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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Standard Disclaimer.
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Is This Normal For America? Divided
Why do Americans more and more believe that those in the other party are not only unwise, but are also bad people whose views are so dangerously wrong-headed and crazy as to be all but incomprehensible. Here are some very interesting reasons you be the judge. The end of the Cold War. The West’s victory in the Cold War means that with the possible exception of jihadi terrorism which would be rare, there is no longer a global enemy to keep us united as we focus on a powerful and cohesive external threat. The rise of identity-group politics many of us fit into that section. On both the Left and the Right, the main conceptual frameworks have largely shifted in focus from unifying values to group identities. The Left believes that right-wing beliefs stem into bigotry and racism which is tearing the country apart. While the Right believes that left-wingers are going overboard on political correctness which is tearing the country apart. They are both right to a degree, but the right’s beliefs are more destructive and cruel, and society by the rights view has little compassion for the poor and down trodden. Current trends in American religion reflect as well as contribute to political polarization. One trend is growing secularization, including a declining share of Americans who are Christians, less public confidence in organized religion, and rising numbers of religiously unaffiliated Americans. One consequence is an increasingly open contestation of Christianity’s once-dominant role in American public and political culture, people are waking up to the idea that organized religions are out for one thing and that is for themselves. This growing religious division helps to explain the rise of several of the most polarizing social issues in our politics, such as gay marriage and abortion. It also contributes to separating the two political parties overall, as religious belief becomes an increasingly important predictor of party affiliation. For example, among Democrats and Democratic-leaning U.S. adults, religiously unaffiliated voters are now more numerous than Catholics, evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, or members of historically black Protestant traditions, whereas socially and theologically conservative Christians today are overwhelmingly Republican. In other words the others are more welcoming of all people while the GOP only relates to people of like mind. The passing of the Greatest Generation left us a void we did not learn from. Their values of knowing what was important even if in different political parties there was respect for the other person of a different party.. Their generational values, forged in the trials of the Great Depression and World War II, including a willingness to sacrifice for country, concern for the general welfare, a mature character structure, and adherence to a shared civic faith—reduced social and political polarization. We do nit have that now. Then we have the geographical standard where like-minded people tend to live in like-minded areas, in other words we don’t mix it up and we have segregated ourselves, so we don’t or are not exposed to others of different ideas. The political parting has increased, which I mean by either you are totally Democrat or totally republican there is no middle ground for you to be in either party. In earlier eras, money in American politics tended to focus on candidates and parties, while money from today’s super-rich donors tends to focus on ideas and ideology, a shift that also tends to advance polarization because money buys you special treatment and leave the middleclass and poor out of the process. The decline of journalistic responsibility in reporting actual news. The dismantling of the old media has been accompanied by, and has possibly helped cause, a decline in journalistic standards. These losses to society include journalists who’ll accept poor quality in pursuit of volume and repetition as well as the blurring and even removal of boundaries between news and opinion, facts and non-facts, and journalism and entertainment. These losses feed polarization on all sides. It is sad that we cant have some open and no-judgmental dialog with people from all sides, we need to listen to everyone and maybe come to a middle ground. Each side is the same in regard to not bending a little bit on issues. Sometimes we cant have the entire pie but we can have a good sized portion, or maybe a little piece of the pie. The most important thing is to realize that not every issue is completely cut and dried. It is also important that we understand that people think differently on some issues, yet on many issues there is no budging, nor should there be. At this point in time, unless some cataclysmic social change such as economic collapse, or another world war, we will continue with the huge division. The first thing to change to get out of this mess is our minds, and our tolerance.
Tammy
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