Obama ran his duplicitous campaign on “hope and change” with an underlying theme of bringing Americans together, or so the politically ignorant thought. Ironically our first black president did more to destroy race relations and divide the nation than any other politician in recent memory… up until that point in time anyway.
Trump came along next and, surprisingly to the left, won the oval office. The absolute hate and venom spewed at the man who actually brought far greater prosperity to most Americans (especially those of color), energy independence, and stability and greater prospects for lasting peace in the world was demonized by teeth-gnashing leftists.
And then Biden tripped up the steps to the White House. Here is a man with a long history of racist comments, no significant accomplishments, and as former Obama defense Secretary Robert Gates so aptly characterized as having “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Add to that an unmatched penchant for corruption and apparent cognitive degradation while systematically seeming to be in a hurry to finish the “fundamental transformation” of America that Obama promised, and the chasm between right and left has widened to the point of being irreparable today.
We often hear talk about this un-spannable divide these days with folks on both sides of the chasm wondering if a new civil war is coming. There does indeed seem to be damned little to suggest that we can fix this divide and unite our nation once again. How does one find common ground when many of the points of contention are diametrically opposed and argued so vehemently?
The self-declared “party of science” believes men can become women and vice versa. They believe that men can menstruate, while the other side knows that it is a biological fact that this only occurs to women. They think that men should be able to compete in sports as girls, while the other side sees the absurdity, dangerousness, and unfairness of this charade.
The leftists believe that being “colorblind” is a racist notion while the other side happens to believe what that great “racist” Dr. Martin Luther King believed in that being colorblind was the antidote to racism and that character is what matters.
How are we to bridge the chasm between those that think the murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping of innocent men, women, and children in Israel which surpassed even the Nazi regime with their glee of doing so is morally superior to the Israelis wanting to only live in peace instead of constantly being attacked by Hamas, Hezbollah, and myriad other Iranian-backed morally-repugnant terrorists?
In the middle of this truly existential crisis where the people of Israel are fighting for their very existence so as to live in their country in peace and freedom, it seems that President Biden and his political allies, including Senator Majority Leader and ironically Jewish Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), are making efforts to overthrow the elected prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, by calling for new elections. These activities are nothing but a cynical attempt to influence Muslim voters in key states during America’s upcoming election. Leftist think this is permissible or even good, while the other side sees this for the morally detestable political chicanery that it is.
How are we to reconcile the divide between those who believe young children should be brought to drag queen shows and those who believe this hyper-sexualization of our children is morally despicable?
What about those that think defunding the police will reduce violent crime and help curb racism over those that fall victim to the surge to such crime in areas where such policies have been enacted?
And what about those that think “defending democracy” means to try and throw up any roadblock imaginable to ensure an opposing candidate or issue is unable to get on a ballot for the people to decide? So, if a majority of the citizenry wants and votes for a particular value or candidate deemed conservative, democracy is “threatened” according to the left? Isn’t that the very definition of democracy—the candidate or policy with the most votes wins?
How are we to bridge the divide between those who believe in suppressing free speech if they deem any given speech as “hateful” or “misinformation” and those who believe in actual free speech, even when they disagree with it?
What about those that think cutting off healthy body parts of our still-developing children and injecting dangerous cross-sex hormones and hormone blockers into them in the name of “gender affirming care” with those that see this as genital, psychological, and bodily mutilation of our children?
Ironically the Left never perceives itself as imposing its values, and yet it was largely the Left that forced as many Americans as possible to get the frequently harmful COVID-19 vaccine and to utilize ineffectually-proven masks in public. The Left forced young people who were at minimal risk from the virus to get vaccinated and forced children to miss school for nearly two years. How do we bridge that gap with the other side that saw this as hyperbole, governmental over-reach, and unacceptable intrusion into personal choice.
And speaking of “choice”, how do we ever bridge the gap where one side thinks abortion on demand up until the time of birth should be a woman’s right to choose her own “reproductive health care” and the other side’s acknowledgement that this is a human life that is being slaughtered on the altar of “choice”?
