The Maelstrom of Violence

[Bob Butler 54]

(08-22-2017, 06:12 AM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(08-22-2017, 04:35 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: The recent colonies about to become States had had no strong connections before the Revolution wanted no centralized government.

The problem is that these United States are and always have been a federation of smaller republics.  We do not need, and should not have a strong centralized government because such is ultimately ineffective.  Even with modern technology and modern infrastructure it is for all practical purposes ungovernable.  The only thing right now keeping it together is tradition and well a certain political ideology is busy tearing that down.  I'll give you a hint who it is...not the Right.

As it happened, the Founding Fathers allocated the military to the federal level, and we approached military problems as a nation.  That's one place you are clearly wrong.  From there, you can look at other problems that have been solved at the federal level.  These might have been approached differently, but a muddle of small governments trying to resolve large problems would have generated a muddled result.

We do currently have two cultures with different agendas.  I've mentioned the see saw often enough of late.  One problem is that the divide is not clean.  Many states mix urban and rural populations.  State by state, you can see where one faction or the other generally has an edge.  Breaking the problem into fifty will resolve things in some places, splinter the solutions all over, and not resolve things in others.

It would be different if humans did not instinctively seek to amass power.  It would also be different if the moon were made of cheese.  You could wish for one of these things if you like.  Dream on.

And of course a partisan blinded into one perspective seeks to shift the blame to the other.  We could seek for each faction to grant what the other needs most rather than maximize the dysfunction.  That would be another vain wish.  Too many partisans are committed to the blame game and making life difficult for opposition partisans rather than opening their minds.  Common Sense is not in season.  It's too much fun to talk of violence, talk about tearing things down, while ignoring how to build things up after.

Domestic questions aside, should the military function be unified?  The United States since the world wars ended things, generally in the direction of the Enlightenment values and Democracy.  We are still in the habit of thinking ourselves the world's policemen, of forcing cultures anywhere in the world away from their own path and towards ours.  Are we going to end that?  Not an idle question.  It's just that reverting to 50 smaller nations would require one answer.  The history of the world would be much different if somehow we had pulled back from unity earlier.

And domestic problems have been attacked from unity as well.  It is blind doctrine for some partisans to willfully forget that, which is just one of the problems with partisans.

But, sure.  Spout your opinions.