America, we've got a problem...it's us!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

The partisan divide in this country is becoming lethal in its proportions. This article really brings it home. And I think it goes way beyond the 2 parties- just look at the warfare on this board between moderates, liberals, and leftists. I truly fear for the future of this country. Terrorism isn't half the threat that our own self-destruction is.

Read this article and be prepared to cry.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/6404526.htm

[Homer12]

1. Destroyed from Within

I myself feel more and more polerized on every issue; all ideologically bent, and it's scary becuase I don't want to lose my independance and become a fanatic.

The left has been and is just as succeptiable to unthinging minionism as the right in the country.

Bush not only has split the world into "us and thems", but has helped to polerize the United States by ideology.

It's only going to get worse before it gets better, the war between the left and the right will get louder and more violent as time passes on.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. On being a fanatic

If you have a choice between being a fanatic or being an oppressed minority, which will you be?

Twenty people screaming "Commies! Baby-killers! Tree-huggers!" cannot be silenced by forty people whispering, "No, that's not what we are."

Wellstone said stand up, keep fighting. He didn't say it was going to be easy. He didn't say they'd quit just because he was dead.

The fight goes on. And on. And on.

Standing up, keeping fighting, not parking the bus,
Tansy Gold

[Homer12]

4. A fanatic...

...follows and does not think.

I am with you, I fight but with my brain and my heart.

[damnraddem]

9. Hear hear!

Keep the bus in gear!

[Nobody]

13. And speaking of keeping the bus in gear

Wellstone Action is here to keep the legacy of Paul Wellstone alive.

http://www.wellstone.org

The green bus is never going to be parked.

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. Most people are smart enough to keep head down and lips closed

As the price of opposing the regime continues to rise, more will wise up. People have families, they can't risk losing their jobs, much less no-fly lists, disappearance or tragic accidents.

[Clete]

5. Another DU'er and I, who are old enough to remember

the contest between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson, remember the good old days when partisan election politics were like cheering for separate football teams. Everyone proudly wore the buttons of their favorite candidate and put signs on their lawns without fear of reprisals on either side.

I blame this atmosphere of hate politics today squarely on the the criminal element among the conservatives who will stoop at nothing to steal elections including scare tactics. This is not an America with free elections anymore, but a nation heading for a dictatorship with no elections.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. WWII and the Cold War brought us all together

There is now a power vaccuum and it is tearing us apart. (well, not really, it is corporate greed filling the void) but still I think the whole country needs to attend a major attitude adjustment course. People need to understand what FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy were all about. They need to understand what it really means to honor and serve your country.

[damnraddem]

10. No, they'll use another model:

a dictatorship with meaningless elections.

[Clete]

11. Then we are already there.

[trof]

15. Me?

Yeah, I remember "Madly for Adlai".
A little lame, but the response to "I like Ike".
I think the wheels started to come off with JFK's assassination.
In some circles he was one of our most viscerally hated presidents.
I still don't buy the whole single gunman - Oswald thing.
Watergate was the public's first real look at the maggot-infested underbelly of the beast.
Until Tef-Ron Reagan's Iran-Contra lawbreaking I though I'd seen the bottom. I was wrong. It's been pretty much downhill from there.
Now the repugs have turned politics into an eye-gouging, nut-kicking, no-holds-barred, kick 'em when they're down, brass-knuckled, sucker-punch, take-no-prisoners, no-mercy gang rumble.
Winning is the only thing.
Support your (their) president no matter what he does.
Nothing he can do is vile enough for you to turn away from him.
No matter what.

Yeah, I remember a kinder gentler politics.
When "gentlemen and ladies" could agree to disagree.
Washington D.C. has turned into an armed camp and the nastiest of the nasty.
It sickens me.
And I guess to "win", we must reply in kind.
And THAT sickens me.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

16. Great post

and great posts always deserve a kick! Every word is gold. I couldn't choose any one phrase to quote they were all so good.

[rock]

6. The good news: the Republican party is a failure in a democracy

The bad news, they'll do whatever it takes to convert us to fascism. Conservatives can no longer win by convincing voters so they're using extra-political (criminal) means to survive.

On edit: spelling.

[damnraddem]

8. The rightwing has demonized those who disagree with them.

So that those of us who disagree have gotten angry: both about what they say and the terrible things they have done, especially through Dubya. So, now, we're told that we're the problem, right along with them. Right?

Wrong! Playing sweetness and light in the face of rightwing venom has gotten us nowhere other than off the TV screens and radio talk shows. We need to recognize that it's war. These scum need to be voted out of office, especially those who got selected but not elected. They've got to be pushed out of the limelight. It's time to get our country back.

That may take the smoothing over of differences in the Democratic Party, but only if that leaves the Party meaning something. It does not mean acquiescing to rightwing wannabes like Holy Joe Lieberman. Any other likely Dem candidate I could hold my nose and vote for; some I could work for. And if the Dems are to become the majority party once more, they will have to bite and scratch and be just as nasty as, though more intelligent and honest than, the GOP.

[ramapo]

12. Been a long-time coming

The division in American society is Republican-led and has been building since the late-60's, early-70's.

Those of you old enough remember such pithy slogans as "America love it or leave it", "Our President right or wrong" (classic Nixon defense, didn't apply to Clinton though), etc.

Peace demonstrators were anti-American or communist.

George McGovern, war hero, was portrayed as a weak, patsy of the North Vietnamese. Not a true American.

Sound familiar? It's just much, much worse now.

I have a vague recollection of some honor among politicians. Disagreements weren't treasonous. Republicans weren't all bad! There were even liberal Republicans.

Conservatives believed in conservation, limited government perhaps,and sane fiscal policy.

Our racial problems were more evident back them but there wasn't the hate permeating society. Hate is now something actively encouraged in the media.

It is going to be very hard to wring this out of our society.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. Backlash against the civil rights movement

I think that fueled a lot of the hatred against Dems. The integrated bussing programs of the 70's, Roe v. Wade decision, and then the gas/ hostage crisis of '79 sealed our fate. Reagan portrayed Dems as pro "big government" and ineffective and so out we went.
I think the basic problem is most Americans want to pretend we are truly independent when we are fact becoming more interdependent with the rest of the world.
Americans have got to "grow up" for lack of a better word. They are infantile in their societal view.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. kick