If the government and media would honestly report Russia’s former and continuing cyber and misinformation warfare attacks on us, it would bring us together. I blame the media for not bringing the face of our enemy to the fore in a way that the average American could understand. It’s clear, per all US Intelligence, that Putin’s goal is to create confusion & division. He is mightily succeeding, and media is as much to blame as Trump & the GOP that so many people are unaware or skeptical of this fact.
5
This column is symptomatic of the problem. It lies all the blame on people who have suffered economic dislocation as a result of outsourcing to China, which Friedman has lauded on many occasions. In exchange for shipping our jobs to China, the elite has bequeathed us the opioid epidemic. SO yes, it is a matter of life and death
14
I can understand frustration with Mitch McConnell. But to pin contemporary partisan rancor mostly on him is naive and one-sided. I can match your claims of legislative brinkmanship on the part of McConnell with that of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. The moment they used reconciliation to ramrod the ACA through Congress was the day that I lost faith in our institutions. I am 29 and in my lifetime that moment was the 'shot heard round the world' that set off the partisan tit for tat we see now.
18
Now is when we need a true leader to pull the country together. Unfortunately we have Trump who will create more division because that is what is in his best interest. He has no problem tearing the country in 2 as long as it benefits him. Then there is Mitch McConnell who has torn up and tossed away the Constitution to make sure Republicans win no matter how it effects Democracy or Rule of Law. Both of these men are traitors to this country and will be remembered that way when history is written.
11
Civil war it is, but the left has a chance to fire a resounding blast this November. This vote means war. May the best side win.
11
Friedman nails this one perfectly.
But there are so many millions that are not paying attention and continue to be oblivious to what is going on. Too busy with their cell phones, going to work and doing their own stuff.
This is the tragedy really.
I would not be surprised if one way or another for some reason Tump cancels the 2020 elections and millions keep on going as if nothing happened.
Apathy to politics is our biggest problem.
10
Harry Reid changing the senate rules in 2013 was the lynchpin for where we are standing.
Calling the GOP “racist” every time they disagreed with President Obama’s was unforgivable.
The popularity of Mr Gingrich was a result of more than 3 decades of unopposed one party leadership in the House of Representatives.
Mr Friedman, you let the Democratic Party off the hook. It takes two to tango.
28
Wait - you're just seeing this now? You "feel" it was worse in the past than it is now?
Maybe your feelings have changed over the years. The division hasn't changed since then - no, more people are just realizing something that was already there, thanks in large part to the internet. The hatred, intolerance, bias, enmity, etc, has been with us a long time.
"A long time" was over 30 years ago. The phony "war on liberalism" was invented in 1984 and running full bore by the end of that year. It's been with us in its present state all that time.
In 1984, Rush Limbaugh broadcast his first politically themed talk show from Sacramento California radio station KFBK. That was the start and escalation of this "War on Liberalism."
How do you "feel" now?
17
I have been saying for years, the number #1 cause of our divide is highly partisan, false, media and media propaganda. If half the people who watch Fox News think Barack Obama was not born in the US, they will react like he's not legitimate. That news source is inciting strife. If people only see immigrants when one is arrested, not when one is celebrating inventing Google, many of them will equate immigrants with criminals. This constant propaganda barrage is intentional, and effective.
I have been to 48 countries, including China from 1986 on. The most effective propaganda I've seen anywhere is Fox News in the US. In China, for example, news is controlled and people have limited sources. In the US there are lots of choices. So Fox has to be REALLY GOOD at their propaganda, and they are. They learned long ago that millions of people would rather be told flattering lies than uncomfortable truths.
And their strategy to keep people fearful and hateful is of course not new at all. That's how you control people and deflect their attention while you rob them. The strategy was laid out by George Orwell in the 1940s. Teach them: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
47
Since we're all ganging up on Matt here, I am going to share with you all that my brother is a Trump supporter and a farmer. He is NOTHING like Trump in personality or wealth. He must listen to right wing radio on his tractors/combines, because he thinks Obama was a "pssy" in dealing with China where Trump is playing hardball. However, he is about to receive crop subsidies to win his and other farmers' votes who think they are being patriotic in regards to the disruption of current manufacturing realities when that ship has already sailed. Rural US is full of the religious right who THINKS it just wants to be left alone, but if it weren't for federal benefits (ag, Medicare paid into by younger generations, Medicaid), their communities would dry up and blow away. I know because I grew up there and do not care to return and actually EMBRACE the diversity I have experienced. The oligarchs are the ones creating all of this disruption for their benefit. Progressives don't want to live in culturally backward areas and don't care about disrupting their religion or guns.
60
Inevitable that America would become secular. Which has been upsetting evangelicals for a couple decades plus. It was especially disturbing to them when society finally accepted gay people and let them marry. When Obama won the presidency that was the last straw. They've been in scorched-earth mode ever since. American Democracy has betrayed evangelicals, so they are willing to dismantle it.
11
I absolutely agree with the diagnosis but half of the symptoms are ignored.
To lay these things on the feet of republicans and those who vote for them (I am solid independent who rarely ever says a kind word about the gop) is, well, in an effort to actually get my comment posted I shall say "not brave" and "not honest".
If you think that in any difficult circumstance between peoples that there are very many times where the guilt split is wider than 60-40 I assure you that reality is a place you need to visit, soon.
The political parties and the media are what is splitting us and this split was glaring before the 2016 election. President Trump was merely the first "politician" to illuminate it it in a way that most of us found credible. I tired of the limbaugh's, foxnews and the gop operating at the height of hypocrisy long, long ago, and tuned them out. President Trump was the first one to firmly take on BOTH sides of the political aisle without a hint of being a political hypocrite, no matter what you think of him and his politics.
I will tell you all this much, I guarantee this country will become divided to the point of violence soon, IF we do not BAN BOTH political parties and all the players from the state and federal levels.
And the media.
Especially the media, because no gas chambers exist without a propaganda machine telling folks where to park the tanks and make the connections.
There is no choice here.
7
"What stops it? When a majority of Americans, who are still center-left and center-right, come together and vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it."
And words alone, like Senator Flake's, aren't enough. There must be action. And that means Senator Flake and any other Republican with guts must not give their party votes it wants, including approval of Judge Kavanaugh. Talk isn't just cheap, without action it's worthless.
13
Cut all federal funding for the taker states and get the deplorables off the blue state funded welfare they claim to despise. As trump is proving on tariffs, money talks and sometimes you have to remind people who is buttering their bread. Red states need to put their money where their mouths are, they are not the only ones competing in a globalized economy.
15
The reason that there are so many registered Independents is that, while acknowledging that you're never going to agree completely with a party position or a particular candidate, you have to also recognize that some positions are just plain suicidal. And most of the latter positions are held by the Democratic party. We cannot keep pretending that countries that hate our principles will send us sound future citizens, and please stop the endless arguments about why we really need people who have no skills to offer our economy. No excuse is too feeble; the Democratic party basically just wants to register future Democratic voters. We have to stop believing nonsense like we can do just fine without a manufacturing base; we'll consume, the overpopulated third world will produce. And remember that we got into this fix with North Korea and Iran by endlessly being told to swallow nonsense; my favorite lately is that Iran has any intention of not becoming a nuclear power in way less than 15 years. I have some quarrels with Republican dogma, particular in terms of shipping off jobs for decades, but it wasn't nearly as dangerous as the stuff the Democrats continue to hand out.
11
The Civil War Part 2 is just part of Trump's assignment to divide and conquer given his comprised role in The White House: (1) destroy U. S. trade relations internationally ; (2) destroy the
U. S. economy domestically ; (4) create political strife in the U.S. ; ( 5) create political strife between the U.S. and its allies ; (6) destroy the U.S. federal legislative system; (7) destroy the U.S. federal judicial system ; and (8) destroy the executive branch of the U.S. federal government. I will let the readers here decide to whom Trump owes his allegiance. It certainly is NOT the U.S.
7
Let's not go down that road - the "bad guys" have all the firepower. It would be the shortest civil war in modern history.
5
Uh, how does one come together with a political opponent that leaves a sticky residue of filth everywhere - everywhere? There is no common ground because it doesn't matter what side you're on or how you identify yourself, the others have something deeply wrong with them. It's obvious we're better than them and don't deserve their slanderous opinions about us.
We need to define something to work on together other than defending America from terrorists and immigrants. My only hope for TRUMP was the real estate developer's eye toward infrastructure. No plans so far.
The great national challenge is how to respond to climate change. There is no room for working together there when science has to contend with lies.
6
Here in CA there is some talk of an independent state. I say bring it on!
39
I see a positive future in all of this:
Evolutionist Stephen Gould’s notion of “punctuated equilibrium” prospects that systems have to reach critical points in order to suddenly shift to a new level (or paradigm) of advance—like shifting gears (or paradigm relativity in science, which has to exhaust its resources before seeing beyond its horizon).
Likewise in individual development: It’s empirically demonstrated that cognition of a higher stage happens before one is able to act at that stage; so, one regresses while learning to live up to a new level of ability to understand (viz. adolescent instability).
Rightism internationally could be like that: As ethnicities deal with the global unprecedentedness of their experience—as lives deal with unprecedented need for career flexibility—peoples have to re-engineer education, sense of community, etc., causing a period of regression precisely as the economy seems “too good to be true” (Chairman Powell).
It could be that democracy has never been healthier in America—in the unprecedented chaos of the digital polis. Everyone is watching, at last. It’s a circus. Figuring out how to manage it causes a brief era of tribal regression. But we may be on the way to a lovely new era of our increasingly tiny global village.
1
It is shocking how much of the blame for this collosal mess can be laid at the feet of Mitch McConnell. I fear there may be a shortage of Meat Hooks before this is all over.
7
"What McConnell did broke something very big." This point can't be emphasized enough. As a Democrat it enrages me and makes me want revenge. As an American it makes me fear for the fabric of the American republic that McConnell plunged his scabby claw through. I don't see the tear mending any time soon, only getting larger with every successive partisan battle.
102
Ford has two sons. If they were accused of attempted rape by somone who could not say where or when it happened, how she got home, had no police report, no physical evidence, no witnesses would she believe her sons or the "victim"?
Ford could be a reporter on UVA "rape" cases for Rolling Stone.
P.S. Trump again plays the media. The make the comments about Ford to distract from the tax stories about him/his family. And the media fell for it.
11
Violence will ‘solve’ the problem when people decide they just cant take it anymore. Aside from the lies we like to tell ourselves regarding our national ethos and origins, America has traditionally solved its problems with violence.
9
The GOP drew first blood and are the sole cause of the war. They denied Obama any cooperation - so far as to not even give his SCOTUS nominee a hearing. They gerrymandered the red states and stymied minority voters. They hold all branches of the federal government, despite the popular vote. And worst of all, they sold out their brand to the Trump regime. How can any reasonable person make peace with the GOP?
139
I'm sorry, Trump and his pack of jackals are the enemy. A woman comes forward with the most horrible relevation of her life, to earn derision and death threats, and the "leader", who proclaimed he was going to be the president of the whole country, mock her. This is past disagreements on policy issues. I disagreed with a lot of people on us invading Iraq, on the Bush tax cut, etc., but we didn't mock each other and yell craziness like "lock her up." They wouldn't have seen the invasion of our election process by a country led by a former KGB agent turned dictator as some kind of joke. They deride the effort to block Kavanaugh's confirmation as some example of dirty power politics, but yes, pray tell what they did when they prevented Judge Garland from even getting the courtesy of a hearing? I don't know how we got here, but it's clear that it's a choice of our way of life vs. theirs, and ours is infinitely better.
153
Now suddenly, when both center-left AND center-right Americans are finally saying, "enough is enough," we hear some news columnists saying, "Worry me, we may have gone too far," and "we can't find common ground," and "we are becoming tribal." While over the past twenty years when the Republicans were gerrymandering a new base of voters from the most isolated, dispirited, and white supremacist-leaning districts in America, these same warning bells weren't rung so loudly by these same columnists.
True, there is a very large group of people who are attempting to stand-together against the unilateral actions taken by Republicans to weaken our democratic institutions. This other-side does not deny the lessons of American victories over slavery and global white-supremacy, as with the American civil war and two world wars. This other-side does not denigrate the hard-won rights of women and persons of all colors and persuasions to be equal before the law, and to have equal access to voting. And no, this is not tribalism!
Instead, it is that these diverse Americans have already found a common ground, right in front of your eyes, Mr. Friedman. They stand together under the traditional American flag which represents "E pluribus unum". Unlike the wholly Republican-led voters who feel encouraged to display a tribal, yellow snake flag at their homes, and not coincidentally, are awaiting the further commands of a delusional snake-oil salesman.
6
Democrats and Republicans are as divided as they were in 1861.
KEY DIFFERENCE: In 1861, Democrats actually owned guns and more than a few could shoot.
Bear mace is no match for a 7.62mm NATO battle rifle...or, even a 5.56.
5
Distrust of russian intentions. Romney did exactly that and was ridiculed in presidential debate by Obama. Friedman knows this.
11
The war never ended, it was a war on abuse of religion to justify slavery. We made slavery illegal but failed to educate the people that the Bible is separate from our constitution and beyond that, the Bible is not corroborated by any evidence, nor is the torah of the quran.
Until religions are there, they will be used by the people with financial agenda to rile the "believers" whose belief they fortify at every turn using language and arts.
The divide is religious. Stop beating around the bush. Time to be bold enough and take an example today from those we learned for our constitution XII generations later. They don't have issues as critical as ours. They are more rational because religion is not part of their curricula at all.
4
There are a million ways to fix things (restore 60 vote requirement, reverse citizens united, abolish electoral college, fairness doctrine, etc.) but none will be enacted until old, white, racist Trump voters die off. I have resigned myself to just waiting for that to happen. If we are lucky we can make enough gains in the senate and house to slow the decline. I hope we can last that long, and that their children don't turn out to be equally ill informed and selfish.
12
Way to bury the lead, Thomas Friedman and editors. The first third of this column is hand-wringing "bothsides-ism." And putting a photo of women protesting in the Senate halls, instead of, say, a photo of a Trump or Tea Party rally is incredibly misleading. The women protesting the illegitimate takeover of the country's highest court are not the problem.
3
It is a culture war first and foremost.
3
The first two NYT picks comments stopped me cold. The first that I agree with because it asked why social justice demands inspire such persistent, vicious anger. And the second that answered "Because you want me to pay for others."
This same question has been asked since Cain and Able "Am I my brother's keeper?" And how you answer that will determine on which side you are on.
4
I for one believe the Vietnam era was progressively over time far more devisive than the current era. I recall being spit upon during the Vietnam War when in a Safeway in uniform and a young woman must have decided I was a baby killer. Remember 'Amerika'? Friedman's column contributes to the divisiveness by accentuating it as all media seem to be doing at present. Out and about doing my day to day business I meet friendly and courteous people, of all races and ages. I don't see a civil war brewing, I read about it.
3
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” To quote Walt Kelly’s Pogo.
2
Unfortunately, it seems that Mr. Friedman has completely jumped on the bandwagon of those who are pushing the dubious hysteria that the latest “-ism” (this time it is “Trumpism”) is either fueling this schism—which they call “tribalism”—in our polity or is a consequence of it.
But, the truth is that the United States was formed by original Thirteen states that suppressed their “tribalism” long enough to overthrow their common enemy and oppressor. Indeed, they never overcame their tribalism, at best, the Founding Brothers merely persuaded them to suppress their “tribalism” by convincing them that they are unique in history and that their political difficulties were not battles between “warring tribes” but are debates between “Federalist” and “anti-Federalist.” Presto,—America—“sui generis” among nations!
In fact, now, we have elevated their language and concepts, like “federalism,” “comity,” “states’ rights” into a kind of secular gospel to gloss over our “tribalism.” Viewed in this context, the American Civil War, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the Civil Rights Movement, and Antiwar Movement (the “longhairs” versus the “hard hats”) during the Vietnam War are clear examples of our “tribalism” reemerging.
Accordingly, I wish Mr. Friedman would have used less space telling us about the origins of “Trumpism” and more time space telling us how we can overcome our “tribalistic” heritage in this new high-tech and mass media environment.
2
Neither Republicans nor Democrats should be applauded, but vilifying only the Republicans is missing reality. Rural citizenns “think” the elite look down on them! If you were told you were deplorable what would you think? Also, the Democrats had eight years of Obama who certainly ddn’t slow down income inequality or desuade people from coming here illegally.
