Contention, hype, and partisanship

[PLC1]

is that what's behind all of the schisms in America? Is America, in fact "falling apart"?


Is America coming apart?

At issue: Should Barack Obama be allowed to address tens of millions of American children, inside their classrooms, during school hours?

Conservative talk-show hosts saw a White House
scheme to turn public schools into indoctrination centers where the socialist ideology of Obama would be spoon-fed to captive audiences of children forced to listen to Big Brother -- and then do assignments on his sermon.

The liberal commentariat raged about right-wing paranoia.

Yet Byron York of the Washington Examiner dug back to 1991 to discover that, when George H.W. Bush went to Alice Deal Junior High to speak to America's school kids, the left lost it.

"The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," railed the Washington Post. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander was called before a House committee. The National Education Association denounced Bush. And Congress ordered the General Accounting Office
to investigate.

One half of America sees abortion as the annual slaughter of a million unborn. The other half regards the right-to-life movement as tyrannical and sexist.

Proponents of gay marriage see its adversaries as homophobic bigots. Opponents see its champions as seeking to elevate unnatural and immoral relationships to the sacred state of traditional marriage.

And on and on, from the deficit to the wars.

Are the "liberals", or the "right wingers", or whatever phrase is used to mean "anyone who disagrees with my rather narrow point of view" ruining the country?

Or is it contentious hype and partisanship on both sides?

What do you think?

 

[Pandora]

its gonna end in a civil war, but not like the one we had in the 1800's I think it will be very differnt.

I am never going to agree to 70 percent of the stuff the left wants, and they will never agree to 95 percent of what the right wants and there is not enough like minded people in the middle to become the leaders

 

[Pidgey]

I guess I don't understand why people think this is only a US phenomenon. Hello? Iceland? Canada? The UK? Europe? Russia? Australia? Indonesia? China? Japan? The only people that Peak Oil didn't hit were those who don't use the stuff like aboriginals.

 

[foggedinn]

its gonna end in a civil war, but not like the one we had in the 1800's I think it will be very differnt.

I am never going to agree to 70 percent of the stuff the left wants, and they will never agree to 95 percent of what the right wants and there is not enough like minded people in the middle to become the leaders

I don't believe there is going to be a civil war, but the result of our current difficulties will have the same effect. Like the USSR in the 80's, I believe that we are going to disintegrate as a nation.

Vietnam cost us our industrial base. Iraq and Afghanistan are costing us our financial dominance. Our dependence on oil is causing a massive transfer of wealth to states that are not our friends. Real wages of what is left of our working class haven't gone up since the early 80's while medical cost are going up disproportionately every year. We spend as much on our military as the rest of the world combined. We imprison a greater portion of our population than any other nation. We seem to be politically locked in to all these things. Only unworkable ideological solutions are being put forward.

I believe this is what the psalmist was referring to when he mentioned being caught in snares of our own devising.

 

[asur]

There is a great divide growing in America.

Obama is very devisive and is creating a spilt in the US.
He's bad for stability therefore!

Some of my friends have admitted they are sorry they
voted for Obama, although the overall polls aren't reflecting this yet.
I'm thinking eventually they soon will!

The economy is a disaster although the news media and Obama claim otherwise.
This charade can not last forever!
People will object!

I suspect independents and open-minded folk understand now
Obama is not what they wanted for in a president!

 

[pocketfullofshells]

The party where you go to the rallys and see Obama is Hitler, Obama is a Muslim, Obama is a Terrorist , ( OFF with his head) they walk around with guns out, talk about suceading from the US, attack the President as a Illegal alian, throw swastikas around as easy as they use to throw confederate flags....

and then B**** about "unity" after they gave us 8 years of Bush.


you know what, screw Unity, I want them to suffer and have no power and get nothing.

 

[Pandora]

I don't believe there is going to be a civil war, but the result of our current difficulties will have the same effect. Like the USSR in the 80's, I believe that we are going to disintegrate as a nation.

