It is easy to read current social media posts and Tweets and conclude that American political division has never been stronger, farther apart and more distant from a reasonable path forward as a united nation than exists today.
Our social media, as well as our broadcast and streaming platforms, feature the lowest forms of personal and political vitriol. Threats of violence and mayhem are common. And the things said after calamities like the Uvalde school shootings to defend the Second Amendment defy reason and logic.
It no longer seems enough to argue over partisan political policies or strategies. Today’s political rhetoric is more provocative and incendiary, and it’s made worse by the fact that much of it comes from anonymous sources who are too cowardly to own their words or accusations. They hide behind pseudonyms and throw their rhetorical rocks in a manner mindful of Mayberry’s Ernest T. Bass.
Since the American Revolution, the serious, often violent political division has existed in what would eventually become the United States. “Loyalists” who were loyal to the British Crown were at fiery political odds with “Patriots” who supported the revolution and independence from British rule.
Less than a century later, the nation would struggle with the evil of slavery. That bloody struggle – literally and figuratively pitting brother against brother - cost the lives of some 620,000 Americans fighting for the North and the South. But not even that mighty conflict and the bloody legacies of Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh and Vicksburg truly settled the issue of slavery in practice for much of the nation – and particularly in the South.
Before he was elected president, then Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln made a speech on June 16, 1858, on the steps of the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield in which he said:
“A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
“Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South,” Lincoln said. As history records, Lincoln would not live to see his vision in full practice.
The adoption of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments made national promises of fairness, equality and freedom from discrimination that the arduous process of Reconstruction and the recalcitrance of Southern state legislatures made difficult if not impossible to keep. The Civil War was over in 1865. But another century would pass before America adopted and began to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The nation’s ongoing struggle with civil rights would cross-pollinate with increasing distrust of the federal government brought on by the interminable Vietnam Conflict – that preoccupied six consecutive U.S, presidents from Harry Truman to Dwight Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon to Gerald Ford.
America’s young people took up the cause against Vietnam and by the Nixon Administration and the quagmire of the Watergate scandal – confidence in the U.S. federal government hit an all-time low.
Washington Post chief government correspondent Dan Balz wrote in 2022 on the 50th anniversary of Watergate: "Watergate, along with the Vietnam War, marked a dividing line between old and new, ushering in a changed landscape for politics and public life — from a period in which Americans trusted their government to a period in which that trust was broken and never truly restored.”
Today’s national partisan war of words is disheartening and dangerous, if for no other reason than some take the rhetoric seriously and are inclined to act upon it. Lost in this deluge of political bile and bombast is the fact that we are all Americans. What we ultimately leave to our children and grandchildren depends on our ability to remember that and put it into practice.
47 comments:
Once again...Thanks, Captain Obvious.
If I had this on paper instead of a screen it would be useful.
I don’t even see democrats and RINOs as people anymore. They are simply demons. And I hate to say it but the US government has truly proven itself to be The Great Satan.
I feel like the ghost of Bill Minor wrote this column- or possibly one of Miss Today's staff of 4 crack journalists.
Social media allows people to fight non-stop without facing the consequences, so naturally the fight intensifies and we become more divided. Can't put that genie back in the bottle.
You can start by stopping the attacks on 1st and 2nd amendments to the Constitution. Either stop attempting to subvert it or go through the process of changing those amendments via the process set up by the Founders. Otherwise, you are delegitimizing the very contract/rule of law that holds us all together.
8:13 If you are serious, please get some counseling from a Christian pastor as soon as possible. De-humanizing those with whom you disagree is a step towards violence even genocide which has destroyed civilized societies in the past and would do so again if we don't learn from our mistakes. You do not know why other people think the way they do until you walk a mile in their shoes which you cannot do. If large numbers of people adopt your bigoted view our country is truly lost and it should be. It would not be worth saving.
Sid Salter is one of those types who, if I had a full bladder and he were to spontaneously combust, I wouldn’t piss on him to extinguish the flames.
Sid Salter’s opinions are reminiscent of a painful boil on your posterior.
His writing is like a fresh pile of canine excrement on the sidewalk.
In short, I wish he would either retire, or get a real job and some real life experience.
Living on a college campus for several decades is not real life experience.
Sid Salter: "It no longer seems enough to argue over partisan political policies or strategies. Today’s political rhetoric is more provocative and incendiary, and it’s made worse by the fact that much of it comes from anonymous sources who are too cowardly to own their words or accusations."
3........2.........1
Anonymous poster at 8:12am: I don’t even see democrats and RINOs as people anymore. They are simply demons. And I hate to say it but the US government has truly proven itself to be The Great Satan.
Wash, rinse, repeat
Controversy sells and many are invested in keeping us divided into teams — complete with fans and cheerleaders. Divide and conquer. If we had a truthful Administration and an honest press, this could not have happened. I blame the dearth of honor on today’s political climate.
God bless the chasm between communistic lefties and conservatives. If one mangles principle and mixes with the left the result is a deranged Liz Cheney or similar depraved chimera.