3
the majority of the comments here, and made to other articles proven the truth of what you have written.
No one seems to be offering solutions to close the divides.
The comment chosen by the Times to present at the end of the article is a good demonstration.
The fault lies with our information age that has no standards for proof or truth and our mass media connection addiction.
2
McConnell has a special place in history.
3
How convenient for a New York Times opinion columnist to completely ignore Mr. Obama talk about (white) people "it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment...". Ignore Hillary Clinton labeling people such as my late father as part of a basket of deplorables. Regardless of what you think, he was not deplorable for voting for Mr. Trump (by the way, I didn't vote for him). Ignore any one of a number of other quotes by the left about conservatives. State that it is all Newt Gingrich's fault. No one side is solely at fault; we are all at fault, regardless of what partisan leftists in the Times seek to claim.
6
No, conservatives see the liberals as the enemy; the liberals see conservatives as evil.
4
Ok, Tom. I stopped reading when you blamed it on the loss of a ‘sane Republican party’. Really? You think the Dems are sane? They’ve contrived this entire affair with Blasey Ford. They openly play by the rules for revolutionaries — and you obviously accept that. So if Republicans fight back they lack sanity. Yeah, right.
Deplorables observe and remember!
4
This just gets coarser and uglier every day. A friend who survived the Kent State shootings way back when was just telling about the near riot at Kent State last week, where a fascist open-carry gun rights group staged a march with their rifles. The students counter-marched and hundreds of police were called in to keep the peace. Yowsa.
2
I want it to stop! I blame Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, shock radio (Limbaugh, Hannity...), and the propaganda machine of Fox News. People who make their living by spewing hatred and division should be ashamed. It's horrific. It's creating enemies where there were none before. So tired of all this incivility...
13
The premise that "both sides" are guilty of destructive, divisive politics is an unhelpful fiction. While both the left wing and the right wing here have their radical "wing-nut" members, there's a crucial difference. The left wingnuts continue to make noise and yammer for attention without ever getting closer to their goals. The right-wing nuts, though, are running their party and are running our great country into a pit that sets progress back at least 20 years.
5
The gall of McConnell complaining (and lying) about the Democrats (respectful) questioning of Kavanaugh is over the top since he is the one who blocked Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court. That was the most partisan thing I have ever seen. Yes, it is ugly, but it is the Republicans who will do anything to retain power. They aren't interested in the what the majority of Americans want, just a sliver of exremists. It is sickening. My opinion of America is at an all-time low. I will now always suspect 1/3 of Americans approve of Russian interference in the election to defeat Hillary. They like ICE (our Gestapo). But, reading history most Americans approved of joe mccarthy after hs fall.
9
Your Premise is flawed. Almost 100% of the negativity and vitriol comes from the left. Conservatives are not marching, protesting, angry or making crazy last minute accusations. The left has gone certifiably insane here. We have an economy with almost 100% employment. Trade that benefits all Americans. A president and administration fighting to end racial biases at Universities. Things are better for the public than at any point since before the great depression. Liberals are losing their grip on society and are in panic mode. Kavanaugh should and will be confirmed. It is time that conservatives fight back against the constant smears of the ugly left. Notice, every picture of protesters going unhinged you run, is from the loony left that you support with this paper.
4
Part 11 of the American Civil War was on full display at trump's rally last night in the state of Mississippi. This hypocrite of a man choose to demean, degrade Prof. Ford's as easily as he demeaned a handicapped reporter at a past campaign rally. His display toward Prof.Ford, within a day when he claimed to be in sympathy with her revealing testimony, was in itself despicable. The only thing that topped that was the joyful and cheering mob of equally disgusting attendees at the event. The country is not divided, it's cracked seriously enough to reach violence.
15
nothing but a lot of snowflake whining moving upstream. Y'all need to realize it's about people, not parties. want a solution? Vote all incumbents out. Every Single One.
5
This is, hands down, one of the most biased opinion pieces purporting to have good intent that I’ve read in years.
"Between us and our president" - puts Everybody vs. Trump. "Fight between the white working class ... and [those] who embrace multiculturalism." - no "melting pot," eh? Men of "powers and privileges" vs. women. "Leaders ... led by Donald Trump" who fuel our divisions. - so Trump leads Reid, Schumer, Pelosi, Clinton & Dem identity politics?
The author blindly says it’s primarily the Republican’s fault – that you can’t blame both sides equally. He cites Gingrich and McConnell, but forgets Pelosi (pass the bill to see what’s in it), Reid (so I lied about Romney’s taxes; he didn’t win, right?), Schumer, and a dozen more.
“... Obama’s health care plan, which was based on Republican ideas” is simply a blatant misleading falsehood. The “mandate” and “tax” penalties, core to Obama’s plan, were never core Republican ideas.
In the end, he says it will only get better when Americans come together.
Yet he’s too blind to realize that his own essay – this very opinion piece – has in its body the very bias and “anti-other-side” accusations and put-downs that is the core of the fundamental problem! As long as folks like Thomas L. Friedman write opinions as biased, one-sided blaming, anti-Trump and anti-Republican as this, the divide will continue. Friedman doesn’t give us a prescription to fix the problem. Rather, he IS the problem, and doesn’t even know it!
4
Great editorial but you forgot 1 big factor: FOX NEWS. Before Murdoch started that modern day Politburo, most of our Democrat-Republican political were fought behind closed doors in D.C. and settled by moderate presidents and Congressmen. But then Fox began broadcasting those differences while adding more vitriol and hatred pumped daily into homes nationwide. That became laced with open prejudice by older conservative white men to the point that Fox has become the best thing since the KKK for white racists in the US. Now most of those followers can justify their prejudices by saying "I saw that on TV so it must be true." This worsened when Bush stole the 2000 election and made racist Dick Cheney the de facto president for most of the 2000s, and now we've got Bush on steroids with Trump who's pretty much a Senator Joe McCarthy in the White House and a direct beneficiary of the hate filled media. So we're definitely in another Civil War but this time the Confederates are winning every time they steal another election thru gerrymandering so they can load our court system with more neoconservatives who will continue to strip American society of our civil rights, human rights, environmental rights, and union rights. These men want to return the US back to the 1800s when old white conservative men had all the money and therefore the political power so everyone else had to act subservient to them.
5
I think where Jerry Falwell (and all the Fakevangelicals) get it wrong is that while it's true Christians would never tell Caesar how to run Rome, they also would never vote for Caesar or campaign for him.
that's the insidious lie and misconception that underlines everything they do and stand for!
1
How could he write this article and not mention Fox news?
The thing that gets me is that Rupert Murdoch is not even an American.
8
There will always be parasites like McConnell willing to do the bidding of greedy oligarchs and making themselves wealthy in the process. The more economically oppressed the republican base gets the more susceptible they become to culture war garbage spewed by demagogues like Trump. There seems to be no end to this perversity.
4
Well, call me crazy, but it seems to me that Kavanaugh's performance was disqualifying. I don't think that I'm being partisan by saying that. I see this as a republican problem. They should ALSO being seeing his performance as disqualifying. Instead they're afraid of their constituents, truly afraid. Its pathetic.
16
It's not a repeat of our Civil War. It's more like the Thirty Years' War of post-Reformation Europe or even the horror of Rwanda. All superstitious fear of other people's superstitious violence, fed by lying fanatics in control of information. If the Trumpsters were completely wiped out politically their supporters would lose exactly nothing. Nothing real. This is like trying to negotiate with a mental hospital dorm full of schizophrenics.
I was wondering when the media would realize that we are in the middle of a civil cold war that had been going on for over a decade, and is now threatening to get hot.
4
What is lost ; the soul of our nation ; the media circus....is this
what the cause is media spin to gain advertising dollars....yes it is.
What is lost: the souls of those who traded a seat in the GOP
houses of Congress; and why...well their campaigns are funded by
SuperPacs funded by the wealthiest ...the one percent of all of
our voting masses.
What is lost:...the pertinent messages of past Presidents; Historians: the orator who can correctly persuade the undecided
voter
What is lost: the desparate desire for truth...
What may be found: People who respect the virtue of truth;
People like Martin Luther King; and now Bob Mueller...
So...
Tom Friedman....I say look to the backstage; back pages of the past...and write more...as you do so well...and speak out for what
we can keep depending on...journalists like yourself...so speak out...please today and tomorrow. Thank you for being so truthful
4
I'm a Wyoming Republican who now views Amerika as a fascist-governed, bankrupted and socially collapsing global military empire.
I now have a home in New Zealand (which last month passed a law preventing the rest of you from joining me there)
4
Every single one of my splits from my former friends was because they were saying insane things, and then telling me that I was insane for not believing their insanity. How am I supposed to get along with someone who swears that President Obama was born in Kenya, and is an Islamic terrorist sent to destroy the United States from within? How am I supposed to get along with someone who says that Obama was invading Texas? That Obama murdered Supreme Court Justice Scalia? How am I supposed to get along with someone who tells me that a million Mexicans a day have crossed over our border the entire eight years of Obama's two terms? Yeah.... Do the math on THAT one! How am I supposed to get along with someone who tells me that Hillary is running a child porn ring out of a pizza parlor basement? How am I supposed to get along with someone who says that Hillary had death squads murdering political opponents? How do I get along with someone who denies Trump said something, when I have Trump saying that very thing on video....and Trump bragging about saying that very thing on subsequent videos.....and the people around Trump, also on video, discussing the thing that he said? Tell me how we're supposed to get along in this insanity?
6
Senator David Perdue (GOP -GA) and his wife were physically accosted by members of a group funded by George Soros & that democrats are provoking protestors to harass Republicans calling it “open warfare”. Perdue said that this is not the American that he came to serve. More evidence that anti-rule-of-law and anti-Democracy elites cannot accept reality as it is.
2
China stops it.
It does not matter which side you are on if the ship is sinking, there are no life rafts, and the captain is an angry raging idiot bent on saving only himself.
5
Each party is a tool of set of elites jockeying for power. If you think they actually care about the issues, you are mistaken for the vast majority of the elite class. They say they care and may have minions who believe their blather but the current uproar is between segments of the well to do.
Watch John Kerry, a prep school graduate (a school with a rape culture) and John Kavanaugh, a prep school graduate with what seems to be a sexist cultural background. That's the ruling class.
So one plays to minorities (yes, we will support you so you can become our legal cheap labor and servants), the other plays to control abortions and supports gun rights.
It's a hoax. The arrogance of Trump or McConnell is easily matched by watching well dressed Hillary Clinton at the Atlantic discussing how women should be .... - while she and her cohorts played every card in the same manner as Trump when her meal ticket and path to power was a monster towards women. Watch the support for Keith Ellison with blather from a Senator as she attacks Kavanaugh. Guess what both gentlemen are not worthy.
I have an idea - forget about abortion control and gun control. I don't need preppy elites watching over my crotch or holster. You really don't care about babies or shooting victims. You just want to drink expensive imported water in your campaign suites.
McConnell - despicable. Feinstein - played an atrocious card for her purposes.
Only the tribal can't see this. A plague on both.
3
How stupid is this clown. We used to have “a sane Republican party”. Yeah, the Democratic party is sane, right? Socialism ( has worked nowhere), identity politics pitting blacks against whites ( even the Dems have done zero for blacks because it’s not in the Party’s interest to do so), women against men, etc, etc, etc. The Democratic party thrives on divisiveness and hatred. As long as they keep down the people they rely upon to hold power, they’ll be alright. But one day the masses will figure out that all the Dems ever cared about was being Carlos Danger.
3
That's the most one sided opinion piece I have ever read. You've done a great job of supporting the tribalism you so despise.
4
Sure the GOP is led by a lunatic and has veered to the extremes, but to ignore the similar moves by the Dems just undercuts your argument - the radical lefts recent call to abolish ICE or Obama’s decision to jam the healthcare bill down the Country’s throat without a single republican vote are just two examples of a list that could match any other GOP grievance you’ve listed. The fact remains that both parties are led by their extremes, their both corrupt, and they’ve both been largely incompetent for the last two generations. The single reason that Trump, a lifelong Democrat, got the Republican nomination and won in 2016 is because both parties have failed the vast majority of Americans for so long that they actually gave this idiot a chance. There is only one way out of this mess. Marginalize the far left and far right by forming new political parties. If we don’t we are heading towards the Civil War that Friedman suggests
3
why?? why you ask has this happened??? I WILL TELL YOU, IT IS THAT WE ALLOWED FOX NEWS TO SPREAD RADICAL PROPAGANDA, LIES AND HATE DISGUISED AS A NEWS PROGRAM. WE NEED TO SHUT DOWN THE FOX PROPAGANDA MACHINE
3
This is all child's play. Just wait until Democrats take the House, and possibly the Senate, and start investigating, with subpoena power, that piece of human waste in the White House six ways from Sunday.
3
Did you just throw the great John McCain under the bus with that last sentence? You should be ashamed of yourself if you were referring to him.
You’re a part of it.
4
I think, after nearly 2 years of Trump and a Republican party hell-bent on destroying every single good thing government can do, that President Lincoln was mistaken in his decision to fight to keep the South in the Union. The country was much smaller in 1860, and still the differences proved to be too great. The country is bigger now, and the differences are even greater. I don't see any middle ground anymore. Thirty years ago there were more moderates in both parties who worked to get things done. But the current incarnation of the Republic party (one I no longer recognize as the same GOP from my youth) is petty, small-minded, fosters hatred and divisiveness. Both parties are guilty in that they truly serve only their corporate masters, not the average person.
Other countries/empires eventually declined and fell, or got too big to govern effectively, and split up. I think we are at that point now. The 242 year experiment is over; we've become a third-world banana republic rather than continuing the ideals and potential leadership we demonstrated after WWII. So I'm inclined to let the South go. They can secede and create the kind of intolerant theocracy they want to impose on the rest of us, one filled with hatred for anyone who is not a white, rich, Christian male. Blacks, Muslims and Jews, and especially women need not apply.
We are not to the point of opposing armies in blue and grey shooting at eachother, but we are dangerously close.
6
You are soooooo right.....
Jeff Blake has become some kind of a hero. He is the Republican who may have saved the Republicans from themselves. He is a hero who is unafraid to speak his mind and is not silent to Trump's destruction of our political discourse. He talks of tribalism which is tearing us apart. But his heroism is way too late. He has the nerve only when he has decided he will not seek another term, when he's sure he won't have consequences to pay or be damned. His remark, " Sure. If I was seeking another term I'd be voting with the Republicans. " To me that sums up his cowardice. Once a tribal, always a tribal.
1
A necessary column
1
The Democrats should go back to being the party of labor, and they should delegate all other causes to second class status. How about:
1. No one who works for a living goes bankrupt for health care reasons. Make that the new form of the minimum wage.
2. E-Verify becomes the law of the land. No undercutting the wages of our own citizens.
3. A national labor union that every working man and woman can opt into. Divide this union into 50 independent chapters for the 50 states.
4
Reversion to tribalism is not confined to the US but is highlighted there because your President appeals to it to solidify his support & magnify the importance of the transactions he's trying to close. Such stoking of tribalist passions might help close deals (& sometimes not help) but, in either case, it gives further depth & impact to a reservoir of anxiety, frustration & anger that clouds the US domestic & international scene.
The root cause of growing tribalism throughout all the modern, advanced nations is a growth of status uncertainty felt by large segments of the population in these countries in the wake of recent, rapid developments in IT, robotics, economic patterns, globalization, mass migrations & changing roles for members of age cohorts, men & women & of ethnic & religious groups, prospects for regions & industries, & the cumulative impact of those & other disorienting life-altering changes.
People turn to tribalism to fill the void in their lives generated by status uncertainty caused by an inability to find meaning in a world that, from their perspective, changes too fast & in too many ways.
The first step to dialing back this tribalism is to (a) build a general understanding that tribalism is endemic & rooted in the current nature, pace & span of change in people's lives, & (b) increase realization that nihilism & hostility compounds & doesn't aid us to deal with the root causes of our underlying anxiety, frustration & anger.
3
I'm a liberal and like most liberals, I'm anything but tribal.
I want EVERY one to have health care, easy access to the voting booth, equal educational opportunities, equal pay.
Tribal are those who want things only for their clan, or who want to impose their doctrines on others ( Hey, if you don't want equal pay or health care , turn it down)
4
You forgot high skilled-low wage jobs. Plenty of those too.