Vietnam cost us our industrial base. Iraq and Afghanistan are costing us our financial dominance. Our dependence on oil is causing a massive transfer of wealth to states that are not our friends. Real wages of what is left of our working class haven't gone up since the early 80's while medical cost are going up disproportionately every year. We spend as much on our military as the rest of the world combined. We imprison a greater portion of our population than any other nation. We seem to be politically locked in to all these things. Only unworkable ideological solutions are being put forward.

I believe this is what the psalmist was referring to when he mentioned being caught in snares of our own devising.

I can agree with you that we are going to disintergrate as a nation but I disagre with you as to why. You blame three wars, I blame total idiots running our country and curruption within the partys. but I think we will fight about whos fault it is and that is what will cause the fighting between Americans.

Till we decide what caused our problems we cant fix things and if we dont know what messed us up we wont know how to not repeat it. So the fighting over what caused it will be important.

 

[Pandora]

The party where you go to the rallys and see Obama is Hitler, Obama is a Muslim, Obama is a Terrorist , ( OFF with his head) they walk around with guns out, talk about suceading from the US, attack the President as a Illegal alian, throw swastikas around as easy as they use to throw confederate flags....

and then B**** about "unity" after they gave us 8 years of Bush.


you know what, screw Unity, I want them to suffer and have no power and get nothing.

Hell pocket why stop at wanting them to suffer. why not just kill them and take their money and property for the good guys who bend their knee to obama and kiss his bottom every day and twice on sunday

 

[samsara15]

Obama has not been nearly as divisive as Bush was, so pocketfullofshells is basically correct. The Right cannot seem to accept the consequences of having lost the Presidency. For a few years, things are not going your way, kids, and until you win it back, this will continue. Suck it up and hunker down until you can win the Presidency again.

 

[BigRob]

The party where you go to the rallys and see Obama is Hitler, Obama is a Muslim, Obama is a Terrorist , ( OFF with his head) they walk around with guns out, talk about suceading from the US, attack the President as a Illegal alian, throw swastikas around as easy as they use to throw confederate flags....

and then B**** about "unity" after they gave us 8 years of Bush.


you know what, screw Unity, I want them to suffer and have no power and get nothing.

That exact thing has been done by both sides. That is not going to decide any election.

 

[PLC1]

There is a great divide growing in America.

Obama is very devisive and is creating a spilt in the US.
He's bad for stability therefore!

Some of my friends have admitted they are sorry they
voted for Obama, although the overall polls aren't reflecting this yet.
I'm thinking eventually they soon will!

The economy is a disaster although the news media and Obama claim otherwise.
This charade can not last forever!
People will object!

I suspect independents and open-minded folk understand now
Obama is not what they wanted for in a president!

Posted by Pocketfullofshells:

The party where you go to the rallys and see Obama is Hitler, Obama is a Muslim, Obama is a Terrorist , ( OFF with his head) they walk around with guns out, talk about suceading from the US, attack the President as a Illegal alian, throw swastikas around as easy as they use to throw confederate flags....

and then B**** about "unity" after they gave us 8 years of Bush.


you know what, screw Unity, I want them to suffer and have no power and get nothing.

The above is a perfect illustration of how partisanship is dividing the nation. One side wants the other to "suffer", while the other blames every ill on a Democratic president who isn't, in the final analysis, doing a whole lot that his Republican predecessor didn't do, advocacy of health care reform being the one exception.

Deficit spending, bailing out industries, keeping the war going, etc. all started under Bush and have been expanded on under Obama.

There are no tenth amendment conservatives in our federal government, at least none that have enough power to do more than rant. There are no fiscal conservatives to speak of on either side. Obama has talked of change, while carrying out and expanding on the same economic policies he inherited. He has advocated doing something about our unsustainable and costly health care system, but it's unlikely that the federal government is going to be able to enact anything that will reduce costs and make health care more accessible, or at least it seems unlikely at this point. That, too, has become a partisan shooting match, with both sides shooting nonsense jacketed slugs and pure road apples of falsehood at each other, the one trying to regain power while the other tries to hold on to it, neither one showing a real interest in what is best for the nation.

Doesn't the Declaration of Independence mention replacing the government periodically? Maybe the time has come. Let's start a don't vote for any incumbents movement.