(01-17-2017, 12:40 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:(01-17-2017, 12:14 PM)TeacherinExile Wrote: Program alert for PBS viewers: check your local TV listings.
Frontline on PBS is airing a two-part documentary TONIGHT: "The Divided States of America"
Days before the inauguration of the 45th American president, look back at events during the Obama presidency that have revealed deep divisions in our country and examine the America the next president will inherit. Part 1 of 2, continued on Wednesday, January 18th.
There's been some good "buzz" about this documentary, which goes to the heart of the endemic polarization of our body politic. I wonder sometimes if the threshold of this polarization (far from its peak, in my opinion) has reached a level that poses systemic risk to our republic.
One of the reasons Red America got so pissed off during the Obama years were things like inheritors of the New Left touting the figurative burning of the Bill of Rights / deeming The Constitution an obsolete agrarian concept and Hillary Clinton declaring war on Heller and the NRA. I cannot think of a "better" way to poke a sharp stick into the hornet's nest of angry Red America than these sorts of things. A few posters here also embody this mentality - poke, poke, poke ....
I've been doing some soul-searching since the election and I've come to the realization that while the New Left has had a lot of good ideas, in terms of practical political action they have been mostly toxic. They do activist sorts of things that do nothing but offend a lot of people in more conservative areas instead of changing their minds while at the same time often refusing to even vote, or if they do vote they vote for the Greens as a protest vote (this is why voter turnout on the Dem side is so inconsistent). A lot of these people would rather see the world burn than vote for the lesser evil. This has allowed the Far-Right wackos to pull the Overton Window further and further to the Right, because they vote and vote consistently.
Also, a good chunk of the New Left types, especially the ones who go on and on about "AmeriKKKan Imperialism" have gotten suckered in by RT and don't care when told that it is Russian state propaganda because they'll just dismiss legitimate news as "American corporate propaganda".
Maryposa here is an example of these types.
#MakeTheDemocratsGreatAgain