1
As a people we seek and expect change. The problem is that change is not always positive. For instance, while the presidency of FDR was a good change after Truman, however, the subsequent swing into McCarthyism was not a good change. Indeed, that proved so disruptive that the "system" eventually turned upon it and extinguished it - until now. Once again, like with McCarthy, we have a demagogue in Trump. He rouses crowds to fever pitch by playing on their worst instincts. Like with McCarthy, we have a disruptive and mob-pandering man in Trump. Like McCarthy, Trump knows no limits and cannot yet forsee the future of his movement. With some luck and time on our side, Trumpism will be cast into the dustbin of history. Hopefully, Trump will stand for a cautionary tale, as a warning to future generations that America and demagogues are not mutually compatible.
It bears repeating that when we started cutting back on aid to education and stopped teaching civics in schools years ago, some people cheered on the lack of funds because they didn't want to pay for other people's children to go to school; that is when we began stirring the recipe for current divisions. I believe there's a group of people in this country who don't want a highly educated population because uninformed people are more easily manipulated. They may not sit all together in a backroom plotting, or even communicate with one another all that much, but they're out there, and they've done a great job convincing people to vote against their own interests.
We know this perfectly well, but school funds are attacked all the time. We should find a new, national way of funding education, instead of taking it out of property taxes. Whatever it costs, even if we have to give up road repair and to go back to getting around in a horse and carriage, we should at all costs be certain that every child capable of going to school has at least an equal amount of money spent on their basic education, more if they are struggling. I'm convinced that until that happens our current divisions will only get worse.
13
I’ve been thinking this for at least 10 years now. I e got a brother who believes in Trump and our relationship is in tatters, and we only communicate when a family member has health problems, etc. I’ve tried to reason with him and find common ground to no avail. The same with friendships. Many have ended because of this.
Once you realize there’s no reasoning with these fanatics, and getting out and voting the republicans out of office, will we begin to turn this country around to a better direction.
17
"When a majority of Americans, who are still center-left and center-right, come together and vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it"
This is indirectly blaming both sides. The left, not center left, has not remotely been as outrageous as the right. The left wants a different distribution of the riches of the country - of which no one can sanely argue that the current situation is working when one family (the Waltons) owns more wealth than the bottom HALF of the country combined! Whereas the off the rails right (not the center right) wants certain people to be denied their civil rights. I'm sorry but there's absolutely no comparison, this is apples to oranges.
19
The over arching theme that is behind all of what is going on in our society is the fact that the median wage has remained flat since 1972 - even though GNP has gone up 150% since then. This is the legacy of supply side economics.
In the 30 years prior to 1972 GNP went up 100% here & world wide & each groups income went up in lock step with that increase: poor, working class, middle class, upper middle class, upper class & rich - both here & overseas. Each group saw their income double in those 30 years.
Alone in all those groups we see declining well being & health for white working class people & a visious opioid epidemic. That’s because they started at a high plateau.
As a result, I don’t think the problem is the decline of white privilege, its 45 years of stagnation in an economy that’s more powerful than its ever been. It is natural & sane to have a rising level of expectations for the future. Some call that optimism, others hope. This becomes impossible in the face of nearly 5 decades, a half century of stagnation.
This stagnation is the result of decreased bargaining power.
It is unfortunate that many who suffer from this stagnation place their votes in the party that has caused this stagnation the most: the GOP (though a trend that long requires complicity from both parties)
This situation won’t change unless you vote to increase your bargaining power: a return to demand side economics. In the last election the only candidate advocating demand was Bernie Sanders
10
I was just noticing the other day how even our rhetoric in discussing these matters has changed. A statesperson used to be referred to, or addressed as, "Title, Name, Home State, (Party)" and now I'm almost always hearing "Party, Title, Name" or worse- the faceless/nameless "Party, Title..." as if drones, commanded to obey orders of their self-serving tribal leaders.
Thanks to Thomas Friedman for eloquently exploring and relaying this danger, as well as the call to support our centrists- not to be confused with moderates. Centrists, as Senator Flake is proving- opinionated (a staunch conservative), but employing reason, pragmatism, respect and consideration for the greater process. They are the dwindling opposition to radicals, across the spectrum (DNC Chair Schultz an equal to Sen McConnell), determined only to "win" in their own tribal self-interests.
2
The difficulty with the next civil war will be in finding people who want to preserve the union. What are we preserving but a marriage of incongruous viewpoints? Common ground is like Mitch McConnell's chin, it simply isn't there and there's no point in pretending it is.
21
@m. kratz: Putin's torpedo has struck the USS USA amidships.
2
Support Republicans and conservatives? Never. Work with Republicans and conservatives? No way. Not anymore.
Will it make a difference? No. Climate change and its consequences are going to determine policy in the next two decades.
12
@flyfysher
There are a million things which will destroy this country long before climate change ever accomplishes 1/10 of the same destruction.
As long as our politics are a choice between only two parties and the media are fanning the flames there is the same chance that your pet issue is addressed as there is mine.
The two party system has brought us to the point of no return if we continue with it.
1
@flyfysher Policy won't solve climate change. That is up to advanced science. Everyone says they are environmentally friendly, until you ask them to put their money where their mouth is. They'll buy a shirt from China, the most destructive nation on earth, as long as it's $ 1 less than the friendly option.
2
I do not think there can be medium skilled high paying jobs in a globalized economic system where jobs go to the lowest paid worker in world, and every person here cannot become a Ph.d in something to get high skills and high paying jobs .
De-globalization may be the answer ? Unlike 1950s when US was the only stable productive country in the world ,not sure that will work today with so many stable productive countries. US still has the default currency status going so it can print money without much inflation? or US could work to make rest of the world unstable and less productive .... No good options here...
3
@well: A postdoc job might pay $25,000. There is more supply that there is demand.
1
"Now Democrats will surely be tempted to do the same when they get the power to do so, and that is how a great system of government, built on constitutional checks and balances, strong institutions and basic norms of decency, unravels."
Just agog at that sentence. It's utterly astonishing that the responsibility for preserving the republic should fall to the party that actually supports norms of decency is somehow to blame for the childish tirades of the people who attack them. Okay, so give in on this one affront to democracy, and that one outrage, one might ask -- but then what does one stand for?
For this reader it comes to that: what VALUES do these politicians support (beyond "gimme" obviously). Don't feel that's solved by suggesting that standing up for democratic norms is in any way "unraveling."
4
Thanks as always for your commentary, Mr. Friedman. I would add that when we were growing up there were certainly extreme right radio and TV commentators, but nothing like today with the added disinformation from social media extremists. A large number of Americans are being fed so much false information--real fake news--that I see this as largely responsible for the national schism. Of course a corollary is that too many Americans are not learning actual facts in school about our history and government. In a society with First Amendment rights I don't know how such ongoing disservices to the body politic can be curtailed. Perhaps you might share your thinking on this conundrum. But you are certainly correct that only by voting enough Republicans out of office can this national crisis begin to be corrected.
6
The author points to Gingrich as beginning the GOP's shift towards tribalism. I've long thought that the surge in popularity of Rush Limbaugh was the seed. He had found he got better ratings when he blamed things on an "enemy", and with the USSR gone Democrats were an "enemy" that would outlast his career.
20
Vote Kavanaugh on the Court at the first possible date even if Sunday. Democrats are obstructionists and will always find one more thing to check out. McConnell is right and he is a Profile in Courage in standing up for what is right.
The Democrats merit no further consideration. Three will join the Republicans and Kavanaugh will finally be on the Court next week.
6
Thank God for Trump.
Conservative Christians are fighting back now, after soooo many years of being passive.
We welcome what the future brings.
9
Conservative Christians seems like an oxymoron to me. Christ was a radical. That’s why the establishment had him killed. You can’t love your neighbor and attach yourself to the party of hate and bigotry at the same time. That’s called cognitive dissonance.
I know people get hung up on the issue of abortion. But that’s a con done by rich white guys to get non-rich people to vote against their interest.
Making abortion illegal does not eliminate abortion. The country that usually has the lowest abortion rate has usually been Netherlands, where abortion is both legal and free. The country with the highest abortion rate is usually been Brazil where it is illegal.
So voting GOP makes the rich richer, everyone else poorer, and has no effect on abortion rates. However lots of little girls will be forced to have their daddy’s babies.
You see the one thing the GOP loves to do, is go easy on the rich and powerful and poor unrelenting misery on the weakest and poorest in our society. And there is no one more powerless than a poor little girl who’s just been made pregnant by someone more powerful than them. (And isn’t that what Kavanaugh was attempting when he crawled on top of the then 15 year old Dr. Ford) I wonder where Jesus sits on that? And I find where you sit on that gross, shocking, disturbing and highly offensive.
31
Smarg,
For sure.
God always was good for stripping children and babies from their families and mothers.
Jesus hated the immigrant.
Rich men and prosperity are gods chosen people. Always has been. Right?!
Be a shepherd of our planet?! Please! Rape it and pillage. Who needs clean air, water or soil. The Rapture will come soon enough.
Mammon worshipers being led by a Satan disciple.
Don't forget to make fun of the crippled, homeless, sick, needy and abused on your way out.
…or was this all snark?!
6
What’s that thing in the Bible about the golden calf? False idols, something like that? If conservative so-called Christians prefer Trump’s words to Jesus’ teachings, what does that say?
2
Much of the current tribalism is the consequence of the devil's bargain Richard Nixon made after the 1968 election - the Southern Strategy. It required recruiting working-class whites with racial prejudice to support a party actually run by and for the higher economic groups in the country. The strategy required high-pitched calls on white bias to cover for a set of economic policies that damaged those same working-class people. As the results of the policies have come home to roost over the past 50 years, the Republicans have had to turn up the hatred to keep those people voting for candidates who are devoted to betraying their interests.
13
When you’re God or your religion gets to pay taxes you’ll have a say. Let’s hope that never happens. Until then, you don’t - thank G-d!
I have to say that this editorial stretches out to the extremes, and that is a big part of the problem in how Americans are gathering and disseminating information, from extreme outlets that purport one side or another, against the middle.
I travel the nation quite a bit, and what I tend to hear and discuss with average folks is that many, many people are fed up with both parties and the whole political process that has been bought and sold multiple times by special interests from the left and the right.
I find many, many people to be thoughtful and willing to discuss issues across party lines, as they have for decades. Many feel, as do , that the decisive move to hard left or right is a creation of special interests vying for power and control, first for political gain, and then for monetary gain, utilizing today's bifurcated media outlets to d their bidding. That is the game, and those in power wielding control and financial power are winning easily while we are given few choices of consequence to truly make a difference.
Want to get back to civility, take the money out of politics period, stop the lobbying and special interests and level the playing field.
Until something close to this happens we will never beat this rigged system and move toward what this county was meant to be and do in this world.
Money and power corrupts and greed rules for the few, and they do not represent the majority of Americans doing the right thing everyday, living a civil life.
10
@johnrs77 ... Well said. Politicians stopped being useful when they became power brokers instead of nation builders.
Well Mr. Friedman the Republican Party may "have lost it's way" but you do not see the same of the opposite?..In the lifetimes of my father and myself, Democrats were traditionally the party of the labor/union/middle-class working man/family..Clinton, in large part, changed that..What is left of that broken, beat down class are the very same people who put the current President in office and certainly not for love of the man, but rather out of desperation and a sense that the opposing candidate not only was unsympathetic to their plight, but viewed them as "deplorables"...I am one of those..I don't admire the man or his methods but I certainly believe in some of the changes he has made to right the wrongs of the corporate globalists and the policies instituted to further that agenda..We have been forced into a system to vote for whomever Party A or Party B trots out and many of us viewed this as a "Best of The Bad Choices" scenario, not because we are fire-breathing right wing "extremists" who have blind allegiance to the leader of the party..Hard to believe that he is the one driving the bus, but I will continue to root for my bus driver because I am a firm believer that the Democrat Party has "lost it's way" as well
8
I've said it before and I'll continue to say it: the country will and must split in two. I hope and dream that Canada may welcome a union with the northeastern US, northern border states, and the west coast. Then leave the rest as a rump country. I don't want them and they don't want me. So be it.
29
You are very wrong. The difference in thought is urban vs. rural.
1
The words won't come out of my mouth but they are damned sure in my heart; "Fine! Let's get to it!" Whatever anchors my ability to understand and forgive, is completely destroyed when I see and hear the gathered imbeciles at Trump rallies. I loathe them with a
completeness that is totally alien to me, and with that, I become like them.
So, fine! Let's get to it!
14
A lot of the discussion is implicitly about vanquishing or defeating the more right wing elements in our country. While I consider myself left of center, I am sure that there are people that are well right of center who are equally convinced that they are as correct as I believe that I am. But if one side prevails and imposes its views on the other, then that other half of the nation will feel oppressed and put-upon. That is why some type of centrist compromise is necessary; not because it's right but because it's a necessary pre-condition to the civility that our democracy requires.
11
@Schneiderman... "I am sure that there are people that are well right of center who are equally convinced that they are as correct".....Yes, but do they have a broad based education and are they conversant with the facts.
9
@W.A. Spitzer
I don't know, but it's not necessarily a question of education. As you see, there are very educated people on both sides of the aisle; they just have different values, interests, judgments and priorities. Mine are left leaning but it is difficult to say they are empirically more correct than any other set of judgments (although there are of course exceptions at the very extremes like White nationalists). In any event, we all have to live with each other and compromise is the touchstone of a successful democracy.
I understand politics and know that it has always played a large part in our lives. I don't understand the term "tribalism." I hear it used a lot, but I think its a bit of an overreaction. Call me naive or stupid, if you'd like, but I still firmly believe that everyone in this country strongly believes in being an American. I am a very left-leaning Democrat and have been all my life, but there's no way that any type of media is going to convince me that we are on the verge of a civil war.
3
Mitch McConnell abrogated his Constitutional duty in his refusal to hold a vote on Obama's nominee for SC0TUS. Yet the Democrats were so arrogant in their certainty they would win the presidency there was only muted opposition to what was at the very least a censurable action. They failed to hold him responsible. Over and over again this has happened.
Both parties are guilty for the present, as with any civil war (arguably one more than the other) but the adoption of tribalism is why. Our leaders have abandoned the basis of this country the PEOPLE for money, corporate boards and investors.
We have been led astray by those whose greed was their creed rather than their allegiance to this country and our Constitution.
We are a Corpocracy, not a Democracy. K street has a greater say in how this country will be run than the voter.
It was not a sudden downfall but a slow erosion: the end of Glass/Stegall, naive SCOTUS decisions in favor of business, a dismantling of voter rights and allowing disgusting amounts money into our elections, etc.... The present is what was paid for at the expense of the founding principles embedded in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and argued for in the Federalist Papers.
2
In some ways, what is going on is a continuation of the original Civil War. The Union won the war, and then lost the ensuing peace after President Johnson eviscerated Reconstruction. The rise of the KKK and Southern Nationalism in the 1870's, Jim Crow, lynchings, segregation - the North let all this happen because, in the end, racial identity won out over the Republican principles that drove the Union to war in the first place. Trump's "base" is essentially the 35% of Americans that live in the Deep South, coupled with the militant conservatism of the Midwestern "flyover" states. Hence all his rallies are either in Confederate strongholds or North Dakota. So we can thank President Andrew Johnson and his slave-holding Tennessee heritage for starting all this back in 1868.
9
While I agree McConnell’s actions to built a wall against Garland, don’t forget that he had 2 enablers.
1. His Thick White Line, ie the other elected GOP senators who supported this first strike nuclear option. But in some way I almost respect their willingness to throw the fastball right at the head and watch what happens. Which was...
2. President Obama. He kowtowed to Mitch. He scuffled around in the batters box and gave Mitch a dirty look but kept his bat in his hand. He did not use every weapon in his arsenal to ‘go medieval’ on the Senate in general and McConnell specifically. This was a right specifically enumerated in the Constitution. We did not elect a president for 3.2 years. He was unwilling to get dirty to be successful. Democracy Lost.
10
"...vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it — now, right now, not just when they’re leaving office or on their death beds." That is the problem. Unless you're getting out of Washington, you're not going to say anything that approaches this sanity. I will say, as a lifelong Democrat, the incubator for this national disease is the Republican Party and its enablers in the right wing media. If the only voices for something like political equanimity are only on the left, what's a nation to do? I used to love to debate conservatives, but no more. I just get called a "commie," or a "traitor." It's no fun if it's name calling and hyper nonsense time.
6
As bad and divisive as this time seems, it can't hold a candle to the 1960s. Then, hundreds of Americans were coming home each week from Vietnam in body bags, leaders were being assassinated, cities were being torn apart by race riots, and the Cold War was at its height.
