While reading John Hawkins’ column at Townhall about the “7 Forces Driving America Toward Civil War,” John Fogerty’s song “Gunslinger” started playing on the iTunes random rotation. Or was it random?
Among Hawkins’ forces are tribalism, which he describes as:
The Right has gotten much more tribal since Donald Trump rose to prominence and the Left has taken tribalism into hyper-drive. Increasingly, liberals treat a range of opinion between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton as legitimate while everyone else is viewed as a white supremacist Nazi primitive that must be driven down into the gutter for society to move forward. This makes any sort of dialogue or cooperation nearly impossible.
Then there is moral decline:
A large number of Americans HAVE LOST their principles, manners and virtue and it shows through from the sort of politicians they elect, to their rudeness online, to the sort of shallow hedonism and fame whoring they find appealing. Americans are increasingly becoming a soft and decadent people …
A lack of shared culture really sounds like more tribalism:
The average conservative and the average liberal disagree on 95% of the issues and in the few limited cases where they do look at things the same, they won’t support a proposal by the other out of sheer tribalism.
Then there is the looming debt:
However, the fact of the matter is that a reckoning is coming. At some point, probably within the next decade or two, we will face a debt-driven economic collapse; borrowed money will stop flowing into the United States and Medicare/Social Security as we know it will fall apart because we will not have the money to pay it. If and when we get to that point, all bets are off because if regions of the country see an advantage to splitting off from the United States at that point, they will do it.
Plus, the “living” Constitution, decline of federalism and gun grabbing.
Do you think we need a gunslinger?
Kinda makes me wonder how
All the things that made us great
Got left so far behind
Decent folk’s, hard workin’ ways
Now they hide behind locked doors
Afraid to speak their mind
Somebody tough to tame this town
I think we need a gunslinger
There’ll be justice all around
Wild eyed bunch moved in, you know
Shootin’ up the streets, shoutin’ everybody down
The dogs all runnin’ loose
Tired old judge got roughed up too
No one left to make a stand
They whisper what’s the use
4TH ST8 
Lemme see here. Donald Trump said our court system is “a joke and a laughingstock”, that our electoral system is corrupted, that our intelligence agencies are somewhere between marginal and worthless, that our most recent ex-President has committed a felony along with the help of British intelligence (which didn’t seem to appreciate the accusation), and that our fourth branch of government is the “enemy of the people”. He also affirms to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its commitments by withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership, the Paris Climate Accord, and is trying hard to deep six the Iran Treaty (presumably to discredit Iranian moderates, foster more power for Iranian radicals and to enable them to have nuclear weapons as soon as possible).
He and Congress have made every attempt to force the Trump/Republican agenda down our throats, doing things that large numbers of Americans find unacceptable and therefore, quite alienating. For example, baldly refusing to even consider an Obama appointee for the Supreme Court, leaving it with only 8 justices for a year or so, making it now acceptable for Democrats to delay even longer at some future date (it WILL bite the Republicans in the butt along with causing yet more deterioration of our political system), appointing a global warming denier and fossil fuel lackey to the EPA, appointing a Director of HUD with no experience who has called the Fair Housing Act, the law of the land, an act of Communism. He has also said that there’s a strong scientific consensus that aliens from outer space built the Egyptian pyramids. Trump also appointed a Chief Economic Adviser who predicted that the Clinton tax increase would cripple the economy, that the Bush tax cuts would create budget surpluses, and that concerns about a housing bubble in 2007 were “hallucinations”. The Republicans passively and actively support all of these actions.
He and the Republicans passed a tax bill that will massively increase the deficit while favoring the rich yet again with lots of tax breaks, totally alienating most moderates and liberals. In short, it has become winner takes all and to hell with the losers.
But it’s LIBERALS that are being tribal. Tell me the one about Goldilocks and the three bears while you’re at it.
Seems to me that Putin couldn’t ask for us to elect a leader better suited for creating tribalism and divisiveness. People who cannot see that are the proximate cause of the problem.
I believe he said both sides are tribal and disagree 95 percent of the time.
Remember, Rincon insists one side is the best side.
We need a third side.
Reminds me of the third grade: But teacher, why am I in trouble? Johnny did it too. I think Steve called this deflection when deleted used similar pseudologic.
Yes, both sides are tribal, but anyone who claims Obama was anywhere near as divisive as Trump needs a brain transplant. So far as I can tell, you have no criticisms of the actions I detailed. That makes you as divisive as he. Keep rooting for your team, gents.