I think if media of all forms went away for 1-5 years we would be better off. Just live and make choice based on what you see and experience in real ife.
Seeing the spin and outright lies about Jxn's water problems tells me any change now is impossible.
The media conglomerates and politicians will tell you want to think, and you will like it.
And the money maker of the century is racial division so it wont end and weak minded will drink it all day.
and it’s made worse by the fact that much of it comes from anonymous sources who are too cowardly to own their words
Because the cultural marxists have weaponized their rhetoric to the point that they can financially ruin any opposition speech.
Kingfish himself is absolutely terrified to allow free speech here because if someone in a protected demographic gets their feelings get hurt, he could be deplatformed.
Division is part of the smoke and mirrors program for the voting morons. While street level idiots argue about newborns deciding if they’re transgender, toilet paper is racist, Orange Man Bad!, FJB, and thinking busing migrants to liberal utopias is some right wing political sham or sticking it to the Dems, your elected masters are lining their pockets.
A good start would be to heavily invest in mental health care so that people like @8:13 can get the help they clearly need. The internet and mental illness are not a good mix.
This is nothing to worry about. We have the unifier-in-chief in the Whitehouse accusing half of the country of embracing semi-fascism, what could go wrong?
8:13am,
If you are serious, I sincerely pray that you get some help. That's no way to live, and it's certainly not a reflection of reality.
How could we be anything but divided?
Decades ago, the American news media decided their role would change. Instead of reporting fairly on the game, they decided to suit up and go play for one of the teams...while claiming they were not doing that.
Something similar has happened to the political establishment. Instead of seeing their office as a privilege and a responsibility to do the right thing by all people and our Constitution, and to pursue and defend truth in all matters, politicians have entered a place where they will abandon truth, reason, and common sense in the pursuit of ideological goals.
They lavishly reward and defend those who deserve neither, while targeting and punishing those who do not agree with them.
Sid is making the point for the great divorce.
This would be a peaceful division of the country. Left gets X and the right gets Y. The leftists get to create their utopia and we on the right can do the same.
We no longer have to tolerate them and they are free from us.
8:25 yep. back in the day if you spouted that stuff you had to do it verbally and you'd get immediately "fact checked" on it :) I fact checked quite a few back in the day
violence does in fact solve many things
@8:13 is just like Roddy Piper in the film, They Live while the rest of you are Keith David refusing to put the glasses on. But just like Keith David, once you’ve seen it for yourself, you will absolutely agree with @8:13 just like I do. These people are serving The Fallen for literal scraps of power.
Serving The Fallen is nothing but a path to Hell.
Mass secession followed by ???. Capitalism and socialism are never going to coexist peacefully in the same country and I don't see any hope at all for large Dem controlled socialistic cities.
8:58 AM, tell us who offers more free speech in Mississippi than Kingfish?
@8:44 AM
This is 8:13.
I am a Christian pastor and I have heard God’s word.
He didn’t tolerate Sodom and Gomorrah, either.
So Repent now.
@8:13 AM you are right on. Stay the course and don't let the lefties on here discourage you.
At this point Cultural Marxism is a tumor that has metastasized and the only way to save this country is to eliminate the cancer that is killing the nation. There is no such thing as a bloodless surgery. And when it is done, we must remain vigilant and never allow Cultural Marxism to take root in our media, academics, judiciary, technology, and financial sector, ever again.
This is something that has had to be done in the past. Unfortunately this experiment of the last few centuries has proven that you can’t have freedom and liberty cohabiting with Cultural Marxism. The Cultural Marxists always subvert the republic by perverting the ideals of liberty and freedom.
Hey 8:13
"I don’t even see democrats and RINOs as people anymore. They are simply demons. And I hate to say it but the US government has truly proven itself to be The Great Satan".
Guess what we see---Republicans wearing hoods and horns and Maga hats and confederate flags and Trump flags threatening to hang the Vice President as they attack the Capitol of the United States of America. Perhaps if you are looking for demons and the great Satan your mirror would be a great place to start !!!!
The biggest thing that would unite America would be if the Main Stream Media types, and their cousins like Sid Salter, would all retire and replace them with real journalists who have some ethics.
9:20 - Your opinion is probably shared by several others. However, there are millions who believe that you people need help (and it's available) for Trump Derangement Disorder. Now THAT is true mental illness. I believe 8:13 is hitting the bullseye.
No longer should we view Democrat Socialists as simply 'the other side of the aisle'. They are individually and collectively the enemy (of America), plain and simple. They cannot be worked with, enjoyed, buddied up to or reasoned with. You don't attempt those things with the enemy unless you're stark raving mad.
The left, democrat socialists, is hell bent on destruction of this nation. No ifs, ands or buts. Can't reason with the enemy. He/it must be DEALT with. And if 'we' don't do that soon, this nation is lost forever.
