The Partisan Divide on Issues

[JasonBlack]

(09-18-2022, 07:50 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: I have been half wondering what the leftover conservatives would look like as the crisis ends.  I feel the crisis fixes the greatest problem facing the culture.  The conservatives go for no change, no fix to the problem, continue the problem, often profit off the problem.  The progressive come out ahead, forcing a change, fixing the problem…. To me the results of the crisis was more obvious than what would get us here.  Covid would be handled.  The election would be upheld.  Bad cops killing minorities would be no longer acceptable.  Voting rights haven’t quite yet been secured, but you could see it happening if the Senate gets a few more votes and the filibuster is canceled.  What the problem is is so obvious that the crisis continues until there is a consensus that what is wrong has to be fixed.

And then the conservatives do something.  The certainly can’t admit they were wrong,  After the Revolution, they moved to Canada.  After the Civil War they created the KKK.  After the last crisis they stole some of FDR’s best ideas such as regulating the economy and containment.  After Trump?

Maybe after the hatred and violence of the recent past one can start to guess.  Drive though a peaceful protest of police abuse.  Take an assault rifle to a bar full of minorities.  Drive from rural to urban areas to give the resident minorities a problem.  Implement a violent insurrection.  Gerrymandering.  Deny lost elections.  Impose their culture on all as they did repealing choice.  Attack doctors, teachers, poll workers, the DOJ, the FBI.

I can see a rough remnant of MAGA becoming professional bad neighbors.  Not most of MAGA.  The Big Lie and Trump’s criminality is becoming very obvious, if at a slow pace by people who limit themselves to MAGA loyal media.  But there will be a small fraction of those who hate because they have always hated, who make other people miserable because that is what they do.

That is what has to be crushed in the high.  It is said that the values of the high support the solutions to the preceding crisis.  This hate reflects the methods and attitudes of MAGA.  The culture of the high has to reflect that this hate is not acceptable moving forward.

It sounds like your definition of moderate conservative is "people who don't want to change anything", your definition of hard right/Trump supporter is "hateful people who like to shoot innocent victims for no reason", your definition of the crisis of this 4th turning is "bad cops shooting people of color" and your definition of overcoming the 4th turning is "they just need to roll over and agree with us, and we'll pick off the stragglers in the 1T".

In short, this conversation is framed in a way that is going to maximize the chances of people just talking past each other and attacking two oversimplified worldviews which have little to do with addressing real world problems.

In my opinion, that's....exactly what "extreme partisan divides" look like in practice. Regardless of political affiliation, I think it's important for everyone to ask "what are some rational criticisms someone might have of my viewpoints or solutions?" Neither the US government (either party), nor the mass media have even come close to honestly asking themselves this question, and the result is a futile, 3-way stalemate between insular elites who have no idea what 80% of the population really wants, and that 80% of the population bifurcating into two sides of angry populists railing against each other and the government/media/tech/corporate elite and their constituents.