Most of the current rage is being expressed in the media and over the internet. If and when it hits the streets, then maybe.....
43
@dc brent
I agree. Being there in "real time" families were fractured as today. There was a racial divide, a gender divide, a generation gap and political division. Both Partiy's had their inside turmoil as well. Dixie Democrats versus Northern Dems. And the Hawks vs. the Doves in both Party's. Even among the civil rights, there was the traditionalists who followed King, and the more militant faction that followed Stokely Carmichael and SNCC, later the Black Panthers et al. I and my fellow veterans often talk about when we would be called "baby killers" for wearing a uniform- regardless if you were a combat veteran or a new boot. There was incredible division, at a time when a cop didn't think twice about beating you to a pulp during an anti-war or pro-civil rights demonstration. Whether it was Chicago or Selma, Berkely or Columbia, America was literally at war. I wish Friedman had really gone into detail. Most of today's battles are being fought on social media, so maybe that's a good thing in retrospect to the times. Rather attack through bullet points than with actual bullets.
1
@dc brent
Excellent point. 'Call me when the national guard starts firing live ammo at a demonstration'.
1
I've been calling all this a civil war in comments here for a couple of years.
Unless the income gap is exponentially closed and we teach democracy from age eight through high school we will be more or less in a civil war until exhausted
We will need to not spend so much of our time with pop culture distractions so that our children learn to read well and be able to think critically as they reach adulthood.
If this does not happen we will go on becoming individually isolated and even more diverted with distractions, and in a word - almost totally Disabled.
Our ignorance in our complex times is astonishingly vast, and all the while our poisoned environment and the threat of nuclear weapons will
one way or another undo us all.
7
I agree with much of what TF writes here; however, I am not afraid. We have entered into a discussion about gender and sex more than anything else in the last year. Isn’t Roe v. Wade about the same thing? Women have been assaulted forever about their gender, read sexual assault, as a response to some women and men’s need for misplaced power. If 1/4 of females are sexually abused then who are the perps—rich, poor, parents, relatives, strangers, priests, nuns—the list goes on. It is a long list any way you look at it. The taboo is now uncovered for all to see. Now we are forced to look. Uncomfortable yet??? This is no easy stuff. It boils down to acknowledgement of the power differentials—physical, privilege, financial, etc. and what abuse of power produces.
The Republicans want to keep their male domination and the Democrats are prone to sharing. Congress and the WH are fighting to the death as are Dems for their positions. If Washington really cared about constituents including the vulnerable, positive change might come for everyone. What better outcome than to make everyone aware of their risk to assault of all kinds.
I am among those who feel that McConnell broke something. It's broken still. There is no way back for this country, or for any country. Time runs in one direction only.
13
The "American Dream" was an anomaly built on industrial might and fossil fuels that developed to fight a war that itself relied on heavy industry and fossil fuels for victory. And that industrial might and momentum carried on for a while, of its own inertia. But there was no way and never that the model of low/mid skilled people receiving rich wages could ever be sustained. Reversion to the mean. And on a global scale, when much of the world is quite poor, a lot of Americans had better learn to adjust. The American lifestyle is not sustainable, let alone being sustainable by 7 billion people. We have not yet begun to suffer. A lot of Americans had better look around and realize that there is a long, long way for us to fall, but fall we will.
9
"And yet this moment feels worse — much less violent, blessedly, but much more broadly divisive. "
"This also feels worse than the divisions over Vietnam and civil rights because there were three huge forces holding us together back then that are missing today: a growing middle class, the Cold War and a sane Republican Party."
Mr. Friedman appears quite comfortable with being part of the divisiveness. I didn't vote for Donald Trump but I don't think the millions of Americans who are also Republicans are not 'sane' and GOP politicians are no less 'sane' than their Democrat colleagues. It would be more helpful to explain why many Americans are supporting President Trump even when he does not represent their values, think about evangelicals supporting a non-believing serial adulterer.
It would be a great public service if the NYT would be a voice of civility in the public discourse and not just take up the righteous side of the argument.
5
What is wrong with being on the side of truth?
"Now Democrats will surely be tempted to do the same when they get the power to do so, and that is how a great system of government, built on constitutional checks and balances, strong institutions and basic norms of decency, unravels."
No, the Dems must find a way to expand the Court seats, or we'll be returning to the 19th century. It's time the Dems fight fire with fire.
8
@David Henry
Yes,Democrats mus fight fire with fire.
Trump trumps by making the most NOISE, period.
Democrats must learn how the make more NOISE.
Intellectual ramblings from Democrats do not reach voters.
Please, Democrats, learn how to make more NOISE, now!
8
Is there any way we could cordon off a fair portion of the country and put all the Trump supporters there? They can call the new country Trumplandia, write their own constitution, and build a little wall around themselves. People can visit former family members and friends, or not. I would not hesitate to move my family if necessary, it would be a small sacrifice to live in a Trump-free zone. Alternatively, I’d be happy to take in others fleeing Trumplandia. It should be an amicable divorce, there don’t seem to be many people who would have difficulty choosing which country they prefer. We had a good 200 plus years, but countries don’t last forever. Sometimes the best we can do is agree to its over and go our separate ways.
17
There is actually a line already drawn, and they even have their own flag ready to be hoisted.
There's an underlying war that isn't mentioned, and that is immoral/amoral plutocrats vs. everyone else, mostly represented by the Republican party. Realistically, the only thing motivating Republicans and most of the people who financially back them is greed and a desire to retain power, with absolutely no concern for the larger public welfare. Making things truly tragic and catastrophic is their extreme short-sightedness. The erosion of the middle class, destruction of the environment, and diminishment of individual rights will do nothing good for the world that their children and grandchildren inhabit, but even that can't motivate those on the right to care a wit about doing what's good for the country, and they are backed by powerful industrialists who feel exactly the same, whose greed for money and power is limitless and who either don't have children to care about or figure that their immense wealth will protect them from the grim future that they are ensuring with their policies. All other tribal battles are merely ways to distract Americans from this larger existential struggle that we are losing.
5
Mr. Friedman,
To be sure, the Republicans are certainly acting un-Republican like. In fact, they are fighting like Democrats have fought for decades.
The Left led the way to this civil war. In fact, they declared it when they started systematically dismantling and disparaging the institutions of this nation. Have you listened to a Humanities professor of late?
What I find most interesting is hearing the Left squeal at receiving the treatment they taught the Right for all these years. As Paul Harvey use to say "We are not one nation."
We do agree on this one thing: This civil war is self inflicted. As long as the Left refuses to accept at least some of the responsibility, I fear it will be to the death.
4
When the vote comes for Kavanaugh, we are going to see if Senator Flake is the real deal. Will he walk his talk? Or will he vote the tribal he says is so ruinous? Stand and deliver, Senator Flake, to begin healing our riven nation.
6
Republican extremism was deliberately, cynically cultivated by well-funded, powerful groups over five decades, even to the extent of fostering belief in conspiracy theories that the cultivators themselves did not actually believe. Didn’t Kavanaugh, as a White House political operative, spend three years “researching” the theory that Vince Foster was murdered to conceal wrongdoing by the Clintons, though he knew it was false? Trump found it easy to promote the theory of Obama’s foreign birth because the ground had been well-prepared for the acceptance of irrational beliefs immune to evidence by the Republicans before him. Our president demanded the continued imprisonment (execution?) of four young black men even after DNA evidence and a confession by another proved they were innocent of the crime. How to “reach across the aisle” to such persons? Are there Republicans who will stand up and denounce such tactics by their confreres?
7
This is so spot-on, it's scary.
It's been in my head for awhile now, maybe a year.
But to see it in black and white, laid out so succinctly -- very, very depressing and frightening.
7
This angry divide reared it's ugly head at the grocery store today. Out of the blue a woman stopped me and offered her opinion about the sad state of affairs we are in. I thought she and I were going to find some common ground to discuss.
I was taken aback but began to listen in earnest. I was optimistic that this could be a great opportunity to share some thoughts when she then lit into a tirade about how religion is being subverted in this country.
She also went on to blame immigrants who do not practice "American values", Hillary Clinton, left wing politics and other problems too numerous to mention for the demise of this nation.
And to top it off Donald Trump is the only one who can save it.
I did my best to attempt to have her see things in a different light in a calm and rational manner, but it was for naught.
Yes it became heated, and we did part without any understanding of the others perspective. I do regret this, but being quiet and defensive has not yielded any benefit that I can see with Trump supporters of any stripe.
8
Secession.
It is actually already happening. California has its own abortion laws, net neutrality laws , EPA and CAFE standards. Many states and cities are still observing the Paris Treaty on climate change.
It will only take CA, OR, WA hooking up as a separate economic and cultural bloc to have secession.
(just a quick factoid, the blues states have GDP of $11.1 Trillion of of the USA wealth and the Red states have $5.6 Trillion.)
10
Subsequent generations are the best investment in future economic growth. Investment in their education (at all levels) and their health & wellness, further enhance that potential. If you believe this to be true, and given current investment level in these areas, the GDP disparity will grow.
When Trump came to power, my immediate thought was that he was either going to start Civil War II, World War III, or both. The question was which one would he start first. I now feel that, aided by his political confederate general Mitch McConnell, it will be Civil War II. I also think that McConnell is truly a traitor to American values and should be removed from power and tried as such. (Maybe he could find a new gig as Trump's Minister of Propaganda in the newly-formed Trumpistan.)
13
It’s rich irony that a man who earns his living penning largely partisan diatribes now laments the polarization that he helped create.
10
We are definitely at war, so this article is somewhat disingenuous. A good guide to what is going on is 'Who Stole the American Dream' by Hedrick Smith. It is the Republican Party/right wing which has been waging war against the majority of Americans for 40 years or so.
16
You need to wake up to another nation threatening reality. You did finally realize that the Civil War never ended and that it has continued in the form of a cold war.
For over 60 years I have worked with patients who suffer with what is called a “borderline disorder”. There are many borders that are involved. A major one is the border between reality and imagination and fantasy. It is normal in young children. It ihas not as yet develped and so the tooth fairy and santa clause are real. If a child at a young age has suffered upset and disturbance, this border may never develop, or if it does, it is porous and tenuous. What they imagine is their reality. As one patient put it, “reality is incidental to my existence.” This is true of our president. He believes what he is saying. In his mind he is not lying. That is what makes him so authentic to his base and is what makes him so dangerous. In the minds of a person with this disorder, what they believe to be true is their reality. Facts are incidental. We are in for a catastrophe.
5
The globalists did it. When you take away the livelihood of the middle class, all else fails.
5
The miserable truth is this has gotten far worse since Donald Trump became president. When President Obama was faced with naysayers at his rallies, he at least showed them respect and demanded that his supporters respect those with opposing beliefs. Trump? Trump cheerleads hate and foments fear, he berates, belittles and gives in to his basest instincts, inciting the most deplorable beliefs of the Republican base. Spend ten minutes reading comments on Breitbart and you will be repulsed and horrified. People believe Democrats are trying to destroy the country--to take away people's guns, eviscerate religion and open our borders with literally zero restrictions. Newt started it. McConnell leveraged it. And Trump perfected it. This is a frightening time. Glad I live in a Blue State or else I may be killed for thinking climate science is real and that the LGBTQ community deserves equal rights.
13
The Bible they read declares a house divided cannot stand. They clearly don’t care.
9
I think Mr. Friedman gets this right, but his "civil war" framing still tends to obscure what he ultimately acknowledges: that the right-wing over the last 20 years has launched a stealthy attack on our political and social institutions, up to and including the Constitutional order itself. The Republican party's mad embrace of the mad King Donald is only the culmination and public revelation of what's been going on for a long time. Rather than describing this as a civil war, I think it's better described as an effort by a minority faction to seize the government and replace it with authoritarian rule. To borrow Phillip Roth's title, this isn't a conflict between Americans so much as it's a "plot against America" by groups, domestic and foreign, who violently reject the foundational values of our country.
I'm one of those who've been trying to tell people such as Mr. Friedman for a long time that being "reasonable" with that faction won't work. They weren't looking for reasonable compromises any more; they were looking for victory and domination. Now, finally, Mr. Friedman and a majority of non right-wing Americans have awakened to consciousness that a faction is trying to subdue them under authoritarian, anti-constitutional rule. As this majority rises to their own defense, we mustn't fall victim to the false equivalency fallacy, and condemn "both sides" for the conflict.
1037
More than 50 years. They’ve been working to this end since Goldwater lost.
@TMSquared has shared a truth that is too seldom given the spotlight it deserves. A brilliant little essay.
No, most of America is still asleep.
1
How to save our country:
First - change approval of anything in congress so that it requires not only majority overall, but at least 20% support by the minority to pass. That is basically mandatory bipartisanship no matter how many seats the majority has.
Second - since the Supreme Court is so blatantly partisan let's put term limits on the office. 15 years seems fair enough that they can feel secure while in office.
Third - Overturn citizens united and force the true source of all contributions to be stated and verified - otherwise the funds will go into a fund that is split evenly between anyone running in that race.
Fourth - Require a max level security clearance for all candidates for the house, senate or VP/Presidency before they are added to a federal ballot. That should involve a full determination that our candidates are not compromised (including a financial review and all the other stuff). It would not be perfect, but it would probably weed out half of our sitting government if applied today (no way Trump would pass).
Fifth: Abolish the electoral college. No more disproportionate representation.
672
Why limit term limits to the SCOTUS?
Congress is where we need term limits, max it at 12 years then let them find a career other than being a member of Congress. Great pay, amazing health and retirement benefits and you don’t have to accomplish anything of substance.
No wonder they never want to leave and it is no surprise we have members who’ve “served” twenty plus years.
Term limits for Congress now.
12
Oh - i don't disagree - I think congress should be limited to no more than two terms actually and that long only because at least some continuity and experience is required after an election. As for the Supreme Court Justices - I recommend this because old Kavenaugh's testimony has laid bare just how partisan his appointment.
if you are honest, probably all of the appointments are going to be crazy partisan going forward. The Republicans have crossed the Rubicon already with Garland and now their "least likely to impeach - most likely to overturn Roe" candidate. There is no going back. We are not going to get Obama era quality candidates anymore - we are going to get only politicians like the current candidate.
So, If the court is a partisan appointment, then it should not be for life. Let's put term limits on them starting with whoever ends up being next.
5
@Jason
I think you just listed five things that would require constitutional amendments. Good luck with that.
No mention of Fox News? None of this happens without 20 years of sustained propaganda. Watching Fox today must have been what it was like to listen to the South DEFEND slavery. We can't seem to agree on facts at this point. This is not tribalism as much as its been a longterm calculated effort by an Australian media tycoon to seize control of the most powerful country in the world.
952
@Reality Check An australian who was through corruption made a US citizen to gain control of a network.
4
@Reality Check. Don't forget the conservative publishing complex and talk radio, which is overwhelmingly conservative. When Rush Limbaugh declares with absolute certainty that his political foes "hate America," and countless other strawman arguments he puts forth for every day, he's pumping toxicity into the national conversation. Likewise, with book titles such as Ann Coulter's "Demonic," it's not surprising to see Trump rally-goers wearing shirts that say "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat." This business model is unsustainable. It will eventually kill its customers, then itself.
5
@Reality Check-Indeed. Because it broadcasts over cable, Fox isn't held to the rules and regulations as legitimate news organizations broadcasting real news over public airwaves. Fox News claims to be an entertainment medium, perhaps to save itself from civil penalties and government purview and liability.
https://www.quora.com/Is-Fox-News-registered-as-a-news-organization-with...
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/complaints-about-broadcast-journalism
If this is the 2nd American Civil War, Trump, McConnell, Limbaugh, Hannity, Franklin Graham, et al are going to lose this one like their immoral forebears lost the first one.
8
@Bruce - soon, please!
"And this fracturing is all happening with a soaring stock market and falling unemployment. Can you imagine what it will be like when we face the next recession?"
Can we stop with this nonsense already? As Professor Krugman wrote yesterday, Kavanaugh's rage on display proves that the privileged elites can hate too.
But half the country is one missed paycheck away from disaster. Half the country couldn't come up with five hundred bucks for an emergency. They don't care about the stock market (if profits are booming, why did they need a tax cut with such a large federal deficit?). They may be employed, but they're dead-end jobs that barely pay the bills and have no benefits. We'll see what happens with Amazon's announcement to raise their minimum wage to fifteen dollars.
