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

[Deleted]

Good news everyone. I just googled "USA". Apparently USA still does stand for United States of America.

[Kellhound]

Yes, we are getting closer to a civil war in the US. Will it happen? Hard to tell. If it does happen though, it will make all previous civil wars look like kid fights and the bloodletting will be immense.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

does the average person who is just working and living there life give a crap about all the crazy politics crap that seems to mostly happen online?

[Shadowferal]

To the point of risking their lives by joining some kind of rebellion? Doubt it.

The only way that would happen is if a significant amount of the population was completely homeless with no where to go. If someone has a roof over their head, they're not going to do something like that.

Not at this point. (When the Occupy Movement first gained steam however, it scared Wall Street...and the Obama Admin.)

Waaay back during Hoovervile Era, the word "communism" was looked upon more favorably and rumors were flying all over, enough to scare the newly elected FDR into doing all kinds of things to pull the teeth of a growing movement and get people motivated and energized into doing anything other than upset the system.

[downnola]

They kind of did. Germany was the first country invaded by the Nazis.

You say our government isn't going to start rounding up Muslims like they did Japanese-Americans? You're pretty naive. Shit can go down at the drop of a hat.

Public opinion would have to shift quite a bit for Americans to simply allow WW2-style internment camps for Muslims without a massive legal fight and mass protests.

One of the interesting things I've found is that the perception Arab/Iranian Muslims have of Americans changed after the protests that followed Trump's initial travel ban. Quite a few journalists even noted that Iran's annual "Death to America" rally was a lot less intense than it usually is because many Iranians realized that a significant number of Americans actually take their 1st Amendment seriously.

People were mostly silent during the WW2 Japanese camps because of Pearl Harbor and world war. That's simply not the case when it comes to institutional discrimination of Muslims.

[truckboattruck]

So in your mind, Civil War would come as a result of Dem/Reps not agreeing with each other, and Donald Trump is stirring enough controversy to also contribute to starting a Civil War.

Dems/Reps have always disagreed on a lot of major points...that's why they're separated into parties.

The President can (and with a president as hated as Trump, probably would) be impeached if it gets "that bad" or if he royally screws up.

And above all, if a movement started with people trying to start a Civil War, they would be treated as a radical group, not democrat/republican, and the moment they take violent action our Military would come down on them like a fucking hammer.

I'd worry more about your day-to-day nutjobs turning violent, as they tend to do, on unsuspecting public. But that's hardly going to start a Civil War movement imo.

fastest civil war in the history of forever
and probably the most hilarious

[Deathquoi]

Is it time for America to become two? I dont wanna say those two nasty words, but do you think it's time?

And if so, would you pick up arms to fight for your side? I personally think this is so scary.

I think America was probably more divided when it was literally fucking divided in two. It was also more divided when entire groups of citizens were excluded from voting or riding certain buses or eating in certain restaurants or using certain bathrooms.

[Zeta333]

Is it time for America to become two? I dont wanna say those two nasty words, but do you think it's time?

And if so, would you pick up arms to fight for your side? I personally think this is so scary.

no we arnt and no its not. Its a shity president, the same shit is said everytime there is a president at least half the people like. For every good president we get there are 4 shit ones, so we are due any day now for a good one.

[Spiral Mage]

We're not divided in the sense of North/South like before.
We're divided in the sense I may hate my neighbor for who he voted for.

What is gonna be the result of that? Are you gonna move somewhere else, so I can move to and live in your half of the country, because that's how it got split up?

[Ghaleon]

No it won't happen.

People need to stop treating politics like a freaking sport though, "my side is better and will win" how about we take no side?

Realize most of the jackasses in now are destroying the country and stop voting for them just cause you and they are a democrat, republican, or independent.

Take no side vote out the idiots, use your brain pick the people who have the best plan and can follow through.

[breadisfunny]

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

no we need to deport the draenei and those who put pineapple on pizza.

[Skaiz]

I've been thinking about this too for a while. Hopefully it will be within Trumps presidency so I can reenlist into the Marines for a fight. Would suck to pass leadership of my business, but it would be a very pleasurable time.

[Vynny]

First of all, it's not the most divided that America has been (as others have noted).

Secondly, there are currently very loud, very active, extreme minorities that are fighting with each other, most other people are much more moderate as seen by the significant number of Obama voters who voted for Trump. Feminists, of which a subset make up the bulk of the very extreme left wing progressives make up only 18% of the US population. There are no real numbers on the Alt Right, but the fact that most of what people who are associated with the Alt Right do is trolling makes me think that the politically determined ethnonationalists are a very small percentage as well. The point is that even if those 2 groups were equal in size at 20% of the US population each, they'd be largely outnumbered by the 60% that doesn't agree with either of them.

Lastly, people are naturally inclined to laziness, so unless something huge that not only threatened, but had pronounced tangible effects on their very way of life came about then no one is going to risk dying to secede or have some form of armed revolution.

[Kokolums]

The United States federal government used to mostly fund itself via tariffs on other nations. In theory, this is bad because it encourages politicians to blame other nations for their problems. "Economy bad? Well, that nation ever there isn't paying in tariffs!" That leads to wars between nations.

That all changed in the 20th century. Tariffs were done away with in favor of taxes. The idea was that with tariffs removed, there should be much less incentive to go to war. However, with the government now mostly funded by taxes, what has happened is that segments of the population within the nation start to fight amongst themselves. And its mostly over taxes. This group pays too much. That group doesn't pay enough. And politicians play to that, fueling class warfare.

What we've learned is that a nation funded mostly by tariffs is more likely to fight wars with other nations. A nation funded mostly by taxes is more likely to suffer from civil war. It doesn't really fix anything, it changes changes the type of war.

[Theinquisition]

Meh, it will take a long time, but i wouldn't say that a breakdown of the social order is impossible.

All it takes is 6 missed meals and the whole thing falls apart.

I could see left wing terrorists creating IEDs to attack interstate shipping and highway systems which would bring commerce to a halt. Once the economy takes a dive, and the current social disorder intensifies....its gonna go quick.

Theres an entire study done by various military leaders and terrorism experts about this very scenario out there, im just to lazy to google it.

[Darknessvamp]

Hypothetically what's the chance on the American military splitting to support their favoured side in a civil war as citizen's are prone to do? Alternatively what's the chance of American Soldiers stealing equipment and defecting to an defined "opposing side" in a civil war if they feel that the full use of military against the people they are meant to protect goes against their moral obligations and passion for their country?

[tankbug]

If Trump and the repubes manage to fuck the non-rich, the educated, and the environment over for 8 more years, and the democratic party keeps leaning over to the right as to capture moderate reps, I'm sure a left third party will grow in strength and even challenge the democrats. But that's it. There won't be civil war.

[Mormolyce]

I doubt it, but with a fringe candidate with no self control in the White House, partisan tensions look set to become a permanent feature rather than an election year sideshow. That's going to strain people's patience.

I suspect there will be violence, one way or the other.

[Super Kami Dende]

It would be kind of silly to start a Civil War. Generally because one side would completely out gun the other.

[May90]

More divided than during the Independence War? More divided than during the Civil war? More divided than during the days of McCarthyism? More divided than during governmental racism in 60-s? Come on now.

Groups of people disagreeing with each other is the essence of democracy. That's what democracy is about in the first place; if the society is not divided, then democracy isn't needed, since there is no principal disagreements to compromise on. The more divided the society is, the better, because it means that the real discussion is going on and the society is moving forward as a whole. Unless the division reaches the point of people starting to fight each other physically, but the US is very far from it at this point.