Do you think there is a path forward with the political divide other than Civil war?

[LadiesFavoriteToy]

Seems like there is no way to avoid the huge political divide. How do you bring the left and right together without having them wanting to kill one another? We all know that civil discourse is non existent with the far left and right because if it's speech you don't agree with it's hate speech.

Setting everything aside how do you avoid this very dangerous path that would see the usa separate into two completely different extreme political ideologies. If the democrats had their own government with no one to challenge their rule what would their country look like based off of what you have seen from democrat run cities. Same goes for republican what would their country look like without any democrat influence. Put democrats on one side of the fence and republicans on the other would be the only way to avoid this civil war.

Yes?

NO?

Civil war!

[nightdrot]

Of course there is. Nothing is inevitable in human affairs. There are too many variables, but beyond that, we've been here before.

A little historical perspective helps.

In the 1960s and 70s, we had an era of race riots, a low intensity war, campus radicalism, assassinations, populism, "do your own thing," and political extremism. One need only mention Kent State, the SLA, the Black Panthers, the Kennedy assassinations, and the Martin Luther King assassination, Charles Manson or the year 1968 to be reminded of the recent past.

Then there was the small matter of the aforementioned Civil War. Four years of war fought to the nth degree. The result was over 650,000 Americans, killed at each other's hands. That is an ocean of blood that Americans did not even match in either world war, indeed in both world wars combined.

Speaking of which, there was the country during World War I. Aside from an unprecedented curtailment of civil liberties by the government, as Americans watched warily for German spies, there were cases of mobs tarring and feathering those they thought guilty of siding with the enemy.

Even in World War II, the so-called good war, when Americans were united by Pearl Harbor, there was bloodiest race riot in American history in 1943. Also in 1943, the United States lost more hours of work to strikes and other labor unrest - some of which became violent - than in any other year in American history. This, when the nation was rallying to defeat the Axis powers.

That is not to say that these are not difficult times. Certainly the effects of technology may be magnifying some of the splintering forces in the culture. That technology makes every event seem larger and unprecedented because we just don't read or hear about them, but see them. Further, the technology reinforces a ethic of instant gratification and puts every person in their own mental universe.

This has created a cultural environment of mutual incomprehension, heightened emotionalism and the discounting of reason over feeling. The latter being a problem in the best of times, but in the current context it is arguable that the nation has conferred upon itself more rights than it can handle.

As Burke said, "Men have no right to that which is not reasonable." A difficult argument to make in a culture that is ardent about rights, but no so much about responsibilities.

Still, as Adam Smith said, "There is much ruin in a nation." These things come and go. The tumult of the 60s and 70s gave us the relative social peace of the 80s and 90s. We've been here before.

The same applies to the world. Imperfect beings cannot - and never will - create perfection. Ever it will ebb and flow. Again as compared to what?

Is the world more or less "messed up" than when Jews were being thrown into ovens and humans were killing each other by the thousands daily? Again, perspective helps.

Besides, as John Cardinal Henry Newman said, "Spring passes into summer and through autumn into winter. Only the more surely, by its ultimate return, to triumph over the grave toward which it resolutely hastens from its first hour. We mourn over the blossoms of April because they are to whither. But we know that withal that April is one day to have its revenge upon November, by the revelation of that solemn circle that never stops. Which teaches us in our height of hopes ever to be sober. And in our depths of desolation, never to despair."

[ibodi]

It is hard to say, I observe that taiwanese case. It is like putin find that eastern ukrainians dont know their history. I think those taiwanese finding that those law is not connected to them but they run to your country act like chinese then that is connect to them. They dont know the content of law but there is concept of law in them and that is beautiful thing to their personality but I saw that law is not beautiful things actually.

As they said they want their democratic principle to live but there are 1.4 billion more than them opposite to them. So what is the principle even inside themselves.

If that is normal in demorcacy I think that have big problems.

[Anonymous]

Sure. The same path we always use. Have an election, other side wins, tack back in the other direction for awhile, lather, rinse, repeat. Not too tough, really. Just a bunch of fucking drama queens wanting to breathlessly whine about civil war.

[Avicenna]

It would be best to negotiate a peaceful partition of the US into two countries. That way each side can pursue their preferred public policy.