I don't know if there is a lot of hope, unless:
1. people/politicians/corporations stop paying attention to social media
2. the media somehow checks itself and stops being so partisan
3. the move to censorship (of anyone who doesn't believe what you believe) is stopped
I doubt any of these will happen, so what's next for the country? On a micro level, most of the people of all races and creeds I meet in my normal day-to-day life seem to be pleasant and happy.
Free speech is a joke. Remember the old ACLU axiom? "I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it."
That ethos has been torched. Offer your opinion now and the left will try to get you fired, and they often succeed.
@10:20 AM
For every Q anon MAGA-tard on Jan6, there were 5 federal agents grooming and provoking them. Even the Michigan governor Whitmer kidnapping conspiracy has been revealed to be a group of Feds grooming and entrapping 2 idiots. It’s been this way since the years after 9/11. If they can’t find a terrorist to justify their existence, they will become the terrorists and radicalize low IQ loners. Fake it until they make it.
None of the communistic leftist's agenda crap works but Sid Salter believes in misery equity, resulting in a toast to Lumumba's Public Service:
Raise Choke-Water by the glass,
Ignore the endless crime,
Drive on streets of bump-ass,
Lined with trash and grime.
Seen on WLBT earlier today:
"However, some residents tell us they’ve been dealing with water woes in Jackson for decades.
“This has been an issue for me since I came down here to Tougaloo College in 1991, I was always told not to drink that water,” said Danyelle Holmes, who’s a national social justice organizer and a Jackson resident. She believes politics are being placed over people, which is contributing to this current problem.
She also believes Governor Tate Reeves should’ve acted sooner to help fix this issue.
“If we were talking about Madison County or if we were talking about Rankin County, we would not see these issues,” Holmes said. “The extreme racist politics that are being played, placing politics before people, it has to stop, and it has to stop today. We have 175,000 residents or more who are impacted and lives are at jeopardy.”
As long as we blame others and constantly bring race into ANY issue, this division will continue.
In this next "civil war" who will be the Uninted States and who will be the rebels? All you "partiots" anwser that if you can. When the dust settles, besides a 3rd world country what will we be?
to 10:40...thats not an ACLU quip........its a quote from voltaire.
im sure you never heard of him. he was french. look him up.
you are a product of mississippi education. god help you.
dont ever leave mississippi.
you couldn't make it anywhere else.
you will never get further than being one of the beautiful people of the SEC....... but first you better get to a dentist.
I'm a conservative and a Christian 8:13 a.m. and I cannot defend anyone who sees other men as inhuman. I want to be on God's side whatever I do and that ain't it. I don't think I would want to live in a country you envision.
If the marxists would just keep their word and go to Canada whenever the republicans have taken over, then we wouldn’t have these problems. But they never do it.
@12:02
Conservative Christian you say?
Your concern trolling is easily recognized.
I can tell that you are not obeying God’s word.
Go read Matthew 18:6 and pray for forgiveness for your “conservative tolerance” that is the opposite of virtuous.
12:01 Reading comprehension is a good thing. I never attributed the quote to anyone. I simply said it was once an axiom of the ACLU.
Beyond your poor reading skills lies a biggest problem; free speech is dying and people like you are unconcerned.
The Portable Voltaire, especially the Letters to the English, is good reading.
My 2 cents worth: honesty and restraint are the core values that have gone missing. When a president and congress can force through an “inflation reduction act” that everyone knows (and laughs) will only exacerbate inflation, you have the perfect example of dishonesty and lack of restraint.
When big business goes “green” to attract federal subsidies that cannot and will never prevent weather cycles, you have an absence of honesty and restraint.
When a municipal government fails to maintain water infrastructure despite ample funding (undermined by a failure to collect water bills) and claims “inequity” and other nonsense as the reason there is no water service, you have a lack of honesty and restraint.
When you have Republicans who spend money we don’t have and then complain that Democrats do this, you have a lack of basic honesty and restraint.
Honesty and restraint have gone missing. Until adults reintroduce these core principles into the public discussion, things will continue to degrade.
12:25 There is nothing in Matthew or the rest of the Holy Gospels which justify regarding other children of God as "non-human". If you find such doctrine in God's word you might need to concern yourself with which god you serve.
Evelyn Beatrice Hall actually wrote the "defend to the death" line as an illustration of Voltaire's belief.
@1:06 you really need to educate yourself before you start claiming to be a Christian.
I know KF isn’t fond of a lot of scripture. But it’s crystal clear. Full stop.
1 Corinthians 10:21
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
It speaks for itself and I won’t bother with any more scriptures.
Lets keep this simple.
We have too many crooks in the leadership of our country. The media is left leaning. We let the crooks in power lie to the people and the news media backed them up and actually encouraged them to tell more lies. Some people were dumb enough to take the word of the news media. Others were making up even more lies to leak.
The news media post a lot of dishonest things. Even when they are shown to be lies there is nothing that can be done to them. They just pick and choose what they want the common people to know.
Blaming the media for the division in America is a cop out. The media simply provides news and opinions. It cannot force a human being to accept one view or another. In a democracy, different opinions are to be expected and respected. But the viciousness on display now is new, courtesy of Donald Trump.
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