Trump was elected in part because folks like Friedman keep pointing to the unemployment numbers and Wall Street to convince themselves the economy is booming. The unemployment figures ignore the millions of Americans who simply gave up looking for another job, not interested in working for nine bucks an hour. And Friedman ignores the many looming bubbles in the economy. Should drive through smaller towns and see all the vacant commercial real estate. Amazon is not going to be the counterweight to that, unless folks think that Bezos becoming the first person worth twelve figures will somehow benefit them.
5
A civil war, a real one, would be very one-sided. The 300 million privately owned guns are overwhelmingly in the hands of right-wingers. The police and military are two of the most conservative groups of people in the country.
Liberals have only the power of argument, the efficacy of which seems to be on the decline. It is genuinely frightening and I do not believe that Mr. Friedman is exaggerating in the slightest.
13
For Friedman things "feel," worse to him because he is living in the present. He wasn't around during years that led to the civil war. There was such hatred for Lincoln and for Northerners who didn't want to expand slavery that South Carolina seceded immediately following his election in 1860 followed by six more states. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee both West Point graduates betrayed this country, and the constitution they had sworn to defend and fought against the United States. That's tribalism.
During the Vietnam war this country was intensly divided. Many politicians and hundreds of thousands of supporters of the war didn't blink when their own sons avoided service with college deferments. That's tribalism.
During the civil rights struggle, millions were opposed to Blacks just for wanting to send their kids to the decent schools white children were going to. That's tribalism.
While Trump is certainly divisive and get people really wound up, Friemdan's fears don't generate an apples to apples comparison
1
When in the last presidential election campaign, people were screaming Lock Her Up, Lock Her Up, and, the candidate referred to Hilary Clinton as Crooked Hilary, he even stalked her on stage.I did not see him stalking a male candidate from his own party. I didn't hear any notes of protests from the Republican Party. That campaign was the most grotesque I have experienced. We, the people, deserve better.
7
Enough of this "tribalism" captioned with flaky senators demonstrating looks of Angst. Ideas matter; and plenty of Americans have grown tired of the worn out ideas of the Left that have been pedalled by the "tolerant" liberals, who intend to jam their political correctness down the country's throats. Brett Kavanaugh last week said "enough," and plenty of Americans are ready to join that.
6
Like many couples who divorce and later stay close friends, it is time for our two nations to amicably part so that, if possible, we may remain friends. It is impossible to reconcile opposing beliefs that cut to the core of what it means to be a human being.
GOP belief is that:
-- the richest 1% share money and opportunity with the remaining 99%, supported by no evidence: zero
-- if you have a pre-existing condition, you've lived a "bad" or "immoral" life...faux-faith garbage straight from the Middle Ages
-- men are naturally endowed with greater authority, power, and abilities than women...an absurd notion
-- white people are superior to non-whites...which only serves to extend a type of slavery into the future
-- they are for fiscal responsibility; yet it has historically been under GOP administrations that deficits have soared and wealth has been funneled "up" to the wealthiest citizens who least need it
There are hundreds more odious beliefs and "self-evident" truths the GOP spout as fact, but these are unsupported by evidence, mean-spirited, un-Christian, and anti-Constitutional...and not "conservative" either, but rather "extreme."
GOP beliefs like those listed above are not matters of policy; they are matters of judgment in which they enjoy playing god and revel in their self-asserted sense of superiority. That's not how a real marriage works in private life, or in public life either.
Time for a divorce, a permanent two-state solution.
9
So the Soviets no longer holding a loaded nuclear weapon to our heads -is a bad thing? lets just face facts, its always going to be something, the human race and in particular Americans always need something to be scared and angry about.
Again, it comes down to Newt Gingrich, who started the Republicans down the ad hominem path of extremism. Mitch McCpnnel has greatly exacerbated it. We should never forget what he did to Merreck Garland. Amd it is a civil war. A non-kenetic civil war. Mitch McConnell IS at war eith liberals and democrats. He is at war already and has been for at least the past 8 - 10 years.
6
The Russians will be happy if we have civil war. That is their aim, to give us enough combustibles and let us spark the fire. Stoke fear and paranoia. Take a deep breath, everyone. Yes, we have issues and need to deal with them. Who has the most to gain by division? Follow the money and power.
I am a democrat. My parents are Republicans. I have to work at this or I won't have a family. Use logic and facts, not emotions. Work at it and don't give up.
11
Democracy must be remade based on either IQ and/or age of voters.
One vote one person has turned to be a mob rule. Instead grant 3/5 of a vote to those less than 30 years. And anyone after 60 yes gets 2/5 of a vote. Those with a decade to live cannot and should NOT decide the future for those with decades to live.
“Tribalism is ruining us. It is tearing our country apart. It is no way for sane adults to act” - Sen. Flake.
This civil war was originally initiated by a virulent, self-centered, conscienceless Newt Gingrich in 1990s. That resulted in Bill Clinton's impeachment - Clinton was saved by three women, Hillary, Susan & Monica. Clinton could be viewed as a martyr or tainted by the impeachment. I saw him as a martyr. Other than those three women, Joe Klein commended him risking the wrath of his fellow compatriots; read his book 'The Natural'.
Then GW Bush was elected, 9/11 happened. The nation united. civil war abated. Then came Obama from "out of this world;" his skin color didn't matter to elect him but mattered for Republicans. Civil war resumed by the Tea Party.
Donald Trump ran for presidency more as an ego trip. He never expected to win. He trumpeted the "rigging" of election line to rationalize his impending loss. He unexpectedly won, thanks to the horrible demeanor of Hillary Clinton (my hero); Comey's comments were decisive, nevertheless.
Civil war again resumed, despite a Republican win! Civil war was reserved for Democrats in the WH, but now it's an exception.
4
Not one word on Fox News today about Trump's money from his dad, nor his tax scams.
There was though a warning "What Democrats will take from you if they win"
The declaration of war on facts is really one sided
-m
1
I agree completely with Friedman. It all goes back to Newt Gingrich who is still spouting his evil venom to this day.
8
Reading the comments on this article and watching how they are all descending into partisan finger pointing and tribalism should tell us all we need to know.
6
I believe you are correct @barbaro; Gingrich on TV said years ago that Clinton was the Fred Astaire of politics — “no one does it better.” That stuck with me. I think they hate him because he outsmarted them.
and there's another guy who outsmarted them too. plus he was better looking, a class act, had an educated wife, good kids, good manners but sadly too little backbone. what was his name again?
2
Sometimes divisions cannot and should not be papered over. What was the compromise between free and slave that would have avoided the Civil War, slavery during the week and free on the weekends? As Lincoln presciently said, “It will become all one thing, or all the other.”
If therefore the choice is between a white male patriarchy supported by fascistic oligarchs and dependent on racism, misogyny, and wage slavery, and a cooperative, multicultural, multinational socialist democracy, I know which side I’ll be on. What about you?
2
@Walter Bruckner
" cooperative, multicultural, multinational socialist democracy, "
All it takes is one demagogue to turn that utopia into a brutal civil war. See Yugoslavia, for instance. It is very difficult for societies with large fissures to survive because they are easy to exploit.
You just haven't read enough history. Smedley Butler was even more irate than your colonel friend. Having completed a stellar military career in the Marines, having won 2 Congressional Medals of Honor, he concluded he had been fighting for big corporations, not his "country" all along.
Today's would be Mussolini is preaching to a choir of 40%, but the other 60% is either indifferent or hostile. We'll get to 2024 and finally be rid of him.
3
I was totally with you until you started blaming the Republicans. Can't you see that kind of finger pointing, "they started it" attitude only contributes to the decisiveness? Ah well, what can I expect, you're a career NY Times journalist, you can only think in terms of the party line. No wonder so few Americans -- and I am talking about college educated, well informed Americans -- distrust the mainstream media. Journalists are supposed to be objective observers, but you are all just purveyors of whatever ideological echo chamber you happen to belong to.
6
Say nice words so people think you have good intentions. Then behave as the Ds did toward Kavanaugh. Berea would have approved.
4
Dear Mr. Friedman,
I completely agree with your conclusion that the strident tribalism dominating political discourse stops if, as, and when a majority of Americans come together and vote for lawmakers who want it to stop.
I disagree with your observation in paragraph 8 about the three forces that held us together. You forgot to mention a fourth force, viz. a sane Democratic Party; one that does not promote identity politics. It does take two to tango.
3
This is an extraordinarily partisan piece. Firstly, Ornstein is correct in that modern tribalism began during the Clinton era, but he (purposefully?) omits the Bush years, during which tribalism became "derangement". I think we all know this to be true.
This passage is demostrably false:
"The shift in the G.O.P. to tribalism culminated with McConnell denying Obama his constitutional right to appoint a Supreme Court justice with almost a year left in Obama’s term."
The president has no such constitutional right to appoint a justice. He has the duty to nominate a justice.
There's a big difference, and it matters.
1
Don't even suggest that we were more united when outside influences held a gun to our heads. That's the unification goal of fascism. But I remember the 50s, and studied them. When I was in college in the '70s, some of the victims of McCarthyism were reinstated after many years of being kicked out of universities and other jobs. What saved them was not outside threats, but internal struggle which brought a large group of youth surging in protest of fascistic policies and corporate values. Now we're seeing a reverse. Pray it doesn't last.
1
How did we get here? As a Gen Xer, I find myself poring over this question a lot. Like others of my generation, I came of age in the shadow of Watergate and Vietnam. The disillusionment was instilled in the fabric of my baby blanket; I would never have the luxury of not knowing better. That Presidents could abuse power, that the fog of war could distort reality, that the divide and conquer ideology of the Southern strategy was just politics, were all things I had no choice to accept. We never had the opportunity to be idealistic; we were jaded before we even had the right to vote.
Of course, as we came of age, we were governed by the Baby Boomers whose culture wars of old continued to stoke our own. Newt Gingrich was a master of exploiting those divisions to expand his base and Mitch McConnell has done so with a dour veneer of parliamentary procedure. And, much to our national peril, Donald Trump has turned exploitation of sentiment into an art form and a political ideology.
The results of a quarter of a century of this governing style? Gone is "we the people" -- we are just an "us" versus "them" where we daily realize that those we thought were "us" are "them." It is a scary and isolating time, as none of us know who to trust. But as Lincoln reminded us in his Second Inaugural that "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God", I fervently pray that we find a leader who will cultivate our belief in unity, for therein lies our greatest strength.
1
Mr. Friedman, I would argue that the seeds of the GOP's 'insanity' were planted well before McConnell or even Gingrich were elected to Congress.
Prior to the landmark Civil Rights laws of the mid-1960s, both party's policies around race were roughly equally the same, and at times equally disgraceful. Democrat Truman integrated the armed forces, yet his successor, Republican Eisenhower, didn't back track and indeed deployed those same armed forces to enforce school integration in the south. Which brings me to my point: the Democratic 'solid south' turning on the party when one of their own, LBJ, did the morally right thing by ending Jim Crow.
And who was there waiting to welcome all those disaffected bigots and racists with open arms? That 'solid south' became the GOPs 'southern strategy' and within a few short decades the political landscape had become almost totally polarized along racial and religious lines.
And who wins in that environment? The evangelicals or the white working class don't. Neither do minorities or women.
No, the biggest winners in the last 40 years have been the wealthy and powerful.
It always amazes me how so many people fail to see the age-old divide and conquer strategy play out right in front of their faces.
1
That Mitch McConnell boasts that one of his proudest moments is when he looked President Obama in the eye and said you will not fill this Supreme Court opening is pathetic. For a United States Senator to have so little foresight and insight into the significance of his actions--I simply don't know how to characterize it other than to say I have no optimism at the moment that terrible conditions will not worsen, and it I feel very depressed about that. I hope Thomas Friedman's mentioning our need for the less extreme elements of both parties to pull together right now will occur, I suppose we are going to get a little hint of whether this is likely as we go forward with the Supreme Court nomination. I really am not pleased that I have currently alighted in such a dubious place that we can avoid a tragic shift in our countries mission and it's fortune's.
2
"What stops it? When a majority of Americans, who are still center-left and center-right, come together and vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it"
No, no, and a thousand times no. Every time the Republican exhibit bad behavior, they're rewarded. For example, were they punished at the polls in any way for stealing Merrick Garland's nomination? Did they even give him an up and down vote? No.
Until that time comes when obstructionism becomes a political liability, if I choose accommodating representatives, the hard right wins.
I won't hold my breath.
There are parallels between Russia and the GOP. They are both living in the past - tribalism is all they have left. Thus, the GOP can win elections only by gerrymandering, voter suppression, and packing the courts with like-minded justices. Similarly, Russia is not known so much for its technological prowess or ideas - its tools of trade are subversion of democracies and open societies. You can also throw in religious fundamentalists of all stripes into that mix - the more primitive their ideas, the more vicious their attack on civilization itself.
1
Thank you for an antiseptic analysis.
There is a suggestion here that if only low skilled people had jobs, we would not have hate in churches, AM radio, Fox, and in republican politics. I.e., it is factors beyond the control of people (i.e., disappearance of low-skill, high-wage jobs) that have caused this unfortunate tribalism, racial fear and loathing.
What socioeconomic deprivation led Kavanaugh to blame the publicity of his violent tendencies on the Clintons? Is he too desperate, and left behind by the majority? What loss of jobs and deprivation of economic opportunity has produced open loathing, and the new cruelty among the richly endowed republicans? Is Lindsey Graham facing penury? What explains his extreme cruelty? What is Devos lacking that she wants to turn education into something reminiscent of medieval times? Why are rich republicans intent on keeping naked, hungry, ignorant, angry, fearful, and lashing out? How much an these people eat, or what are they eating that they feel deprived enough to want to gut EPA, ERA, and other provisions under the law?
There is a streak of nihilism here that defies explanation based on cold antiseptic factors such as economics and demographics. The republican party is more aligned with the educated, well endowed 9/11 bombers than they are with those that stormed the Bastille. I don't understand it, but I am suspicious of simplistic explanations.
1
"This also feels worse than the divisions over Vietnam and civil rights because there were three huge forces holding us together back then that are missing today: a growing middle class, the Cold War and a sane Republican Party."
A "sane Republican Party"?
Not during the fights over Vietnam and civil rights. The Republican Party was filled with haters of American minorities and North Vietnamese. I know, I was active in the party and a staunch supporter.
I met the Republican leaders, state and national. They blamed communists for everything, striving for racial equality and protesting the Vietnam war. There was widespread relief within the party with the assassinations. The party coughed up many millions of dollars for Nixon, the "law and order" (anti-black) war lord (anti-communist) candidate.
The Republican Party had a commitment to hatred against Kennedy followers and a belief in equality of expression. There was nothing about the Republican Party that was sane.
2
There’s also been a war being waged against education. A majority of Trump supporters honestly believe that anyone who holds a post graduate degree, especially in the social sciences or in the fine arts, is somehow their enemy. Such illogical hatred is baffling.
3
Mr Friedman: May I assume that the comments by Justice Bader about leaving the country if Trump was elected (please don't say that was simply answering what her husband would have said, and other comments (see Politifact if needed), were either not partisan or, notwithstanding the content, were said in a measured tone, thus there would have been no problem had there been hanging chads in the election and had the Supreme Court been involved? Drew
1
Among the worst things about all of this?
The people most benefiting from this division are those that it matters little to who occupies Govt.
A dog could be President and their lives not changed in any meaningful way.
Their livelihoods are built by stoking the grievance and discord, or using it as a distraction or wedge as a means of enriching themselves.
Make money, take money. Set the rabble (us) at each other.
Leave nothing. Live and Let Die.
It wasn't always this way. Hatred of your yellow citizens has been monetized. If there is a way back from that it's hard to see.
5
Mark Twain: It's easier to fool someone than to convince them that they have been fooled." Why is that? Because it takes courage to admit that someone took advantage of you. Where is this nation's courage? Where is the courage in our Senate? In the GOP? In our political appointees? In our State institutions? In ourselves?
Will it take the threat of an outside foe to bring us together? We have one. We have been attacked by Russia, but ergo, we must admit that we were fooled by Russia.
This nation longs for statesmen in public office. To put the nation first above all else- can anyone rise above the political fray? It's not just Senators Collins, Murkowski and Flake. It's all politicians. Message to all political officials: Quit playing the Fool, Find your courage. Save our Democracy and work toward compromising solutions.
4
It's very tempting to agree with Mr. Friedman because defeating the Trump/Pence agenda is critical for all of humanity - not just Americans.