Finally, leftists either deny Biden’s corruption and
accepting of bribes despite a mountain of evidence in support of the facts or
they simply think it doesn’t matter as long as Trump doesn’t return to
office. The other side may not support
Trump but they think that bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors committed by our president matter
and that Biden should be impeached and removed from office for such deplorable
violations of trust accordingly.
This is just a partial list of some of the greatest arguments that divide our nation, and every last one of these positions is mutually contradictory. It is ironic that those that hold these diametrically-opposed positions on either end of the issues also acknowledge that these are unbridgeable.
I wish I had a solution to bridge this divide, but like those flipping me off on the other side of the chasm, I am not willing to compromise on these core values. And neither are they. So, what happens from here? Does the chasm only widen, the rhetoric become even more heated, and eventually the violence in support of opposing ideas finally come to horrible fruition? Does the nation divide into blue and red states of separate nations?
Sadly, it seems that the Left-Right divide we are seeing today is at least as great as the Union-Confederacy divide before and during the Civil War. Ironically the only thing that remains the same is that it was the Democratic Party that opposed freedom then, and it is the Democratic Party that opposes freedom today.
16 comments:
i agree with all you wrote. Just a very sad time.
"the man who actually brought far greater prosperity to most Americans"
Trump's job creation record was pretty weak compared with Clinton or Obama even if you ignore the part of his term after Covid-19 started.
"while the other side happens to believe what that great “racist” Dr. Martin Luther King believed in that being colorblind was the antidote to racism"
But it's Republicans who are trying to make it harder for Black people to vote, and are attacking DEI and affirmative action.
"In the middle of this truly existential crisis where the people of Israel are fighting for their very existence"
Ukraine is also fighting for its very existence and it's the Republicans who are trying to cut off aid to it. I don't see any Democrats admiring Hamas but Trump openly admires Putin.
"those that think “defending democracy” means to try and throw up any roadblock imaginable to ensure an opposing candidate or issue is unable to get on a ballot for the people to decide"
It's Republicans who are pulling every trick they can to keep abortion rights ballot initiatives off the ballot.
"how do we ever bridge the gap where one side thinks abortion on demand up until the time of birth should be a woman’s right to choose her own “reproductive health care” and the other side’s acknowledgement that this is a human life that is being slaughtered"
The left doesn't need to worry about bridging that gap, you're just going to keep losing elections as long as you take this attitude.
"leftists either deny Biden’s corruption and accepting of bribes despite a mountain of evidence"
If there was a mountain of evidence of this the Republicans would have used it to impeach Biden.
It's always easier to see the mote in the other guy's eye than the beam in your own.
Rain, it is indeed a sad time and likely to become worse before it gets better, my friend.
Alexander, first let me say thank you for your comment.
First, Trump did actually create lots of jobs and brought back manufacturing jobs to the US to boot until the pandemic hit. It was his policies, especially when it came to energy independence, that caused that sector of the market to boom.
Biden has the audacity to claim that the millions of people that lost their jobs during the pandemic shut-down and then started returning to work when it ended was due to something he did. His inflationary policies and foolish economic choices, especially when it comes to green new deal crap has likely tempered the possible growth of employment. Indeed, looking at the numbers of people that have given up and are no longer searching for jobs in the labor pool has increased during his “leadership”, sir.
Next, regarding racism, much of that is nothing but propaganda and crap. Republicans want voter ID to ensure that only legal citizens can vote, a fact that interestingly enough even a majority of Americans of color support. Take the voter laws enacted in Georgia after the chicanery of the last presidential election. Corrupt Joe called those voter reforms “Jim Crow 2.0”, and yet record turn-outs for all Georgians occurred in the following mid-term and nearly all Georgians of color responded favorably or very favorably to the changes. As for DEI and affirmative action, I would submit to you that THOSE are the RACIST policies. It is RACIST to tell someone they cannot get help or a job or succeed because of their color unless the government mandates it. That may have been the case in the 60’s but not today. The best person should be hired for any job, regardless of their sex, color, or creed. It should be based on their merits. Somehow that whole judging by the “content of their character” is still a “racist” idea to the left.
