The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(12-14-2019, 02:45 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(12-13-2019, 12:32 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: I do not accuse President Trump of fomenting antisemitic violence directly.He is creating a climate of hate by stoking resentments that can go violent. He has done little to make America a better place for people not already filthy rich.

Economic resentments often lead to religious and ethnic bigotry, and bigotry erodes the civility that makes domestic tranquility possible. Face it -- under-educated white people are being left behind, and some of them shout "Jews will not replace us!" (presumably with non-white people).

I recognize an ironic affinity to Jews through the German part of my heritage. When Germany was a leader in cultural creativity (that ended in 1933, and if you want some idea of how great Germany could have been in cultural creativity, then just look at German cinema around 1930. That talent did not fade away; the Jewish part found its way to Hollywood. Jewish actors, writers, and directors endowed America with cinematic masterpieces still eminently watchable to this day. Germany became for all practical purposes a cultural fossil.

But it goes beyond that. Even with the crony capitalism that we now endure as neoliberalism we still have some room for spectacular achievement. People not at the top of the game will get the dubious privilege of survival at the terms of an economic and administrative elites who recognize no right for the person of ordinary talent to do anything other than to suffer for the gain, indulgence, and power of those elites.  Those elites seek monopoly control over everything.They want a few giant corporations to control everything. So if you want to start a small business -- you can no longer operate a store, restaurant, or bank as a cottage industry. Even the tax laws strongly favor the dinosaurs of our time... and don't let me get into the power of advertising. So if you want to be an independent professional you will have to start with gigantic student loans.

The bad parts of our heritage bite us back when the economic elites go from being innovators who make improvements the quality of life for most people (what Arnold Toynbee called a creative elite) into one adept at commanding its subjects into making great sacrifices just for the questionable survival (which is what Toynbee's dominant elite does).  

Maybe we cannot quite return to chattel slavery, but much of America can revert to the debt-bondage of sharecropping. Thoroughly-rotten social orders have a missionary zeal to spread the nastiness where such is unwelcome --which means that Manifest Destiny might get a sick revival.

Who is creating the bulk of the resentment these days? Think about it. Trump says something true/real to a group of Americans relating to illegal immigration and the liberal media portrays it as meaning something else and immediately calls him a racist for doing it and associates him with supremacist groups and then associates all of us  with them too. I wonder how many acts of violence are somehow or another  related to liberal media these days? In case you don't know, the liberal media of today is much more irresponsible in nature and much more incompetent than the liberal media of the Walter Cronkite era.  Think about it. The Republican side, or American side as I view it these days, won't be returning to being ruled by Monarchs/foreign powers  or  slavery or indentured servitude or powerless peasants or socialism/Communism or Fascism either. However, I wouldn't rule out it's use of good old fashioned American Imperialism from time to time.

Donald Trump habitually tells half-truths to people that he knows will accept what he says. The illegal immigrant is in America most likely to escape an economic catastrophe or violence in the home country. There are some genuine hell-holes in some Central American countries in which drug lords (who exploit the literal blood money that American addicts supply by buying illegal drugs) create climates of violence. So suppose that you are from such a place and you can get a job as a domestic servant or farm laborer in America to support yourself and your kids (who will assimilate into the well-established Hispanic population) well away from a war zone... you might do it too. Remember: Hispanics on the whole cherish their children. 

I would blame America's addicts -- wouldn't you? 

Trump gets people angry... and angry people look for objects of hatred. People who don't look like them or who have a different religion? I contrast Ronald Reagan, who officially excoriated religious and ethnic bigotry as much as a typical liberal of the time would. Trump goes quiet, and his silence makes all sorts of mischief possible. The man who shot up the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh had as his apparent motivation that its members were aiding 'foreigners', typically Hispanic. 

Media are not what they were in the era of Walter Cronkite, Howard K. Smith, Chet Huntley, and David Brinkley. Those people knew that the 30-minute newscast was at most a digest of daily news collected as the most important news happened -- during the working day. I imagine myself as a journalist of the Edgar R. Murrow type... and if I were I would expose Donald Trump for his amorality and suspect loyalty. I can imagine the final monologue relating to the intimidation of the new President of Ukraine...

"Congress recognized the plight of Ukraine, and apportioned funds to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian efforts to slice pieces of it way and weaken it enough so that Ukraine can be a puppet state. Our President made receipt of such funds as Congress, in one of its few bipartisan efforts, has allocated contingent upon the President of Ukraine starting an investigation of the son of one of his opponents in the next election. This is not how Congress does foreign policy; it does not authorize the President to blackmail a foreign leader to aid in his partisan agenda. What President Trump has done requires a cool, calculated response of impeachment. We need resolve more than we need passion".

OK, so we have 24-hour news, and plenty of time to fill. So we have fluff such as stories on entertainment, fashion, and sports. So we have  Maybe the 'conservative' outlets such as FoX "News" fill the time with crime stories that get people angry before the political news reaches the viewers. Analysis can be useful... but it can also be consummately manipulative. Beyond any question, FoX "News" is far better at getting its point across because its producers know how to turn the knobs on its habitual viewers. 

There's nothing wrong with watching much news... but considering that the usual purpose of news is to be better informed than those who do not watch so much news, FoX News has been less effective at informing people.  So a few years ago a study was made on the usual news sources that people had and whether they got the basic facts right. On the Second Gulf War, people were asked whether they accepted these things as true

1. Saddam Hussein had an ongoing program of weapons of mass destruction
2. Saddam Hussein was a supporter of terrorism
3. Saddam Hussein was involved somehow in the 9/11 attack.

All three statements were false. People who relied upon print newspapers or upon  news magazines (Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report), people who relied upon CNN or MSNBC, people who relied heavily upon foreign news sources, people who got their news from PBS or NPR, and (surprisingly) people who got their analysis from Comedy Central's The Daily Show  were much more likely to get the story right. People who relied upon the thirty-minute nightly news of ABC, CBS, and NBC were more likely to get it wrong (thirty-minute newscasts are superficial, and even Cronkite told people to read a newspaper to get more data). Local broadcast news is even more superficial, and those who relied upon local newscasts tended to get the story wrong. But people in those two categories were getting little news of any kind. People relying upon FoX News were watching much news -- and they were likely to get those statements wrong.  

OK, Saddam Hussein was a genocidal tyrant and a pathological liar, and if the world quit watching him he might try to develop, buy, or steal weapons of mass destruction. The Soviet Union and Russia were similarly fussy as we were about missile programs... and for good reason. The range of Iraqi missiles at one time went deep into the USSR. I am glad that he is gone... Still, watching news programming implies a sacrifice, and one had better be better informed. There more that people watch FoX News Channel, the more likely they are to be wrong. That is tragic. 

FoX News Channel is not a reliable source! 

...I am not concerned about the difference between a constitutional monarchy and a republic. "Republic" all too often means that the system does not have a crowned head. The Queen of England does not scare me, but the President of Syria does. The heated debate in American politics today is whether the President has dictatorial powers as the current President wishes.