Yes, There Really Are Two Americas

[TygrBright]

From WaPO: Yes, There Really Are Two Americas. Just Look at This Chart

I'd love to be able to link to the chart, but check it out.

"The chart above, which comes from Republican lobbyist Bruce Mehlman's latest (and much-coveted) PowerPoint presentation on the state of American politics, reinforces an idea I've written about quite a bit over the last few years: Increasingly we live in two different Americas, bifurcated by partisan politics.

As Mehlman documents, on a variety of major issues -- from taxes to trade to healthcare to the minimum wage -- there are vast differences between how Republicans and Democrats view each one. The Obamacare numbers above may not be all that surprising -- the Affordable Care Act has become synonymous with peoples' feelings about Obama -- but I, for one, was surprised at the massive gaps on raising the federal minimum wage and using U.S. combat troops in the fight against ISIS."

interestedly,
Bright

[randys1]

1. It is the successful results of 50 years of mass brainwashing and propaganda. 90% of those

who vote against higher taxes on the rich, are very poor.

Most of them are much poorer than they realize, actually.

But just wait , someone will come along soon and remind us that if they have a microwave or refrigerator, they are actually rich.

[TygrBright]

2. Yep. Or a flat-screen teevee. That makes you unworthy of help, right there. n/t

[randys1]

3. Given that is like saying if you have an electric fan instead of a bucket filled with ice

or something like that

In that the flat-screen is the norm, not the exception.

[TygrBright]

4. You have a FAN??? ELECTRICITY? Well, don't ask for help, then. Yer rich. n/t

[-none]

5. The Republicans keep proving time and again that they do not understand economics at all.

A prime example is Kansas. They still do not understate that if you cut taxes back too far, the state will go bankrupt.
Republican run states do not understand that if businesses paid a living wage, people would have money to spend.
Republican run states do not understand that if businesses paid a living wage they would have more tax money to provide services and education... And they, still maybe, could lower taxes for everyone and provide the services they are mandated to do.
Republicans do not understand cause and effect. All they understand is "Me and mine" and the next bottom line. The bottom line after that is not even on their horizon.

[Igel]

6. Yes, North and South.

As for the split in society, it's easy enough to remedy. It requires less mutual contempt and hatred and a willingness to listen with a modicum of good will and good faith.

Some of the most interesting conversations I had were with somebody on the opposite side of the political aisle from me. They'd start off with a challenge, become heated, and then chill out. We held pretty much all of the same values. We wanted the elderly cared for, children well educated, no difference in opportunity by class or ethnicity, to avoid pollution, help those who needed it. Sometimes we ranked the priorities differently, and one was willing to let one wait or fall low on the list because another was deemed essential; sometimes the problem wasn't what we wanted to see society like but how we thought we could get there or should get there. We usually separated amicably, and most of the time he was convinced that in time I'd come around to his political views in time. That was in '95-'96. Unless he's changed, it hasn't happened.

Many people prefer to see malice instead of some reasonable difference, and focus on means and assume because means differ the goals must not just differ in priority but must be athwart. I don't care if you're on the right or the left, people get off on seeing the worst in those they disagree with. Then we're reinforced in our views by a chorus of those like us cheering us on--and get really, really pissed not just by dissent, but by lack of affirmation and validation, the whole "with me or my enemy" sort of vibe.

We've stopped having a shared view of history and insist on making our views of history not just diverge but be triumphalist; we've stopped actually communicating and retreated into coercion and ill-will, so of course the communities are bifurcating.