Divide and Conquer

Lock and load my safety is off I'm ready and pissed off

 

I think I know where RH is trying to go with this. That "our tribe" has won an electoral victory, at the apparent expense of the other tribes, on this occasion, is not necessarily a victory for the nation: if the tribes themselves are not themselves united to a much greater purpose, than to just having the victorious tribe's values and policies imposed upon all the other tribes who lost the contest. The victory, if it can actually be considered as such, is an ephemeral one, as the same conflict will continue to be fought, and to come to a head in 4 years time for a re-match.

In a nation where the tribes are fundamentally divided, exists opportunities for those to exploit national, state and community disunities for darker purposes, that are not likely to be in the best interests in the nation as a whole. When one tribe denies the fundamental humanity of the other tribes, therein lay the seeds of such evils as genocide and exploitive bigotry.

 

chelloveck is right, we have become a nation of tribes, divided into groups, and each trying to dominate the others. In the process we are losing our national ethos and descending into anarchy, and this may well be the goal of some of the tribes. They do not want equal protection under law, they wish to write their own laws and make everyone else obey them. We have lost our common heritage and beliefs and now are supposed to exist as some grand coalition under a multitude of beliefs, our modern day version of the tower of Babel. The sad fact is that 90 % of those with a modern education will have to google it to find out what I mean by Babel. The most striking views in the protests last night were the burning of the US flag and the people carrying Mexican, etc flags. If you don't like it here go home.

 

Back to @RightHand's astute observation about the Democratic party. I think it's much broader than just the political system. We have let the media and the census catagories us and thus divide us.

We all have room for diversity. Diversity of color race, sex, geographic location , and political idealogy. What is missing is a common goal we can all agree on.

My hope is that Trump will find one great common goal that we can all get behind that doesn't invite war. But I am afraid we as Americans don't come together well unless our nation is physically threatened.

The president elect could make himself a great leader if he could find one unifying goal for our country

 

We won a battle not a war. There are many battles that will follow and I fear many will not be at the ballot box.

 

this is starting to feel like the calm before the storm I get the strange feeling there is going to be a shit storm coming god I pray that I am very wrong

 

History may not repeat...but it does sometimes rhyme.

In 1860 Lincoln won only 40% of the popular vote and 180 (152 needed) electoral votes to win the election. Only six weeks after his election South Carolina seceded from the Union and by the time of Lincoln's Inauguration, before he could actually DO anything as President, 6 other states had seceded. Today, mere days after Trump was elected, before he's actually DONE anything, we're seeing rioting in the streets and calls for secession by California and Oregon.

Here is a passage from an 2010 article by Shannon Jones called "150 years ago: The election of Abraham Lincoln touches off secession crisis" that can be easily collated with what is happening today: (my comments in parenthesis) & bolding is mine:

The delicious irony is that these snowflake Idiocrats who so hate the Confederate flag and all the Confederacy stood for are pretty much behaving exactly as those folks did in 1860.

 

Piffle

(Some) Alaskans have been pushing for secession for decades.

Ain't changed a thing.

 

The only other things I can think of besides war that united us was Kennedy taking us to the moon and our competiveness in all things against the Soviets but even these can be argued...

But, Chello and RH and others are right about this because in truth all it does is weakens us as a nation... But, I fear those days of us being a united nation are gone - completely - and never to return. I did not realize how hateful and spiteful these so called 'progressives' or 'liberals' truly were until after the election and the rioting started. They hate us, pure and simple. And, what is really funny is many of the things they hate about us are not even real!

I have seen such a split once before. It was during the Vietnam war when after many years of conflict half the nation wanted us out and the other half wanted to 'stay the distance.' It also tore us apart but even it was NOTHING like it is now. They. Hate. Us. To them, we are evil and should be eradicate or, at the very least, shackled with laws and regulations that ensure we are helpless. What is also funny is I really don't hate them. I think they are idiots, misguided, and naïve but I do not hate them...yet, but give it time.

The environment makes one consider what it was like in 1861 and prior...I have this feeling it was much the same. It took a war against each other to reunited the nation, nothing less worked.

 

If Alaska secedes then I'm moving there! Hell, if some of those members of the UN can be a nation then so can Alaska.

EDIT: What would be better is if California seceded and all the whackos moved there!

 

What would it take?






and even at that , I still have my doubts.

 

Divide and Conquer has been a strategy for over 2000 years....saw a thing on Facebook, one of the Screwtape Letters, which specifically mentions using politics as a way to keep people from being a positive influence, by ensuring they believe that everyone else and the 'system' is the problem, not themselves.