Regarding Ukraine, I think most Republicans would be fine supporting aid to Ukraine to continue fighting the vile Putin regime; however, they simply want some accountability of the billions spent there. The corruption in Ukraine is amazing. Putting some restrictions and accountability to ensure the money doesn’t go to corrupt Oligarchs and such seems reasonable. The US has spent more money helping Ukraine fight Russia than the entire amount spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after WWII. Why is the left’s solution to everything to simply throw more of other people’s money at the problem?
Oh, and I see a LOT of Democrats admiring the terrorists of Hamas, including Omar, Tlaib, and the rest of the squad members sitting in federal offices. Biden’s attempt to call a cease fire so that Israel cannot finish eradicating these terrorist vermin and freeing their hostages is a prime example of those on the left supporting Hamas.
As for abortion, a majority of even those that support the dirty euphemism of “choice” are against the barbaric third trimester abortions that every Democrat in the Senate has championed. I will happily lose every damned election from this day forth by supporting the right to life of the unborn if that is what is to happen. I’d far rather answer to God for that position than for the opposite, sir.
Next, as I have pointed out recently and despite the mountain of evidence readily available by a myriad of credible sources outside the left-wing sycophantic media, the left choses to bury their heads in the sand to prevent themselves from seeing it. Fear not though, the margin is so slim in the House and the number of cowardly Republicans so great that there will not ever come a vote on articles of impeachment no matter how much undeniable evidence is presented. This is why Comer is expecting to file criminal charges instead once Biden’s term ends. And if by some miracle there was an impeachment, the leftist controlled senate would never take up a trial of the disgustingly corrupt Biden.
“It's always easier to see the mote in the other guy's eye than the beam in your own.”
Let me assure you, I am well aware of the hypocrisy, cowardice, and corruption that is rampant in the Republican party. In fact, it is only surpassed by that in the Democrat party. Regardless, when it comes to those intractable diametrically-opposed issues I listed, I will stand with the Right for those ideals of freedom, justice, and doing the morally right thing rather than the selfish, unnatural, and sometime evil things that the left champions.
Again, I do appreciate your comment and explanation of your viewpoints, Alexander.
Thank you for responding with detail and civility. I hope I myself haven't gone too much out of line on the civility area. Political disagreements can get a bit heated sometimes. I always read your responses to my comments even if I don't reply to them.
I would question about racism being "propaganda and crap". Have you ever had a conversation with a Black person about their own experiences with racism? If you're white it's easy not to be aware.
About Ukraine aid, very little cash gets sent there. What we're sending is weapons. The dollar figures you hear being talked about in congress refer to the value of the weapons. The money being spent is spent inside the US, on manufacturing weapons to send there, or to replace the ones we send. It's not surprising if Ukraine is corrupt, though a lot less corrupt than Russia, but we aren't sending them actual money to spend as they please, or not much.
“How does one find common ground when many of the points of contention are diametrically opposed and argued so vehemently?”
There is an answer to your question, Darrell.
But those who BELIEVE Trump is an honest man cannot even consider it.
“How does one find common ground when many of the points of contention are diametrically opposed and argued so vehemently?”
Only authoritarian fascists can find common ground with Trumpists like these thugs.
War Room host Steve Bannon said they will jail “demonic” Democrats if Trump wins a second term.
Trump insider Mike Davis: “I’m going to be Trump’s viceroy of D.C. because I don’t like democracy.”
The answer to your question is here:
http://www.davedubya.com/2024/03/common-ground.html
I have spoken.
Alexander, Dave Dubya in the comments above who cleverly thinks he is getting one by me by using a different name, is one of the aforementioned people that had been banned from this site. He refuses to abide by my restrictions on him because he simply wants to take things out of context that I have said and continue to call anyone that would vote for Trump a thug, racist, or Nazi. He has repeatedly tried to goad me back into debate with him on other sites, but I figure that those that are truly interested in the truth will read my own words and be able to see who is telling falsehoods.
Oh, and Trump is anything but a honest man. He is a poor excuse for a presidential candidate. The problem is that the one we currently have in office has proven to be even more dishonest, corrupt, and foolish. In fact I voted for the constitution party candidate when Trump first ran.
Against my better judgement, I am going to briefly respond to you, Dave, even though I have repeatedly asked you to leave my site. I guess comment moderation may have to make a reappearance on my site.