The problems I have with Friedman's thinking are fundamental, they stem from his starting point. What we are living through now is not a struggle between two different views of a democracy, but two different programs for running an empire. And both sides are appealing to a base for support.
That brings me to this paragraph from Friedman: "Also, the fact that the Soviets held a nuclear gun to our heads meant we had to stick together to some degree. It made compromise in Washington a necessity, not a luxury, on many issues."
Really? Which country actually dropped a nuclear weapon? Twice. On an opponent searching for ways to surrender? Which country fire-bombed a city that lay in front of it's ally's (sic) advancing army - that was what Dresden was about, after all.
That's just basic history, but not the way we were taught it. Truth is anathema to both Democrats and Republicans. Which is my ultimate problem with Friedman, and not just this column. The starting point is never "what is true," but "what is good for America." And we need to see the difference between those two things.
The simple fact that this is posed as a battle between tribes obliterates the underlying issues. Racism, misogyny, destruction of the environment, pogroms against immigrants, all this and more needs to be called out for what it is.
2
@Tom
Wow, you really missed the point. You were so anxious to let everyone know how bad you think the U.S. is, you didn't read the article very carefully.
I spent all of the aughts engaging with "conservatives" on internet forums, and a good deal of the past ten years doing to same on social media. My goal was to try to understand what made no sense.
I finally quit. I spent countless hours researching gun violence, climate change, poverty, social issues. I shared my research, countered others' claims, debunked theories. Very rarely was I convinced that the empirical material behind my assertions was wrong.
What I learned was that intelligent conservatives put principle over pragmatism. Access to guns elevates the principle of access over the pragmatism of curbing violence, for example.
We come at our problems from very different angles. The issue with the conservative approach is that it is dogmatic and inflexible. It does not respect the pragmatic concerns of difference. It holds arbitrary social constructions as rigid truth.
I learned, through a decade of direct, deliberate engagement, that conservatives will never let me, or people like me, work on our problems if solutions challenge their principles.
And thus, they became the enemy.
6
No one is more doctrinaire, inflexible and narrow minded than today's typical liberal. No one. And today's liberals are not content to practice their values and ideas by themselves, they are not happy until they can impose these ideas and PC practices on others, whether these others are willing or not, and whether these others are family members or complete strangers. The old "live and let live" approach to life is gone, as well as willingness to listen to any other point of view.
5
@me
Exactly the point. You look at a social problem and say "live and let live". The liberal looks at it and says "Hey let's fix it". You say 'Nope. Live and let live". The liberal says "How can you sit there and let this problem happen?" and you say "Because I care more about the principle of 'live and let live' than about trying to make the world a better place."
The fact of the matter is that liberals are inflexible in only one way - they refuse to sit there and accept problems. If the conservative rejoinder to liberal problem solving is "I don't really want to fix problems", then how is the liberal supposed to reply?
If they try to advance anything constructive, they get called rigid and inflexible, simply because they're trying to do something. The conservative response is to say "gun violence isn't a big enough problem to do anything about" - i.e.
"live and let live". It's lazy and passive and protectionist, viewing the world as a zero sum game.
There are shades of grey, of course, but this is the essence of the ideological divide.
1
@me
That's easy to say. Not true of course, but very easy to say. The far right and far left don't listen, but as you move to the center, I find liberal leaning people more willing to be open than conservative leaning people. Likely because the liberals are more transparent about what they really want.
"It is no way for sane adults to act.” --Jeff Flake
Sane adults? My apologies, but I don't see these people as the manifestation of sanity and mature adulthood, unless the definitions have changed.
Learned behavior. The first person does it, the second person legitimizes it and the third person reinforces it.
Learned behavior can be unlearned and replaced with something much better. The question is how to stop and reverse the current momentum so that sanity and mature adulthood become the norms. My fear that it will take a crisis of monumental proportions to occur before people see the error of their ways. And even then, they will probably revert back to what they know best once the crisis has passed.
As I've written before, we live in the Dark Ages and any appearance of it being a modern world is merely an illusion.
3
I don't see how the 2020 election isn't going to be a massive flashpoint. It looks to be the first election (possibly since 1860) where both sides will genuinely believe that if the other side wins, the country itself is literally doomed. This type of apocalyptic thinking is what ACTUAL civil wars are made of.
5
This article shows why America is divisive. The writer off-hand blames Kavanaugh without referencing his defense that the Dems’ questions were inappropriate for a public supreme court hearing. Not to mention, a Kavanaugh as a person deserves to defend himself if he is innocent? This was a trap plain and simple (whether he is guilty or not, he would have be lambasted) and the Dems, as usual, purport to have the moral high ground. No search for Truth or justice, just a political game. Aside from this, I was all in to change my party after the GOP debacle, but truly no party is worthy of affiliation.
3
The two parties have been driving a wedge, dividing up the electorate - mostly on social issue because both parties have an anti-worker, pro-business agenda - so the polarization is no surprise.
3
In reading many of these comments, one theme that emerges from several of them is that "Republicans will never give an inch." Michael Moore recently revealed that he interviewed Steve Bannon, anticipating that some of it would appear in his current movie. It didn't, but he's been telling an anecdote from the interview. He asked Bannon about the difference between conservatives and liberals. Bannon replied that conservatives go for the head wound, while liberals engage in pillow fights. That's an apt way to put it and any reasonable understanding of our current political climate bears it out.
6
Homo Sapiens evolved all around the world over hundreds of thousands of years to adapt to local environments. We live everywhere except Antarctica. We did NOT evolve to live in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural civilization.
The US, at present, is a big-tent, capitalist economy with the greatest positive impact on global wealth creation in human history.
However, this achievement does NOT resolve the multi-ethnic conflict that lies at the heart of our problem. It’s been brewing and now has come to a head. It was inevitable.
The 250 year old Democratic tradition we have established is about to end. By empowering every group we have factionalized along ethnic lines as whites lose demographic grip. From now on, ideas no longer matter despite Friedman’s hopeful assertions to the contrary. Only voter identity matters. And soon, only identity AND power. The implications for our noble experiment are stupendous.
It's obvious what those are thinking who are profiting from division: it's the other half of the boat that's sinking.
2
There was a time when officials had integrity and a view for making things better for future generations, but the last fifty years or so, the focus has slowly transitioned from citizens to corporations and the affluent and because of this egregious approach to governing we are rapidly descending into third world status and if we continue these nearsighted policies, things will only get worse.
The division in our country today is premeditated; designed to pit ethnic groups against one another to promote a insidious agenda. Profit, gentrification, the private prison industry and immigration debacle, has become the determining factor in most decisions made in America government offices today creating the new slavery.
These policies are not making America great; every action or decision, greatly benefits the CEO's, Corporations, Lobbyists and those who represents us, at great expense to everyone else and the democracy we espouse to others is perverted by our every action so that we have become an enigma instead of an example.
It has been said and I know it is true, that, “The love of money is the root of all evil…” and “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” and the silence is becoming deafening.
This is about more than a divided political process, it's about losing the heart and soul of America, once proclaimed to be a paragon of democracy... We are no longer a "government, of the people for the people and by the people.
3
@ Dana in Santa Monica:
I empathize. When I first heard Limbaugh in the '90s, I asked, where did all this hatred of fellow Americans come from? But over time I've had to concede ignorance. I'd grown up and gone to college on the coasts, too young to have felt the pain of Vietnam and Watergate. My family was largely from the more united WWII era, and as a soldier my father had not only flown but hitch-hiked all over the country. He taught me to shun the racism he'd witnessed in the USAAF. He also liked visiting my sister who'd moved South with her husband, and we had many Southern cousins. I never got the notion from him that as a white person, I'd be unwelcome in any state.
@ Matt, "alone" in Atlanta:
My folks also believed that politics and religion don't mix. But my first Rush-is-Right moment was when a government co-worker started a conversation out of nowhere to assert that "We are a Christian nation." First I'd heard that I needed a religious qualificaiton to be an American.
Speaking on radio, a rabbi relayed what a pastor told him regarding Jews: "As a Christian, I CAN'T leave you alone."
And so I truly wonder whether rural Republicans so oppose Roe because of local abortion clinics, or whether they likewise feel they know best for mothers across the country based on what they think God thinks.
1
I have a close friend (though political opposite) who states emphatically that if Trump is impeached there will be an all out civil war. Scary to think some folks are willing to go that far.
4
You've given voice to my greatest fear, and I've had this fear now for several years. And you are absolutely correct: both sides are not equally to blame. The right continually tries to mask their true intentions (ensuring the rich stay rich) with meaningless distractions (the wall, the NFL protest, etc.) and lies (immigrants are stealing away good jobs, eliminating environmental regulations and lowering taxes on the rich create jobs, etc.), and the people these smoke screens are aimed at play along willingly because they aren't really concerned about the issues than they are about doing things that upset liberals. We humans are fast approaching two existential crises: climate change and job elimination through information technology. I pray someone will emerge who can talk to both halves of the country, or we humanity faces a bleak future.
3
A few thoughts on Mr. Friedman's article:
20 centuries ago in The Holy Land, Christ Jesus was hung from a cross. One of HIS missions was to overcome tribalism: HE reached out in Kairos time to other Jews, to Samaritans, to the Roman overlords, healing everybody who needed it, defying the boundaries of that day. HIS Name is almost unmentionable in this time of so-called "political correctness." Sad.
The tyranny of the soundbite has almost done in the ability of too many to reflect, to ponder, to solve, to think out. A soundbite-driven society is a sick one, indeed!
Yes, during the Cold War, the US had the Soviets surrounding us with nuclear weapons, but we did the same to the old USSR, remember, and to the East Bloc.
To improve the US, we could follow the good example of other countries and walk and bike to more destinations, reducing our dependency on Oil Wars. Would that our elected leaders would reach out to societies that are different from our own and TRADE with them, not attack them!Trading helps keep the Pax.
If American families rediscovered their kitchens, where conversations and good nutrition can take place, good manners might return. A society that eats fast food and throws out the plastic, the spoils of the Oil Wars, will reap cancers and other medical conditions down the road. We already are. The wiser European and Canadian populations outlive us.
And where is music-making, and song, long signs of Western freedom, and dress construction, and gardening?
3
@Mrs. Peter Abken
I hope we don't achieve the same amount of success as Jesus did.
And the idea that his name is "almost unmentionable"--given that the vast majority of U.S. citizens identify as Christians--doesn't correspond to any reality I'm familiar with, although I do hear Christ's name mentioned more frequently when someone bangs their knee as opposed to daily conversation.
"But in the early 2000s, most high-wage, middle-skilled jobs disappeared."
That sounds so much better, but not half as accurate as, "But by the early 2000s, most high-wage, middle-skilled jobs had been shipped to low-wage countries thanks to trade pacts written by pro-business, anti-worker politicians from both parties".
9
Einstein as usual got it right in the 1930's when he said that "the flag is a symbol that humans are still a herd animal." We choose to be separated from each others views despite the good it may do us.
4
Thank you! But don't you think the fountainhead for all our woes is the corruption of our elected officials? Until we control money in politics, our leaders will continue to drift toward the extremes.
3
@Chris There is only one extreme to which big money will drift - the far right.
1
The divide is largely rural/suburban vs urban, and all the demographic and socio-economic stuff that goes along with it. Aside from foreign intervention (which is sure to happen), a civil war in the US would be a disaster for the left. Consider the characteristics of both sides.
Rural/Suburban: Interior lines for logistics. Knowledge of agriculture, mechanics, other blue collar trades. Military experience. Defensible terrain. Strong community bonds.
Urban: Know the latest sociology department buzz words. Social media addiction. Defenseless and resource lacking cities. Any cohesiveness is fleeting, groups will stratify based on infighting of which group is the most equal of equals.
In short, a country boy can survive.
I would never trade my strong community bonds and ability to keep society running for your fusion restaurants and critical theory literature reviews. Lets all hope our politics improve and we never have to make that choice.
7
@Bill
What you don't understand is that the divide is artificial.
Probably 90% of Americans want about 90% of the same things.
Nobody wants to go to work everyday and pay taxes for someone to sit at home and do nothing.
On the other hand, it is better to pay taxes to get people educated and working and paying taxes rather than paying for welfare and prison.
Then there are people who complain about big government and the nanny state all the while taking their mortgage deductions and child deductions. Which, of course, is government subsidized housing and child care.
There are people who say others need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. When they have children, they move to the best school district they can afford. They know environment is crucial.
And I don't mind to pay a little extra in taxes for healthcare for someone who is working two part-time minimum wage and can't afford healthcare.
Sounds like a Christian but I don't go to church. And so many Christians I know go to church on Sunday and say "buyer beware" Monday through Friday.
Kind of like Betsy DeVos.
5
You ignore what could be the most significant issue in that scenario. Strength comes from economic growth; that kind of growth requires strong exports. Currently, and into the foreseeable future, those exports will be based on technology-enabled goods & services. Last I checked, the west coast and the Accela corridor originate the vast % of US technology exports. By coincidence, those geographies lean liberal.
@Bill
It seems the "looking down on" phenomenon cuts both ways...
Not everyone that lives in city or a suburb is wholly unfamiliar with rural life, mechanical/machine skills, the military, firearms or blue collar ability.
I have a white collar job these days but grew up on a farm and my father was an Army vet and career Ironworker. My Cul de Sac neighbors are auto mechanics one one side and a City parks engineer and laborer on the other, with his own concrete business on the side and with Marine vets for sons.
Some houses in the neighborhood have pools, some are more modest, some neighbors are bankers, some are scientists, some are engineers, others build houses or are civil planners. Some teach. Alot of skills and knowledge there to"keep society running."
We can all think better of each other. Rather than fantasize about how well we'd fare against one another it would be better to remember our bonds, not these manufactured divisions that only serve to line the pockets of some and that sadly, the leaders of the day choose with calculation to use as a cudgel.
I agree with Mr. Friedman in his opinion piece, all of it. For some commenters that treat this as news, this is an opinion, an editorial, not news. But reading the comments, I think that Fox News should take their victory lap. It's increasingly clear that their minions have taken the field and are claiming victory. I believe conservatives are in the minority but if the majority cannot come to the polls at least once every two years then we are all to blame. My state remains blue. Sure we have problems with homelessness, housing, higher cost of living and increasing gun crimes, what state doesn't, but we have good life expectancy, a healthy population, a high level of educational achievement and a tradition of charitable giving. We also have a low level of turnout on election day and that could be an opportunity for Republicans. It is easy to blame the party in power for these problems, getting to the root of the problems is much more difficult, solving problems more difficult still without the participation of all parties.
A friend and business partner of mine just told me he did not vote for the president. This, after telling me he did vote for him in the last presidential election. What he did is less important than what he said. He is a lifelong Republican. Is this an indication of a weakening of the GOP base?
1
@CMK, I am in favor of making Hawaii independent again. Please vote for independence!
1
@Jay Sax I believe we have to contend with Congressional actions in 1898, 1921 and 1959 first. Until then we have to survive the current era. Thanks for your support.
1
Any rational analysis leads to the conclusion that the Republicans have abdicated their responsibility as a legitimate governing party.
The early seeds for this were inherent in their governing philosophy, as least since Eisenhower, of galvanizing the middle class around cultural issues, but promoting economic policies, such as supply-side economics and tearing down of unions, which are inimical to middle class interests.
Add to that the extremism of parties such as Grover Norquist, the Koch’s, and Fox News, which led today to intellectual dishonesty routinely seen in public discourse.
The non-elitist conservative voters finally caught on that nobody in the modern Republican Party was serving their interests, and they rolled the dice on a complete charlatan who promised to be different.
We all understand that there are a substantial number of voters who don’t lean democratic. But, until the Republican Party remakes itself in an intellectually honest, morally responsible way, their party will be in a tribal conflict, a Civil War II, if you will.
5
@Phaedrus, As if the Democrats care about the poor or working class! The party is composed of a limousine liberal elite who don't care! If you want a vision of the Democratic future look at the streets of Seattle, Portland, SF, and LA: Homeless camps everywhere. I'll see your Eisenhower and raise you an FDR. A democratic politican who broke the Washington norm of a two term limit.
2
A large percentage of our citizenry have never escaped the brainwashing of our parents and guardians.
What other conclusion can be reached?
1
Who has done the dividing? That story is what divides us. I would say that Obama did not divide. I'll leave the rest up to your readers to voice their opinions as to who spoke in order to divide.
