What do you think of the political separation happening in America?

[jasco]

Do you think we will ever have unity or will always be this divided? Do you think Covid had anything to do with it? What other factors played a role? why do you think these factors did it?

[hahahmm]

The division started - from my pov - back during the Clinton administration. Before that most people from both sides tried to work together to do what was best for the country. There's been a gradual shift towards more and more division till it has now reached critical mass. It's not going to get better. Maybe the U. S. will split into smaller pieces and things will be less divided within each piece.

In the past if an outside force attacked the country everybody would rally together to oppose it. That wouldn't happen today. And the reason why is that liberals decided it was a good idea to teach that the U. S. is evil and that nationalism is always a bad thing. They forgot to give the memo to other countries in the world that might decide to attack one day tho. I don't just blame liberals for the current state of things. LOTS of people on both sides have done stupid things that erode what makes a society strong.

Don't count on the U. S. being around (in the present form or with the same legal system) 10 years from now.

[hahahmm]

Oh, and on top of that, for decades the U. S. military has been promoting people who are gifted at being diplomatic/political NOT the people who were the bravest or the best at getting things done. In it's current form the U. S. military isn't going to win any wars. A lot of deluded people think it's rock solid tho. It's not that we don't have the most cash and the best weapons (in most categories). Without the right leaders you're screwed.

[loveslongnails]

It has nothing to do with Covid. It all started with Newt Gingrich back in the late 90's. You know Newt - the guy who had the mistress while his wife was dying of cancer, yeah, that Newt. He was speaker of the house from 1995-1999. By the end of his term, his mantra sounded like this:
* Bi-partisanship is weakness if it means compromising your principles
* When you're right, you stick to it, and we Republicans are right
* If the Dems don't see it, we'll just get more Republicans voted in and control Congress, then do what we want, fuck everyone else.

He made the idea of cooperation a dirty word. Worse, he implied that "checks and balances" are unnecessary in government, but if he had to live with it, he'd make it so the ruling party was in charge of its appointees too, thereby defeating the purpose.

Under his tutelage, he instigated the great divide and lack of cooperation. John Boehner stepped right in when Obama was elected and deepened it. I'll never forget Boehner saying on the very DAY the first Black man became President, paraphrasing: "We will spend the next 4 years blocking anything Obama attempts to do and making sure he is a one term President". That was the crux of it.

So, the divisiveness has been spreading ever since within Congress, and being preached by Republican leaders. Every so often a Dem, like OAC, says stupid shit too which doesn't help, but it's primarily been the Repubs. Now the Repubs like to say "people (Republicans) are waking up"? Huh? Really? To recognizing what's been done? No. Not at all. To polarizing politics? Yes. To buying into bullshit from a vile con man like Trump? Big time.

Every time a BLM rally turned into violent destruction, this further fueled the division. Believe it - a lot of that destruction was set in motion BY their side for that very reason. It's an old tactic - very, very old., But here we are. Welcome to America!

[Anonymous]

We won’t have unity any time soon. Both parties have moved toward the fringes and use divisive politics to move their voters with them. There are a lot of sheep out there buying into the hateful rhetoric being spoon fed to them. Covid only divided us because politicians on both sides saw an opportunity and made it political. If you keep people angry and hating the other side, they’ll keep voting a certain way. It’s up to us as a nation to reject those tactics…….. but I fear it’s going to tear us apart before it’s over.

[CrazyGirl2]

It’s awful! This tribalism has GOT to stop. There is absolutely no reason to just stop associating with someone, or literally despise them JUST because they have a different opinion to yours! It’s not just Covid, it’s been like this since god knows, but it REALLY got bad the night Hillary lost and Trump won, it’s been a downhill spring to the lowest common denominator ever since!

[OlderAndWiser]

The Democrats started playing identity politics as their primary strategy about 20 years ago and it has all been downhill since then.

[Crazycookie23]

This country was divided before covid, covid just added to it. We can't progress with a bunch of bullheaded biased people. Where we mess up is we can't agree to disagree. We will literally hate someone for being different, imagine that. I have a strong faith in God, but religion is causing a huge uproar especially online. It use to be between Christians and Muslims, but I'm more so seeing atheists and Christians at each other's throats almost daily (especially on apps like tik tok, Facebook and twitter). Let's not forget the biggest and most toxic war of all; the race war. I don't want to get to deep into that however all I will say is racism is poisoning humanity and people just refuse to see it.
Another one is the war and division between MEN AND WOMEN! It's an absolute mess! The misogyny, men bashing women and women bashing men, men harming women and women feeling more and more afraid of men like MY GOD! I don't know what the hell happened there, and it's especially bad in our community (the black community, just have to be honest).
As far as anything political with the pro-vaccinators and the anti-vaccinators and the damn Biden supporters against the trump supporters was very well expected anyway. Sad, but we all saw it coming.
I pray that this world will become a better place everyday but... doesn't look like it's going to progress any time too soon.

[jasco]

I can see your point

[exitseven]

In Ireland in the 60s and 70s there was a lot of unrest. It is said it was the result of property ownership but it was really just a division of classes. Ireland has a much better economy today and most of the violence that occurred in the past had gone. I think the US has the same issues. It is a division of people that collect some form of government assistance VS. the people that pay the taxes that fund all these programs. If the economy gets better and people have good paying jobs instead of retail or food service jobs a lot of the problems will go away.

[HighValue]

To compromise is to give democrats their way and repeatedly get nothing in return. Our country gets worse and worse the more democrats (and RINOS too) have been in power.

At this point it is obvious that democrats are so immoral, irredeemable, and dishonest, there is no hope for them. A civil war resulting in the complete death of one side would be a good thing in the long run even though there would be a great cost in the short term.

[Anonymous]

The rise of an intransigent minority on the far left that has basically forced the mainstream of the Democratic party to move left with them played the biggest role. They force the priorities into fringe areas where there's no room for compromise. The party operates in fear of them because 1/4 or 1/3 of their voters staying home would make them unelectable.

That same group is unable or unwilling to coexist with people who disagree with them. In a recent survey, high percentages of Democrats, especially younger ones, said they would not date, work with, or be friends with someone who voted Republican. The same was not true for anywhere near as many Republicans.

Until center left Democrats show some courage and take their party back from the extremists, deep divisions will remain.

[Dargil]

Leftist Democrats saw an opportunity to "fundamentally change the USA. The mid terms, Trump as Speaker and Desantis elected president will fix a lot of what's wrong.
Putin and Xi are actually afraid of Biden because he is insane like Hitler was. Both want/wanted Scorched Earth before they die. Biden will start a war if he feels like it.

[Avicenna]

I think it's time to negotiate a peaceful partition into two separate countries

[awkward_author]

I think it's pretty dumb, and unity won't occur for a long time. COVID merely strengthened the division that was already there to begin with.

[noohair]

Well, it has been going on since day one. But the right to an opinion is gone.

[Browneye57]

Lying sacks of shit did it. And no, it's not covid, and it's not changing.

[OddBeMe]

Unfort there’s no unity on the workers side. There should be working class versus corporations. Instead there’s anti-intellectual Vs intellectual.

[UsernameXLTX]

Politics has become a religion in the US. Politicians have taken note and capitalized on it by reinforcing fear through divide and conquer.

[Juxtapose]

I will never find unity with people who want me to live with a boot on my neck!

[jahaims]

Planned division to control the population.