So, basically your answer is that until conservatives stop supporting Trump, this gap can never be crossed. Got it. We must think and believe like the hate-America, pro-child-mutilation, and abortion-on-demand-up-until-birth leftists do or we will remain divided.
Well, speaking for myself, I will side with what is morally right and God teaches and take my chances there rather than side with the worldly Marxists on the left. THAT is what is truly ripping our nation apart. In a generation we have gone from “We just want to be able to marry who we love,” to nowadays when the pro-LGBTQIAMNLOP mafia intimidates people in the street with chants of “We are coming for your children!” Why do you think it is a right to try and sexualize our children? That is sick and perverse on so many levels.
Trump is corrupt according to the left, and in many aspects he is, but he has not taken bribes from our enemies, intentionally undermined our allies (especially those fighting for their very survival in the Middle East), emboldened our enemies of Iran and China, devastated the poorest among us with the inflation and asinine governmental green polices, and brought great instability to the world’s peace. And that is in addition to the moral and cognitive degradation with which Biden is terminally afflicted.
And how you twist your views into supporting decency, democracy, and our Constitution is truly what is an affront. I pray for some mental and moral clarity for you, sir.
I despise Trump. I do not think he is honest about a good many things. I did not vote for him in the primary yet again. All of that said, I have seen how Trump ran the nation and compared that to how corrupt Joe has done. The results are unassailably in Trump’s favor. The only reasons to vote for Biden is out of ignorance of the destruction he has done to our nation or a willful malevolence towards America itself. Where is the honor there?
Now please just go about your free speech elsewhere, sir. You can spew your hateful venom, out of context quotes, and outright fabrications of fact on your own platform. I do wish you well. I simply wish you felt the same towards wishing our collapsing nation well instead of ironically characterizing everyone that doesn’t sufficiently support your views as a Trump-loving Nazi. Yeah… ironically.
"Trump is corrupt according to the left, and in many aspects he is, but he has not taken bribes from our enemies, intentionally undermined our allies (especially those fighting for their very survival in the Middle East), emboldened our enemies of Iran and China, devastated the poorest among us with the inflation and asinine governmental green polices, and brought great instability to the world’s peace."
Trump has undermined NATO in many ways, including by threatening to have the US withdraw from it and not defend countries which he says are not spending enough. He is still pushing Congress Republicans to not help Ukraine. He groveled embarrassingly to Putin when he was President and still does. He acted like a giddy fangirl around Kim Jong Un. He tried to pull American troops out of South Korea which would have been bad for American security too. I know you admit that he was corrupt, but you don't seem to recognize how bad it was.
About Dave Dubya, it's your business who you ban from your blog, but there is a lot of truth in what he says, even though he's rude in the way he says it.
Alexander,
Thank you. I may seem rude, but I am responding to a radical Trumpist who endlessly and baselessly calls me a "Marxist who hates America". How rude is that?
Darrell,
You put words in my mouth when you said, ”So, basically your answer is that until conservatives stop supporting Trump, this gap can never be crossed. Got it. We must think and believe like the hate-America, pro-child-mutilation, and abortion-on-demand-up-until-birth leftists do or we will remain divided.”
Wow. What a cruel and hateful insult. Disagreeing with Trumpists now means we are “the hate-America, pro-child-mutilation, and abortion-on-demand-up-until-birth leftists”. This is fascist level BS and hate.
And that wasn’t my answer at all. It was specific about BELIEVING Trump’s Big Lie. I get it. You’re avoiding defending the indefensible.
And I can’t expect you to show the integrity to quote MY words to dispute or to support your hateful accusations. And I’m sick of radical Right Trumpists hatefully and falsely calling those who KNOW he’s a liar and a criminal “Marxists”. Before you accuse me, QUOTE MY WORDS, or please stuff it.
The rest of my response to your dishonest and hate-filled comment is at my blog, where EVERYONE is welcome to read it and address it.
http://www.davedubya.com/2024/03/common-ground.html
Alexander, I agree that Trump was not diplomatic to say the least and should have gone about it in a much better way then he did when it comes to NATO. His bombastic methods were wrong; however, his underlying premise is correct. NATO member countries are required to pay a minimum 2% of their GDP on their national defense as a member state, in order to be a contributing member in a military conflict. Too many nations have joined NATO for the protection offered by the alliance and then intentionally not invested in their own militaries to support the alliance should a military need arise.
