The Partisan Divide on Issues

[Eric the Green]

(01-14-2020, 04:56 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(01-14-2020, 01:48 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: I had a number of revolutionary war soldiers in my ancestry, and at least one civil war soldier. I am related distantly to Abe Lincoln. I don't know of any political leaders of those years in my ancestry. Most of my lines came to America from Britain in the 17th century; some German lines in the 1850s. Some French and Dutch earlier. None more recent. So I am an "American."

I noticed that the slogans and banting about of the word "American" became very prominent among those who opposed the protests to the Vietnam War. An "American Independent" party came into being in 1968 led by George Wallace spouting the slogan "Stand Up for America!" and he chose a militant general Le May as his running mate who advocated dropping nucs on Vietnam. In the next election much of that party became the "American" party and is now known as the "Constitution" party, although in CA the name "American Independent" stuck and is still used today. It has usually run third party candidates resembling Wallace, but in 2016 it endorsed Trump, whose policies were identical with theirs.

These are your predecessors in the use of the slogan "we are the Americans" and us liberals are not, because these conservative "Americans" thought we liberals should not have protested the war. We thought that it was better for us to have our country do the right thing, instead of pursuing wanton mass killing in the hopes that we could kill more Vietnamese than the communist regime could resupply themselves with. They said instead that it's "our country right or wrong" and "love it or leave it." We loved America; that's why we wanted it to correct course and stop sending young, courageous, excellent boomer soldiers home in body bags for a mistake.


The slogan has stuck among folks like you. The great divide in our country today descends from those great debates in the late 1960s. You "Americans" believe we should respect and stick with traditional values like "free enterprise" and Christianity and oppose reform efforts like gun control because of the "right" to bear arms in the constitution as you interpret it. We liberals continue to believe that true patriotism consists of reforming traditional ways so our society works better for all, and that "free enterprise" slogans boost the power of the wealthy bosses to exploit the people and harm life. 

We liberal patriots have a progressive tradition that goes back to the founding of the country, when WE were the ones who rose up for freedom, not YOU. WE were the real Americans then too, while the conservative Tories fled the country and preferred the tradition of being English colonists. The progressives were the ones who opposed slavery and achieved victory in the civil war, while you "Americans" rebelled and seceded from America. We progressives were the ones who in the 1900s passed the first laws to restrain and break up the power of the bosses, which today you "Americans" want to reimpose upon us. We liberal progressives were the ones that reformed the economic system to restrain speculation by the financiers that created the depression, and WE progressives created social security and boosted unions and passed other programs to protect the people from the bosses that you today support. WE progressives fought and stood up for the rights of all Americans in the sixties, while you "Americans" wanted to preserve segregation and discrimination, and those who are your allies at least still do.

I assume that you (like me) weren't around when our ancestors rose up for freedom.  As far as Vietnam, I wasn't old enough to directly participate in the war or do anything about  it either. So, I had nothing to do with the Vietnam War itself. I do remember seeing the fall of Saigon and the final evacuation of the US embassy.  However, I did have the benefit of being able to learn more about it in greater detail after the war ended.

I have to say the "Baby Killer" folks   and seeing sexy Jane Fonda playing around  with North Vietnamese soldiers while sitting on an anti-aircraft and the  liberal professors who latched  on and used  their propaganda here and their continuation  with promoting/reinforcement of  Marxist ideology to this day has pretty much burned a bridge with half the country. Now, is any of that our problem, or is  a liberal Democratic problem that still lingers and hampering  them today. Unfortunately, it's the half of the country that liberal Democrats  may need to bail them out or save their asses some day  who are more likely  to   watch and do nothing  as Rome (so called liberal America) crumbles and burns so to speak.

Your second paragraph links you directly with those who defined the word "American" as you use it today, showing that your side of the divide is indeed the offshoot of the debates of the late sixties over the Vietnam War and related issues. Those who opposed the war then were accused of being un-American and Marxist communist sympathizers then, and you continue that tradition although the war itself is now over. 

I hope we can indeed mobilize our half of the country to do the right thing and cast you "Americans" out of power, and I agree it is a bit like herding cats sometimes to get our side together. But polls show a majority of the country now disapproves of Trump, and that is the majority we will need to win elections. 2020 looks very uncertain to me at this point though. Trump may have a slight advantage in the EC. But those who say he will win by a landslide will not see that prophecy come true.