767785a14352b47f4490384ee56a

[carlthemuse]

The Internal Struggle: How American Politics is Becoming its Own Enemy

[matthewarnoldstern]

Only empathy can save us now

How can we be sympathetic to those who want to do us harm? Because only empathy will save us from this current crisis.

How can we be sympathetic to those who want to do us harm? It’s a question we ask ourselves in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. I attempted to answer this question in a TikTok video about the importance of empathy. But it is a subject that needs to be discussed in paragraphs, not sentences. (And without euphemisms and strange spellings to avoid…

[dosesofcommonsense]

Also a reminder that congressional shills will seek to divide us for their benefit. Give this man some cheese to go with his vinegar.

Globalist Playbook: projection.

“Look at what they’re doing, cause I don’t want you to see me doing those things.”

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

[bellaciao-ciao-ciao]

Good morning to all the #neverkamala pro Palestine protest voters and the “influencers” who asked their followers to abstain from voting or vote Jill stein. Where is she btw?? Did she crawl back into her hole now that the election is over?

Anyway good luck and just know that those protest vote influencers who influenced you won’t be suffering. They’ll be sleeping perfectly fine. The victims will continue to be victims and those that actually did the right thing will now be forced to suffer as well because of short sighted ego. And those that protest voted will continue to deny any accountability and “oh it didn’t even make a difference guiseeee I swearrrr” stfu.

[awesomecooperlove]

☣️👿☢️

[iizuumi]

Guess Narumi isn't getting any paperwork done ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[rejectingrepublicans]