Trump came in and insisted that if countries were going to be members of the alliance, then they needed to pony up to their required financial obligations. If they refused to do so, then they shouldn’t be members of NATO and expect help from other nation states when a crisis comes. Doesn’t that seem fair to you?
Regarding Dave, I have tried for years to debate with him in good faith. He would go through phases where he would be decent and stay on point but there were far too many times when he would play the bully with ad hominem attacks and epithets towards others with whom he disagreed. There was even a left-wing gentlemen named Jerry whom I rather liked that used to comment on my blog that ran afoul of Dave for disagreeing with him on some point.
With Mr. Dubya, you either agree with him or you are a Trumpist authoritarian racist. I am all for a healthy debate of ideas and perspectives and welcome that. Unfortunately, some people want to devolve debate into a junior high school mean girls club. Those people can cite their nonsense and be bullies on their own platforms.
Since Mr. Dubya has no respect for anyone other than himself and those sycophants that are in lock-step with him, I guess I have to turn comment moderation on again. Dave, thanks again for your nonsense accordingly. I guess you can complain about me to your fellow travelers on your own blog. All future comments of yours will be deleted to the spam folder where they belong. I should have known better than to allow your nonsense to resume again under a new name.
Oh, and by the way, when I called you a communist, it wasn’t necessarily meant as a pejorative but rather more as a descriptive term. You support many of the very tenets of the communist creed according to what you have written in the past that are antithetical to America, its values, and its Constitution. So while you see that is retaliatory name-calling, I meant it only as classifier of your stated beliefs in big-government, anti-capitalism, anti-faith, and anti-family rhetoric. Regardless, I wish you well with your endeavors.
Darrell, did you see Dumbya's latest post? He really has a hard on for you. I was going to comment on his site and correct some of his BS but figured that asshat really wasn't worth the trouble.
Rex, chill with the names, sir.
And no, I don't visit his site. What would I possibly gain by doing so? I'm irritated with myself as it is for engaging with him again. One cannot have an adult discussion with him. This is something that evidently I have to learn multiple times, I guess.
"The leftists believe that being “colorblind” is a racist notion while the other side happens to believe what that great “racist” Dr. Martin Luther King believed in that being colorblind was the antidote to racism and that character is what matters."
Can you help me find a quote from a leftist who said, "being colorblind is a racist notion"? I can only find white conservatives using that term to indicate they are not racists. Like, "I have a black friend so I'm colorblind and not racist".
Also, can you please quote MLK saying, "being colorblind is the antidote to racism"?
I cannot find a single time he used the term "colorblind" that only white conservatives seem to embrace.
Can you please share your source of information?
Thank you.
Truth Seeker, here is one quote for you regarding colorblindness being equivalent to racism from the critical race theory leftist Ibram Kendi. Given the time or the motivation, I know I could find a myriad other. This one took all of two minutes to find.
"The moment people imagine themselves to be “colorblind” is the moment we stop identifying by race. The moment we stop identifying by race is the moment we cannot see racial inequality—Black and Natives peoples in the US being more likely than White people to be incarcerated, impoverished, killed by police, houseless, suspended from schools, unemployed, living in environmentally toxic neighborhoods, dying at childbirth and from pregnancy, dying of heart disease and cancer, etc. The moment we can’t see all this racial inequality and inequity and injustice is the moment we can’t see the structure of racism behind it. The moment we can’t see racism is the moment racism and White domination becomes eternal. Which is the point. Which has always been the point."
As for MLK, if you are looking for a verbatim quote of him using "colorblindness" as the antidote to racism, then yes you are correct that he never said that exact phrase; however, if you can understand the meaning of the words of his "I have a dream" speech, the whole point of it was that people would hopefully one day not see people as being a color but as being people. It is by a person's character that they should be judged and not by the color of their skin pigmentation. Understanding those words means that there are people of poor character of all races that we should reject, just as there are people of good character of all races that we should embrace. Doesn't that meet the very definition of having an antidote to racism?
Thanks for your comment.
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