America is more divided than ever before. Is it only a matter of time?

[Deleted]

You should be careful with people who claim your country is oh-so-divided... and who then go forth and work hard attempting to cause more divison themselves. The far left has always wanted to destroy the integrity of the West, which is one reason why they always support something retarded (referring to it with terms like "progressive" or "tolerant" or w/e to fool the useful idiots who are prone to fall for just about any kind of "emperor's new clothes" -fashion) that's bound to cause strong backlashes, but will also damage the society if it's allowed to go uninhibited. However, in reality they are in the minority, and you shouldn't let their loud noises fool you.

[Raptor With a Saber]

...ya wont ever happen. Divided is about trump and really only that. Other wise everything is ok.

[the game]

America is divided because there's actually people who don't like pineapple on pizza. We should deport them with the illegal immigrants.

[Thoughtful Trolli]

America is divided because there's actually people who don't like pineapple on pizza. We should deport them with the illegal immigrants.

Yah it's not so much divided, as it is more like one side is right and the other side is wrong and whiney and needs to stop.

[Tijuana]

America is divided because there's actually people who don't like pineapple on pizza. We should deport them with the illegal immigrants.

Reported for pushing pineapple propaganda.

[Rusque]

I think most of us still want similar things - economic opportunity and stability, freedom to run our own lives, etc. We often disagree on details, but our general view is similar.

I also think there is a small subset of people (on both sides) who don't care about the country or the people in it but just want the other team to lose regardless of what that means for everyone (including themselves).

[Shadowferal]

I'm reminded of a couple of articles:

Elites have lost their healthy fear of the masses

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the spread of global capitalism, today’s elites have lost the sense of fear that inspired a healthy respect for the masses among their predecessors. Now they can despise them as losers, as the aristocracy of ancien régime France despised the peasants who would soon be burning their châteaux. Surely today’s elites are going to learn how to fear before we see any reversal of the recent concentration of wealth and power.

-------------------

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

Many of us think we’re special because “this is America.” We think we’re immune to the same forces that started the Arab Spring—or the French and Russian revolutions, for that matter. I know you fellow .01%ers tend to dismiss this kind of argument; I’ve had many of you tell me to my face I’m completely bonkers. And yes, I know there are many of you who are convinced that because you saw a poor kid with an iPhone that one time, inequality is a fiction.
Here’s what I say to you: You’re living in a dream world. What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time. Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens. Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us.
-------------------

That said..and posted...If things continue as they have, it may be a matter of time. But that time isn't near yet. (Had the momentum of the Occupy Movement hadn't been checked and crushed, then the time might have been a hell of a lot closer)

[Powerogue]

Tried that once, it didn't go very well. Let's try something else.

[Shadowferal]

Tried that once, it didn't go very well. Let's try something else.

It's not about "trying" anything out.

It's more about "shit happens."

[Shadowferal]

Yeah, and that was back when you could more easily match an armies military power. Any group that tried to rise up against the US would have to face the US military... I don't know how militia groups expect to take down all the planes/drones/helicopters, but I'd love to see them try.

Nope.
That would be illegal.
Try again.

[Penguirrel]

Tried that once, it didn't go very well. Let's try something else.

If that were true then the US would be British. The people that rebelled in the 1770s won while the people that rebelled in the 1860s lost. It does not mean the people that rebel in the 2010s or 2020s would lose.

[aviger]

Most Americans are to lazy to even vote, do you really think they'd give up their mcdonalds and cozy couch to go fight in the mud....hahahahaha
nope :P

[Shadowferal]

Man, I didn't realize the Civil War was illegal... I'm not sure you understand the hypothetical being raised.

I don't think you understand what was being rebutted.

Use of the US military on American soil is illegal.

[Masark]

Yeah, man. The differences between fans of Coke and fans of Pepsi are just irreconcilable and it's best if we went our separate ways.

You jest, but the origins of that division is a significant part of the current issue.

[Penguirrel]

Most Americans are to lazy to even vote, do you really think they'd give up their mcdonalds and cozy couch to go fight in the mud....hahahahaha
nope :P

That statement cuts both ways. Americans who won't fight to leave but also Americans who won't fight to stop those that leave.

[Penguirrel]

Against the modern US military apparatus? GL.

You think the entire US military is going to automatically follow one side? You think every single member of military and all the equipment they have access to is going to stay on one side?

[mmowin]

get out of my country, commie!

oh boy. Those pesky ruskies are everywhere

[Silent Earth]

Lots of people bringing up the US military. If the US was to suddenly become cloven in two and a literal war broke out tomorrow, there would be no "US military" as it exists now. There would be the part that remained "loyal" to whatever side fashioned itself the "true government", and then there would be the rest. Whatever the cataclysmic issue was that divided the country, on either side would be the remnants of what was left of the military. Would one side control the majority of the power and arms? Most likely. But it would be utterly crippled.

And since we're talking about the absolutely immense divide that would be needed to create another civil war, it would have to be nothing less than another attempt at secession by a large part of the country, or a multiple-state attempt to overthrow the national government. The government would never suffer a division of America for the simple fact that the country's mythology, its mystique and much of its influence would be wiped out in an instant if it ever became officially divided.

Although, come to think of it, going to war would actually cause much the same sort of loss of face in the international community as allowing a secession would. Now that would be an interesting game of political chicken.

[Shadowferal]

Lots of people bringing up the US military. If the US was to suddenly become cloven in two and a literal war broke out tomorrow, there would be no "US military" as it exists now. There would be the part that remained "loyal" to whatever side fashioned itself the "true government", and then there would be the rest.

US Constitution would be set aside by both sides were that to happen.

[downnola]

If citizens, politicians, and pundits didn't have opposing views and everyone thought the same, you'd have what is essentially a one-party state. Political division is fine and should be promoted. The clashes that result from the difference of opinion is what drives society forward and cultivates progress; this is why freedom of expression is so important.

Division becomes a problem when politics becomes team-based and divisive for its own sake. American politics today, especially within Republican circles, is almost entirely opposition based (sometimes even against other Republicans. ex. Eric Cantor, John Boehner.) The most obvious example of this is the Republican party's opposition to Obamacare. The ACA is based on a policy promoted by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and is a market-based healthcare solution that was engineered as an American healthcare plan that doesn't involve the S-word.

However, when the plan was embraced by Democrats, and championed by the most charismatic Democrat in decades, it created a massive reactionary movement dedicated to opposing the plan and anything else Barack Obama publically supported.

The other problem that can come from division is when there is no way to alleviate the pressure that occurs from the clashes of change and tradition. The Civil War was an example of a boiling point between slavery and abolition. Despite what some revisionists like Ron Paul may say, there was no other way to defeat slavery in the south without a fight. You'll often hear how the North could have just "bought the slaves from the south and freed them." The federal government tried that and the south wanted nothing of it.

I don't think America is currently near Civil War level division because nothing in American politics today is creating that level of disagreement. I think the sad state of American politics has a lot to do with the pendulum swing that occurs from a two party system. Both parties are fighting for power and the need to demonize the other side becomes stronger when it comes time for one side to transfer power to the other. I personally think America would be better off with more than two parties, but that isn't likely to happen anytime soon and there is a bigger problem to take care of first.

The biggest issue in American politics is the fact that a third of eligible voters in the United States have no interest in voting and that's an American failure that surpasses any other subject in U.S. politics. There are plenty of reasons for the sad state of voter participation: gerrymandering, money in politics, corruption, the electoral college etc. Regardless of the reasons, citizens need to vote or the loudest people on both sides are going to be the ones directing political discourse.