To refresh your memory, “The Right has gotten much more tribal since Donald Trump rose to prominence and the Left has taken tribalism into hyper-drive. Increasingly, liberals treat a range of opinion between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton as legitimate while everyone else is viewed as a white supremacist Nazi primitive that must be driven down into the gutter for society to move forward. This makes any sort of dialogue or cooperation nearly impossible.”
You think this is an evenhanded comment? Wow!
Evenhanded? No. But is it accurate?
“But teacher, why am I in trouble? Johnny did it too.”
just because “Johnny” got away with it doesn’t make it right. At least, a good teacher wou8ld be certain to make that clear.
Like the post points out, both sides are wrong….yes, yours as well, Rincon.
John Hawkins:
Most liberals aren’t patriotic and they don’t love their country.”
Whether you’re talking about cop killers, terrorists, radical Islamists or dictators, all you have to do is say, “I hate America,” and liberals start to sympathize
Liberals are actually bothered by people who do love America. On the rare occasion when you do see a liberal waving a flag, look for a camera.”
The same people who voted Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama into office think they’re smarter than tradition, the Founding Fathers and God Himself.”
The dumbest, most close-minded and mean spirited people in all of politics are inevitably liberals who are convinced they’re brilliant, open-minded and compassionate because they call themselves liberals.”
Liberals have been big supporters of slavery, Indian massacres, the KKK, eugenics, fascism, communism and Jim Crow laws. Then, down the road, after liberals finally join everyone else, they try to claim that conservatives still support all the practices that we fought liberals on from the beginning.”
a white woman voting for Barack Obama is like a black woman voting for the KKK”.”
Just shaking my head.
I agree, Steve.
Well knock me over with a feather….
Now, as to the accuracy of the (less than) “even handed” comment you took so much offense at?
Mr. Hawkins sounds like the prototypical Trumpkin: Wearing his love of country on his sleeve while spewing venom at its government, leaders, and the majority of our people who voted for Hillary. Here, try this link:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/love
Well then, you will be happy to know Trump spent most of his life as a registered Democrat.
Your point?
Interesting piece in today’s paper by Mitch Daniels on “presentism.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-wont-know-how-foolish-we-look-until-a-long-time-from-now/2018/04/20/8b0f2dbe-4315-11e8-bba2-0976a82b05a2_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fe2c3f98e8db
Is there a difference between “presentism” and “moral relativism”?
A lot of overlap, yes, but there are differences, I think.
Today’s Trump did not simply appear out of the blue. He is a result of all the things in his past that created what he now is. Since he spent almost 90% of his life a liberal New York Democrat…Trump as he is today, is a direct result of all the wonderful things liberals (you quote and so much admire, Rincon) Today’s Trump was created by the left.
And then we find this.
“My headline employs “democrat” in its generic, rather than proper noun (partisan), definition. President Trump shifted his party registration back and forth (five times, according to the Washington Times’s report of a report by The Smoking Gun). Trump, Politico reports, also was a substantial donor to Senator Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and many other Democrats.
This history does not make Donald Trump a Democrat. But I submit that Donald Trump is democracy’s smoking gun.”
This is a short piece. It should be read, not ignored.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2018/01/07/donald-trump-democrat/#3e46e3f2679e
During the campaign, Trump received 23 times as much coverage as Sanders. That suggests two things: The media dismissed Sanders and/or the media is more interested in eyeballs than responsible news reporting. My own impression is that the media saw a way to make the campaign interesting, confident that Trump would slip away after providing great ratings.
Trump, who is clever if nothing else, played the media like a violin, ensuring a tsunami of coverage i.e., publicity with his antics, which was an invaluable aid in getting elected. The weaknesses of our media are largely responsible for the outcome of the election.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-discourse-suffers-when-trump-gets-23-times-as-much-coverage-as-sanders/
Hmph. When all else fails do like Trump and blame the “fake news” media!
You guys taught him well.
Hardly fake news. 23 times is 23 times. You dismiss it only because you don’t like hearing it, but I can’t imagine why. I wasn’t complaining that the media was favoring Trump. They hated him, but their negative publicity was still publicity, and publicity wins elections. A totally unintended consequence. I also said the media were LARGELY responsible. Many other factors obviously played into it, but to deny that the tsunami of publicity didn’t help Trump is to deny reality.
And yet, you peeps taught him well.