My husband and I both came of age in the 60's and participated in protests to end the Vietnam War, supported the Civil Rights movement and are generally best described as FDR Democrats. I believe FDR's second "Bill of Rights" aligns well with the Democratic Socialists who have recently won nominations. We are sickened by the decline in our political discourse and, like you, mostly blame Newt Gingrich, who unleashed vitriol and hateful hyperbole into our political world. We have never recovered as a country and we fear we are witnessing the death of democracy and the beginning of a fascist dictatorship. We view many of our citizens as hopelessly extreme and filled with hatred. Mitch McConnell is the most destructive Senate Leader in my lifetime.
It's sad and frightening.
14
Let’s not forget Lee Atwater!
Some key moments in our slide into total idiocy:
--When refugees from Syria and Libya overran Turkey, then Greece, then the rest of Europe, Americans were dumb enough to believe that this had anything to do with "immigration". No, these were REFUGEES, fleeing across adjacent borders. We don't have that problem. (Mexicans were coming here for economic reasons, not fleeing Mexico.) Yes, we did try to agree to accept some of them, out of the goodness of our heart, but the potential security problem with that was well-recognized and accounted for with very strict precautions. And yet, it was portrayed as letting in terrorists by the thousands.
--Even though Mexican immigration was decreasing because of the Great Recession, and even though the millions of them here are doing jobs no American is willing to do, Americans were dumb enough to believe DJT's assertion that they are the root of all our economic woes. And even though most of the illegal immigrants just overstay their visas, Americans were dumb enough to believe that building a wall along the border would solve the "problem".
I could go on, but those are enough for me to have given up on the American electorate. Good riddance. Looking ahead to the Chinese Century with hope and trepidation.
Mitch McConnell will go down as one of the worst Americans in our country's history. Let's just hope it is not following a second civil war.
3
I enjoy reading about the Late Republican period of Rome, starting with the Gracchi brothers. While the comparisons between the US and Rome are cliches there are lessons to be learned. When tribal politics rule those who don’t understand the past is dead subsequently die violently. And those who don’t thoroughly kill every opponent do not die in bed.
2
Fortunately, Donald Trump and others like him in his old and dying generation, are doing just that - they are dying off. Cancer, dementia, cardiac issues, gun violence sometimes is taking its toll. This is their last chance to implement the dream espoused by that generation's leader and model politician Newt Gingrich. And then we still have some leaders in the Republican Party like Jeff Flake, a thinker and a ponderer, who is not afraid to take the party line and is not afraid to call on common sense and decency to prevail, when he changes his mind - because he understands it is not about party, it is about America.
1
This commentary is all true, but it does not lay enough blame on social media for creating a mechanism to spread the fire.
2
Mr. Friedman, you lay all blame on your political opponents while misconstruing their views. I suggest you look in a mirror before tarring millions of Americans who simply have different political views.
In my mind, it began falling apart when Republicans stretched the Whitewater investigation far beyond its original scope (with approval from a panel of judges) and Democrats responded by defending other unethical behavior because it was unrelated to Whitewater.
Determining which side erred first is irrelevant. More important is that each side polices its own behavior before attacking the other. Sadly, neither side has any interest in enforcing norms when each is convinced the other will not return the favor. At this point, someone has to go first, and going first does not mean solely blaming the other side.
3
Neil Gorsuch, now sitting in Merrick Garland’s seat — but for Mitch MeConnell — should be asked, and expected, to resign that seat as a show of respect for us his fellow citizens and the Constitution he is sworn to uphold, which says : “The President shall appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate, justices to the Supreme Court”. McConnell’s refused to provide any venue for “advice and consent” (or rejection), and thus Gorsuch is besmirched by the process of his very appointment. It’s a matter of his integrity and self-respect.
3
If Democrats had total control, we’d have higher taxes on the rich, Medicare for All, paid-for college tuition, and stronger Social Security. Income and wealth inequality would be a smaller problem. Deficits would be lower. Women would retain control of their own reproductive decisions. This is a future that the bottom 99% should enthusiastically support. It is a historical fact that job creation, stock market returns, and GDP growth are faster under Democratic Presidents.
Republicans were driven insane by a black President and Fox News and we’re all suffering the consequences. We need immigrants to drive innovation and pay taxes to help cover our aging population. The 11 million illegal immigrants were a minor issue until Republicans decided to make it a major one. Tax cuts for the rich and corporations did not result in an increase in job creation, which was faster in Obama’s last 19 months than Trump’s first 19.
However, under Trump the 10 year debt addition trajectory is up nearly 50%. Republican policies are inferior and need to be stopped.
4
Mitch McConnell's proudest moment (denying Obama the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice) was despicable and infuriating and an extreme departure from the political norms that held our government together. I wish there was some remedy for McConnell's decision to do what he did. It has led to the current Kavanaugh moment. I don't know how we turn this around.
3
Flake talks the talk, but I doubt he will evert walk the walk. Sounds like his comments are just to ease his conscience
2
I believe that the restoration of 2 things could help our nation: first:make pork barrel politics kosher again. Yes that system was corrupt, but it permitted political foes to get together and pass legislation benefitting the country. Second restore the doctrine requiring media outlets to provide equal time for opposing views, so that Fair and Balanced regains some meaning.
Over the last 20 years, I have watched my loved ones be brainwashed by right wing media like Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. These once politically moderate, Christian folks have become angry, conspiratorial, cult-followers.
And as I watched them descending to a place filled with rage and fear, I tried to stop it. I tried to reason with them. I tried to show them that liberals and democrats love this country as much as they do. That no one was coming for their guns, or taking away their right to pray, or trying to stop them from saying "Merry Christmas."
It didn't matter. They trusted the talking heads more than they trusted me. And as they became more angry, we became less like family and more like strangers; then more like political adversaries, then enemies. Now, on the rare occasions we speak, it's never more than small talk. Deep conversations about societal issues, politics, religion, etc., are off limits to keep the peace. And this new normal makes me angry, frustrated and sad.
I don't even know how to fix my own family. I have no idea how to fix the divides that are destroying our society.
9
It's been hard to watch the slow motion downfall of the USA. US republican policy has caused every major economic failure of the past century yet Atlas Shrugs and the right wing figures it's all good, let's do it again. The thing is, the right wing really is the enemy. Not of the left, but of the idea that was America. Where those who were able could prosper, but where those that were not could contribute and be helped along the way. Somewhere the right forgot that soceity needs the people who clean the garbage bins, and that their work is honourable, even if it doesn't lead to mansions and swimming pools. The right believes that when someone is unable to contribute, they are to be denied the rights of society, The right would deny those others any kind of life simply because they can. The right IS the enemy.
3
"There’s the one between rural small-town Americans and “globalized” city slickers, who, the small-town folks are sure, look down upon them." And with Obama's "God and Guns" speech, and Clinton's "deplorables" speech, we have all the proof we need. And those who spend their days insulting the President seem to simply not care that they are also therefore insulting the millions of Americans who voted for him and still support him. We have watched the utter cruelty of what is being done to his Court nominee by the Democrats and the image will, like those speeches, not be forgotten anytime soon.
2
Tom is a little mixed up in the metaphors. The Civil War did not end with an armistice; that was the Korean War. The Civil War ended with a clear winner, and a clear loser. The South lost.
The North won the Civil War because it had more men, resources, and when the South put down its arms because it could no longer fight. This will end in a similar way; not because the sides agree to disagree, but when the Conservatives run out of people.
Like the South before them, they are on the wrong side: of demography (not enough people), of geography (mostly landlocked states without a huge economic base); of economics (yes, redistribution works), and so on the wrong side of history.
The rest of the country is moving away from the hate that is Conservatism. Those who are old, white and hate will just die off. What is left will be younger, more diverse, and prove to be the melting pot that America has always been and will always be. One side will lose. That will be the Conservatives.
10
@PB: These people won't go down without trying to instigate the Apocalypse on their way out. They don't conserve, they destroy.
1
There's no fighting human nature. You can repress it, but not perfectly and not for long.
and oh, by the way, the service academies have it about right. They all have essentially the same honor code - some variation on "I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do."
The nation would do better, if our elected representatives live by this. The nation will do better when we, the people, send the message that we will not tolerate elected representatives who fail to live by this code.
(what happened to Pompeo? Did he think the honor code only applied when he was a cadet?)
2
Ok. Now add in the part about the economic civil war waged by liberal states boycotting conservative states. Funny how Friedman sees all the faults as being on his opponents’ side and none on his. He's part of the problem he laments.
3
This article leaves out why we are even talking about Kavanaugh.
Harry Reid as Senate Majority leader, triggered the nuclear option. This prevents the other party from blocking a Presidential nomination.
I am just going to post a quote and let everyone ponder it:
“Democrats won’t be in power in perpetuity,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), a 27-year member. “This is a mistake — a big one for the long run. Maybe not for the short run. Short-term gains, but I think it changes the Senate tremendously in a bad way.”
7
@Herry
If Harry Reid had not done that, we would not have confirmed any new judges, either then or now. Republicans were blocking everyone then, and Democrats would be blocking them all now. So whose fault is it?
1
@Herry
I agree that the consequences of that decision have been a disaster. It's important to understand the context in which that decision was made: Relentless Republican obstruction of Obama's nominees.
1
But the nuclear option was triggered because of McConnell's obstructionism
1
Perhaps if you want to contribute to the solution and not feed the problem, you might avoid labeling an entire political party as insane. The fact that many people feel the exact opposite just reveals the lens you view the world through, and the camp you plant your flag in. but it does nothing to bring rapproachment. And I'm sure I'll be pilloried for even bringing this up.
3
It's too bad more writing hasn't been directed toward an examination of the likely responses to upcoming election outcomes.
The so-called president has already said he expects violence from the Democrats...who's following that up?
1
Thomas,
In your Orwellian world Americans simply don't get it.
Brett Kavanaugh was nominated because his character is exactly as advertised. The opposition to Kavanaugh because of his character simply reinforces the GOP belief he is the perfect man for the job.
That tells me there will never be a United States of America.
It is time for a 2018 Newspeak dictionary so maybe a shooting war can be averted as your country dissolves.
1
There is a divide and there most probably will be a second civil war. The conservative movement today, unlike that of Goldwater in the 60's in which communism was the enemy, is much more about deceit and ignorance than anything else. Perpetrated deliberately by a foreign presence who saw an opportunity to make a lot of money spreading libertarianism to a ripe electorate - the US. By taking over Fox in the 1980's. Rupert Murdoch changed his citizenship from Australia to the US to satisfy the requirements for TV ownership. By acquiring more media outlets he could increase his wealth enormously.
By using these outlets to sensationalize and exploit a naturally occurring rift in the political landscape, i.e., the Democrats and Republicans made business sense for someone without allegiance to the democratic process. After all, who doesn't rubberneck to see a car accident? But to deliberately inflame the public discourse by promoting innuendos and outright fabrication to an unsuspecting audience, who historically trusted in the fairness of journalists like Morrow, Cronkite, etc., is pure evil.
Expanding the divide between the left and right is the driving motivation that is Fox News today. By picking seemingly innocuous items and then sensationalizing it to the point that other media outlets pick it up to report on is the classic definition of "Fake News".
So yes, there will be a second civil war and Murdoch is the mother
and father and Trump a mere symptom.
3
News Flash -- Americans sometimes disagree.
4
If there is a civil war starting, then the Republicans are responsible. The proof ? All you need to do is look at Cable TV. Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are ruthless liars who crave power and use lying and conspiracy theories as their favorite weapons. Their equivalents, Rachel Maddow, for example, have a "spin", but their shows have substance. The same thing somehow is now transmitted to the Republican Party - Trump found an ideal landing place there.
5
I really don't know what the answer is myself, Tom. I've lost family, best friends to the tribalism, and there is no end in sight. In some ways, it seems that the evils of Vietnam have finally and irrevocably come home to roost. Trump and Mc Connell are the worst traitors to this country I've ever seen, and they're running the horror show in Washington. These are home-grown enemies of the state, out to permanently wreck the state. History has seen these creatures before, assuredly. It will not be an amicable demise, for them or us.
5
We need to have a 3rd party called the Responsible Adult Party that actually wants to govern.
4
"...a growing middle class, the Cold War and a sane Republican Party."
And the last in that list is primarily responsible for killing the first.
5
All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.
- Abraham Lincoln
9
Multiculturalism identity politics of victimization and the reductionist binary of power/oppression along with leftist Foucault theory of power and knowledge that has corrupted the mission of universities are the factor that have lead to the current Tribalism.
2
@freud.s
They are a factor. But only one factor. Another factor is the willingness of many people to be conned due to their Fox News fueled hatred.
Dear Mr. Friedman: I thoughtful piece, as always. What a disaster we now face. It's hard to understand why so many people seem to support Trump, although I believe that a significant percentage of his support has to be somewhat lukewarm and fluid. How could it not be? How could significant numbers of Americans truly support a President who is consistently abusive, regularly mocking citizens and legitimate news sources, praising dictators, speaking untruths virtually every day and so misinformed? The entire scenario seems somewhat akin to the time when Americans either were supporting or opposing the Vietnam War, but in reality so much worse. Back then, many American felt it was their patriotic duty to support the troops. But what remote equivalent could Trumpists find to support now?
2
A recent Frontline episode on Dayton Ohio: a GM plant paid workers $35/hr, before closing the plant and moving out of the country. One GM worker works for the Chinese auto glass factory, on the same site, for $13/hr. This has happened all over the rust belt, and to a lesser extent across the US. Family wage middle class jobs, except for silicon valley techs and few speciality skills jobs, are gone. The displaced workers are justifiably angry. No serious efforts from a national scale have been directed to help them. It's a no-brainer when ShysterTrump shows up and promises them help, they vote for him. Washington has forgotten them. 'Citizens United' has funneled unrestricted corporate capital into the campaigns of those who will do their biding. Wages have stagnated for 40 years and no end in sight. Both parents work, cannot save anything for emergency or their future, and forget about kids being able to go to college financially. It's a vicious circle.
Yet these very same people vote GOP, against their best interests, in their anger, and perpetuate their own demise. Sally Fields said in "Forrest Gump", "..stupid is as stupid does..". With Trump stirring up collective anger of people who just don't think, I fear this race to the bottom will continue. I agree with Senator Flake, tribalism (people such as McConnell, Ryan, Cruz, and their lot), is destroying this country. Meanwhile, they collect from their corporate donors. The revolution is coming.
1
@LaPine
"Yet these very same people vote GOP, against their best interests,"
Who was President when NAFTA was signed that sent those GM jobs overseas? What has a Democrat ever done for "flyover county" other than call us racists and bigots.
This is case of the elites (media, academy) vs. the populists. Trump was not supposed to win and the elites whose worldview is political correctness above truth cannot accept it....in fact, to the elites, truth is criminalized and people who speak it are routinely criticized, kicked out of restaurants, hounded in elevators and hallways, receive death threats and are the recipients of violence. You see this in every attempt to dredge up any kind of dirt from 35 years ago on Kavanaugh and criticize him 24/7 while elitists like Flake and Ford's attorney condemn anyone who dares to criticize an elitist (Ford, PhD, psychologist, leftist academic) such as populist Trump for speaking the truth about Ford's testimony.
2
You equate truth with trump? Wow.
What those who praise this misguided tome are missing is that the "radical" Republicans just want Amerika to stay Amerika, and the "reasonable" Democrats want to transform Amerika into something that is not Amerika. "Just leave me alone and let me lead my life" is not a radical insurgency. Blocking a SCOTUS nominee for ideological reasons using an ancient, unsubstantiated, incredible claim that cannot define date, place, and the most simple details is the act of a radical insurgency. So Sad!
1
One only needs to read these comments to understand the problem. Anyone who voted for Trump is sccorfing to these comments an evil person. For those of us who actually lived in the sixties and seventies when so many government programs were pushed this is just some push back. Obama had opposition but not the absolute hatred we see for Trump.
1
Mr. Friedman correctly states that "we can't find common ground" and "we shout at each other on Facebook", and then in his next sentence calls anyone who is a Republican or has conservative viewpoints insane. ("not sane"). He's just peddling more of the same divisive rhetoric that helped put us here in the first place. Sad....
3
After the real deadly and violent American Civil War and a brief Reconstruction era the newly freed black slaves and their descendants were abandoned to a century of separate and unequal carefully crafted and carved colored exception to the 13th Amendments abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude aka prison aka Jim Crow.
