Opinion: Are We on the Verge of a Civil War? Americans keep dividing into two hostile camps. It seems the country is back to 1860 on the eve of the Civil War, rather than in 2018, during the greatest age of affluence, leisure and freedom in the history of civilization. The ancient historian Thucydides called the civil discord that tore apart the fifth-century B.C. Greek city-states “stasis.” He saw stasis as a bitter civil war between the revolutionary masses and the traditionalist middle and upper classes. Something like that ancient divide is now infecting every aspect of American life. Americans increasingly are either proud of past U.S. traditions, ongoing reform, and current American exceptionalism, or they insist that the country was hopelessly flawed at its birth and must be radically reinvented to rectify its original sins. No sphere of life is immune from the subsequent politicization: Not movies, television, professional sports, late-night comedy or colleges. Even hurricanes are typically leveraged to advance political agendas. What is causing America to turn differences into these bitter hatreds — and why now? For the rest of the article, see: The Washington Times
IMO it is a definite possibility. We need to stop pitting one group against another and focus on solving problems that impact our lives as Americans. We also need to find creative ways to get the have-nots into the game so they can be self-sufficient contributing members of our society.
It does feel as if we were, but it couldn't compare to the last Civil War, as there is an absence of geographic boundaries or even definable sides. Something is going awry, however. The result may be anarchy, which generally leads to its opposite - tyranny, and oppressiveness.
IMO, a civil war would be the only way of successfully returning the country to "of, by and for, the People". However, the likelihood of success has diminished decade by decade, as ever-more stringent controls have tightened the government's grasp and detuning of personal freedoms. Given the power of government today, the likelihood of re-establishing it anew has approached a solid zero. IF it could be accomplished, it would entail enormous sacrifice evidenced by highly-extensive loss of lives of citizens. Would that be "worth it"? If successful, yes. But, ain't going to happen. Frank
I think that the only thing missing is a charismatic individual or influential group to bring people together for a revolt of some sort. Until that happens we will continue to have small outbreaks of violence around the nation that do little to help people on either side of an issue. I agree with Frank that the cure would be worse than the disease, destroying the existing system is much easier than creating a new perfect system. If we could just drop the baggage, the labels, and the personal agendas so we can concentrate on simply doing what is right we would be headed in the right direction and eventually we would see some improvement. I'm sorry to say that I don't see much chance for improvement in my lifetime.
It is not confined to just America. Europe also is in similar situation. Just as Breitbart is documenting the atmosphere in America, the Voice Of Europe is doing the same (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/07/d...s-the-muslim-invasion-and-conquest-of-europe/). The Leftists are on the move in Europe, America, Canada, etc., and no longer seem interested in maintaining their traditional 'front' of coexistence.
One of the greatest rifts that divide us is the worsening conflict between the Democrats and Republicans. I never saw them being so militant, especially the Dems toward the present administration! Hal
It is probably that the Dems,(Progressives/Liberals) are tired of sitting back and being run over by the right. Being cast as somehow less American,less patriotic. Have watched the Republican party play every single dirty card in the deck,giving unquestioned support to unsupportable ideas. That can't believe the Republican Party as a whole has thrown away its moral compass in support of an anomaly.
The thing that I find amusing is that each side believes the other is at fault. It reminds me of The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss.
But we got tax cuts. Normally one pulls out tax cuts to stimulate the economy, when it is in recession, not when it's already booming. Another anomaly.
It's that old saying "A house divided against itself will not stand"....we have become a Nation and a World divided against each other...and in the end none of us will be left standing either.
I seriously do not know but mere speculation calls for a good look at what I believe to be the root of our present problems namely Lyndon Johnson’s introduction of the Great Society or rather, an introduction to socialism. Johnson’s administration de-incentivized a major portion of the American worker by placing a wage and tax freeze on the public whilst at the same time increasing welfare and initiating the Food Stamp program. The number of citizens who suddenly became “wards of the federal government” or the taxpayer if you will, increased from the millions who were already on welfare pre 1969. Note: It wasn’t until Ronald Reagan became president that the public financing of alcoholism and drug addiction was omitted from the social welfare programs. If we bring that start up to the present time, we see a few million citizens whose views on socialism is not only acceptable but deem it as a positive move. Free college, free medical, free food, free contraception and free abortion are only a few items on the table and more will be added as the American taxpayer is being bled to death as those synonymously serving as political heads benefiting financially from the whole progression (or digression depending on how it is personally viewed) In a strange way, we can indeed draw a comparison between the policies of Lincoln versus those of his predecessor, Buchanan and Obama vesus President Trump. . Buchanan, touted as one of the three worst presidents of the U.S. was a “hands off” president when the union was threatened due to it’s socio-economic structure but, as a side bar, attempted to demolish the newly formed Mormon Church in Utah. Lincoln, was totally hands on but the damage had already been done in the prior administration so total reform was made impossible and we all know how that turned out. Obama wasn’t totally hands off but his programs were all bent on a higher form of socialism and racial dissent thereby splitting the American environment as a whole and then.....doing nothing. Trump is hands on but stuck in a quagmire made up of socialistic values of some politicians and citizenry versus those he personally believes in (American capitalism) which leans more toward the American worker than those who live off the taxpayer. Bottom line is I’m not sure if the present administration isn’t too little, too late or just in time.....we’ll see.
Yes, in some ways it was. But lest we forget that history somewhat repeated itself, the first New Deal between 1934-35 was an earlier image of the Bush/Obama regime’s bailouts for banking, manufacturing with some relief thrown in for agricultural venues. Also, very much like the Obama administration, there were more people working for the federal government than ever before. In it’s very essense, the Federal Government (the entity and not the people) became the largest and most economically dynamic industry in the U.S.A. Both the first and second New Deal programs did allow some relief for those people out of work but there was, to my understanding, a part that insisted that a person had to be looking for work in order to receive a relief check, and in many cases, men were put to work on federal projects in order to receive a check. Do Note: With the exception of the Social Security program which was developed (1935) under the shelter of the New Deal very little was designed to be permanent. That said, Eisenhower did very little to change it and even expanded on it somewhat and took a huge leap under Johnson who had a type of civil war on his hands with the civil rights act which led to the Great Society movement or rather, the start of socialism in the U.S. Back to today, there are so many social programs designed, from all outside appearances, to help it’s citizenry and anyone who makes it to the border, it is no wonder that those same people and those who envy it want more of it. But, those outside appearances are somewhat deceiving because it leads to enslavement by the government ( the entity) which feeds them. If President Trump’s initiatives to put people back to work and free themselves of so many government ties does not work then organizations such as ANTIFA will win a battle but not without a Civil War complete with guns and brother against brother looming on the horizon.