Any and every white Judeo-Christian European American was and still has a life and liberty that matters more than any African American black life. About 40% of the 2. 3 million Americans in prison ( 25% of the total prisoners with 5 % of humans ) are black like Ben Carson even though only 13 % of Americans are black. Because blacks are persecuted for acting like white people do without any criminal justice consequences.
2
This partisanship is being driven completely by the right wing media machine and I’m frankly sick of hearing about this “next civil war” garbage. We don’t need to go to war, we just need to dissolve the union. I’m tired of Republicans. I favor immigration, I repsect women and I think education and social sevices are part of living in a mature society. They don’t. Time to call it.
6
I am a progressive liberal but also a pragmatist and realize sometimes we can’t have it all immediately - the country is not ready; we live in a world of compromise that may be required to eventually achieve the end goal. I 300% agree with the analysis of the Republican Party. However, I fear that the far left is just as dangerous and just as uncompromising. Just look at the Bernie or bust people who I have a stronger anger towards than the average trump voter. They had an opportunity to ensure Trump would not win, to ensure we would not face a few generations of a right wing Supreme Court that could very easily take away a woman’s right to an abortion. The implications of their stubborn, uncompromising position are here now and could affect their children and their children’s children. They to me are just as bad as the Republican Party. I can’t forgive.
6
My divorce from the Democratic Party came early: I remembered the 1964 convention in Atlantic City and Fannie Lou Hammer trying to be recognized, and the DNC dis of Shirley Chisolm in 1972. I began to wonder why black people were so loyal to the Party. I grew up in Jersey City where the Party was controlled by the Hudson County machine, and second only in corruption to Cook County, Illinois. Things got done- but only as far as where one stood in the Party. The black community was and is useful around election time, but taken for granted otherwise. Same ol', same ol'. Now there are broader concerns.
Maybe Friedman forgot that the conflict of how we are trying to define ourselves leads to tribalism: can we be a "melting pot" society, while celebrating our diversity ? We give ourselves too much credit for thinking we understand the distinction between both. Friedman talks about this second Civil War as if we ever resolved the first one. At best, there is a DMZ, and at anytime hostilities may resume. Further, as I see it, the war right now is between elitist whites. The emerging sensibility, in most of the black community anyway, is: Resist The Draft ! Too, Freidman's observation is on a grander scale, as opposed to my meandering about my community. I concede that he's speaking to his cocktail set, not my shot-and-beer crew. Sadly, this current elitist imbroglio for the heart and soul of the republic goes on, as more "recruitment posters" get plastered on social media walls.
16
There seems to be an unbridgeable gulf, the gulf of dislike. This is based on the culture wars, different social, economic, political views, a deep enmity, and a profound lack of respect and lack of faith in and mistrust of existing institutions. All coupled with a decline of civility and common decency. I don't think this "decline and fall" can be stopped, only chronicled.
3
My suggestion, if only it could materialize: On the Supreme Court nomination, a new bloc of non-partisan Senators agrees to (1) remove the Kavanaugh nomination, (2) have Merrick Garland nominated and most likely confirmed to fill the current vacancy, deliberately correcting the terrible error by the Republicans in 2016, and (3) never again violate the custom of sitting presidents to nominate qualified new candidates for future Supreme Court vacancies. If I could dream it possible (and I will), President Trump himself should orchestrate this solution. It might even get him into the history books!
3
The polarization in the USA is not merely the result of Fox news or reckless pundits and politicians. It's the result of very real problems that have been allowed to fester for decades with no real solutions: globalization and outsourcing, economic inequality, changing technology, mass migration, racial and gender strife, healthcare, the environment. These problems are a global phenomenon which is why we're seeing the same things happening in the US also happening around the world esp Europe and Asia, things like political extremism, polarization, populism, rising nationalism, and authoritarianism. People feel scared and disconnected. There's a sense that no one is in charge, everything is becoming chaotic, and that global problems are rapidly getting out of control and that big solutions are needed immediately. There's a drive to reassert community, tribe, and national identity, and to seek solutions to these problems even at the expense of democracy or at the expense of one's opponents. There's a gravitation toward authority figures who can restore order or at least promise to. What we're basically seeing here and globally in a lot of ways is a replay of the 1930s. The real question then is what comes next?
1
Let's not forget one side pays their taxes, to varying degrees grudgingly, the other side does everything within their power to avoid paying them, and cheers those who are successful at it, and cheer the guys who would lower them or banish them altogether.
Meanwhile, our roads, bridges, schools, and institutions crumble and sink into the "sorry, we don't have the money" swamp while our deficit explodes. Two words: Grover Norquist
8
‘What stops it? When a majority of Americans, who are still center-left and center-right, come together and vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it — now, right now, not just when they’re leaving office or on their death beds.’
By talking about the ‘center-left’, Friedman assumes that there is a ‘far left’. But there is no such thing as a ‘far left’ in US politics. It’s a chimera.
The problem is that our country has moved so far right in the past few decades that ideas that were once considered simple common sense (e.g. coal mining companies shouldn’t be allowed to dump toxic chemicals into lakes and streams; companies should pay their workers a living wage) are now considered radical.
13
I heard an interview of Greg Miller (Terry Gross, Fresh Air, October 1, 2018) where Mr. Miller said that during the summer of 2016, when CIA director Brennan was convinced that the Russians were interfering with our election process, he approached the White House and all leaders of Congress.
Mr. Miller indicated that Sen Majority Leader McConnell refused to cooperate with the White House and Director Brennan in issuing a strong statement and taking action. Apparently, McConnell threatened to take a public stance that if the White House did anything, McConnell and the GOP would turn it around and accuse the Democrats of tampering with the election. Mr. Miller was asked if he thought this was treason, and while he didn't say that word, he expressed deep distress about McConnell's action.
I think that is our politics in a nutshell. Party over national interests, and party power over democracy. McConnell to me is scarier than Trump in his dismantling of our republic.
15
I see many are calling for the restoration of a 60-vote threshold on confirmation in the Senate. This is the wrong approach. The correct approach is abolition or reform of the Senate, which is an inherently anti-democratic (small d) institution by design, and which represents a weakness in our system that has now been exploited by enemies foreign (Russia, at least) and domestic (the Koch Brothers, the Mercer family and other billionaires).
While we're at it, we need to abolish--not merely reform, but abolish--the electoral college, the other anti-democratic holdover from the slave state compromise baked into our Constitution. As long as our Executive is selected by electors apportioned anti-democratically, we offer our own oligarchs and foreign powers a powerful lever to divide us, by propagandizing to the over-represented in rural states and areas. Similarly, as long as the primary check on that Executive is a legislative chamber whose members represent political subdivisions divorced from the national polity, the same lever will topple both bulwarks simultaneously. The same efforts that go into stealing the Presidency serve dual purposes to steal the Senate. With both the President and the Senate in pocket, the Supreme Court will remain fallen, as it has been for many years now.
This will not solve the gerrymandering problem in our House, nor the distorting effects of first-past-the-post elections, but it is a far better solution than seeking refuge in a failed tradition.
8
@Daniel
"While we're at it, we need to abolish--not merely reform, but abolish--the electoral college"
FYI: This is, in fact, one of the things that WILL trigger a civil war from those "over-represented rural states and areas"
2
@Daniel
Tyranny of the majority will not end well either
1
Term limits. Term limits MUST be enacted. RIght now our senate cannot think of anything but themselves. If we had term limits I suspect that we’d get more leaders like Jeff Flake. He is doing what he believes is the right thing to do because he is not up for re-election.
It is so plainly apparent to me that term limits would help this process greatly. Our elected officials are not mature enough to think beyond their own nose.
7
@Rocco Capobianco
The tax fattened congress should be term limited and their health care and retirement benefits should be linked directly to what average citizens get.
6
@Clyde ortega agreed. We need to take the personal incentives away from our elected officials who often times come into power with little savings and leave as millionaires.
2
When people vote in November, they need to think about our representative democracy in this present political and cultural climate. Is really a good thing for one political party to hold the presidency, the Congress and the Supreme Court (and most state governorships and legislatures)? And if that party uses its power to get its way on everything, virtually shutting out and shutting up the minority party's representatives, do we still have a representative democracy? Next question: Do we still WANT a democracy?
1
“The G.O.P. has lost its way” Mr. Friedman says. Actually, not so.
Though many of us abhor the machinations the G.O.P. has used to control how our government works — which the article enumerates very well — in fact, the government currently in place is quite successful at disemboweling our social safety net and eliminating business and environmental oversight and control. Though many of us rail against whatever the latest insult is to our values brought about by our lying president and his minions, they are ruthlessly proceeding with appointing ultra conservative judges, enriching themselves with tax cuts (laying more burden on the rest of us), allowing businesses to pollute our land, etc.
If only it were so, that the G.O.P. would lose its way. Perhaps it might even re-discover the Teddy Roosevelt version of conservatism.
As for the rest of the column, kudos. It seems a precursor to a situation depicted in the recent novel, “American War,” depicting a landscape we should all hope we can avoid.
3
We are in the midst of a civil war thankfully without violence except for the white separates in VA. The country is not being run as a democracy as the popular vote was 3million against the winner who benefited from gerrymandering, denial of votes and foreign interference . With another conservative on the court how will we ever get popular vote election and not a ruling by the white entitled money interests and the poor whites afraid of immigrants. It just keeps getting worse as the decisions by congress do not represent majority opinion but only that of the few entitled with money. Let's hope the next election bring a slate of more suitable representatives and clear information to which the majority is entitled .
2
@saizwho
Just how does one gerrymander a national election?
2
@saizwho The battle is between people like you (post-truth post-Democracy folk who despise the electoral college) with populists. Trump won (a fact the post -Democracy types cannot accept) based on the rules of the game (the electoral college) and that truth is simply unacceptable to the elites. Rather than argue for your perspective, the tactics employed are violence, kicking people out of restaurants, accosting them in public places, and making the truth illegal. Just try talking about immigration.
3
@saizwho
If you want more votes, maybe you can start by not demonizing white people simply because they are white. You take the time to call out an entire race three times in your post. This is a big reason why the left lost everyone outside of three metropolitan areas.
3
Of course a foreign country could conquer America. Putin would agree.
1
What a shame when the likes of Thomas Friedman becomes so intellectually dishonest. Really? Our problem is that the Republican Party no longer views Russia as a serious enemy? Did Mr Friedman miss “ the 1980’s wants their foreign policy back” exchange between Romney and Obama? Did he likewise miss the “Biden Rule” that said that Supreme Court vacancies timed as was Merrick Garland’s would not be considered? Is he simply ignoring the way the sexual assault accusations against Keith Ellison are being treated as opposed the national uproar over the questionable accusations against Brett Kavanaugh. Accusing Judge Kavanaugh of defending himself with nasty partisan attacks? How ridiculous! Had the judge simply defended himself in the same laconic manner as he did in his Fox News interview, I am sure much of the media and the country would have rightly wondered how a man so vilely accused and who believed himself innocent could not have raged against his accusers. Would Mr. Friedman have sat by quietly had he been wrongly accused, his career been potentially derailed and his family been attacked, threatened and besmirched? What does Mr Friedman think of the cartoon in The Illinois Times depicting Judge Kavanaugh’s daughter praying for her father “the sex offender”? The country IS fraying at the seams and there are crazies aplenty .... but ignoring the insanity from an entire segment of the country is simply that...insane.
6
1 I’m surprised you just figured this out. Your a very intelligent and articulate person
2 Read the newspaper you wrote this for. They are part of the problem with the opinionated reporting, and fanning the flames of the divide you write about.
6
@BM
Indeed. The writer needs to tell us something we don't know.
1
Sadly, the GOP has now become the POG - the Party of Greed.
2
my hunch, mr. friedman, is that you have never been in a streetfight where your attacker was intent on hurting or killing you. had you experienced such an event you would understand that when the thug knocks you down it is not the time to display your advanced levels of civility and fairness.
this reality has to be accepted. trump and his millions of moronic minions, as well as the republican party, mean to do harm to: black people, Hispanic immigrants, muslims, the gay community, atheists and agnostics, union workers, federal employees, academics, and (of course) liberals.
the neo-confederacy is real and it must be resisted, fought, and defeated.
2
America is deeply divided. Wow. That's some deep political analysis. How do I get a job writing this kind of analysis?
3
All empires rot from within.
3
I will know what we are up against when the numbers are reported on Trump’s rallies. More than numbers — data. How many, who are they, are they first-timers or repeaters? Are they groupies who follow his rallies from state to state? A map of his rallies across the lower 48. How many times does he go back to the same trough? How much of a con show or real demographic threat are his rallies?
Right now I know nothing because nothing of actual data is ever reported.
New York Times?
5
Irony: The difference between perception and reality. The irony is that this writer actually thinks he is not a part of the problem. Let me tell you has happened! The Democratic party left American mainstream so many years ago it is in a galaxy far, far away! The Republican party, on the other hand, had a hefty set of good principles on the books but paid little heed to them. The America that I know was left in the middle watching both of these parties subvert American principles. They were sick and tired of it. Hence, Donald Trump. He was elected by people that were sick and tired of both parties saying one thing and doing the other. The irony is a writer that acts like 'nobody wants to compromise'. You are damn right about that! Who wants to compromise with parties that want to spend into oblivion, tax akin to Socialism, and want all our rights and obligations thrown into the gutter! Go look in the mirror, instead of making me laugh at the hypocrisy and irony that is rampant in an article like this. It isn't my fault that political parties don't stand for any thing. It isn't my fault if millennials think that Socialism is a wonderful system and that being irresponsible doesn't matter. If Tribalism means standing for something, then tell me which tribe to join. What a joke! I like Tribalism, if it means people have to decide what it is that they believe!
6
It would be an interesting thought experiment to have 70% of "respected newspapers" tar Mr. Friedman for two weeks as having been a gang rapist when he was 17 -- sans any evidence whatsoever -- and then have him submit to a video interview with the NYT on whether he should still be permitted his job.
No doubt we would we see a Buddhistic self-composure and not one jot of anger.
8
Nice attempt, but when you, a member of the left-wing tribe, have to in the end blame the other tribe, you lose all credibility. Democrats are just as to blame as Republicans.
5
Dear Thomas:
You can pin the inflection point to the passage of Citizens United. That opened the floodgates of unlimited political influence money.
Draw that arc through the defection of Edward Snowden, and him turning over the keys to the digital kingdom to Putin, and you have a perfect storm.
The convergence of those two events is what allowed unbridled tribalism to run amok. The only way to fix it is to dam up the river of cash and throw Trumpists out before we end up with a thousand year Reich.
Love,
The Last of Us
1
If there is a civil war it will be because the pro-illegal immigration groups refuse to compromise.
It is clear what their goal is. I see it every day in the paper- references to 'angry' and 'privileged' white men. The inevitable changing of 'demographics.'
The pro-illegal immigration groups want to completely change the makeup of this country. They have declared war on citizens (white) that they find undeserving of political power.
They have flooded this country, intentionally, with foreigners with the sole intent of stealing political power. It is disgusting and un-democratic.
Franco did the same thing in the Spanish Civil War. He imported foreigners to kill his own citizens.
If the pro-illegal immigration groups, and their allies in the Democratic party, seize power they will legalize 20 million criminals and they will cement their political power for all time.
And the US will be another third-world country. Full of crime and racial hatred.
4
@WillT26
Truth
Your last sentence, though
Really , and it’s not already? Which president has fanned those flames?
Your description of men's divide shows that you are not able to actually find the middle ground. Your mischaracterization of the issue of lack of due process suggests you are not the one to write this sort of column.
2
In a nutshell, Friedman is saying “divisiveness is ruining this country, and it’s the fault of Republicans.”
I’m a straight, white, conservative Christian male and have (gasp!) blue eyes to boot.
If Mr. Friedman or Mr. Flake does not believe that there are millions upon millions of leftists who automatically view me as “the enemy”, they are delusional, stupid, or both.
Let’s go ahead and get the next Civil War over with. We’ll bring our AR-15’s. You bring your hashtags
8
In politics is like physics: there's a reaction to every action. McConnell's victory at scuttling Garland isn't the last word. If necessary, an all-Democrat gov't will pack the court, and get it done this time. But that won't be the last word either.
Kavanaugh may get on the court. Under Maryland law he can't be arrested for attempted rape 36 years ago. But he can be for actual rape. Go ahead, believe it's all fake news. It isn't. All those who went after Clinton, the three House leaders and Starr, have fallen, for sex-related offenses. It's not coincidence. Guilty consciences attack people who commit their own crimes.
If he did rape someone, and he gets on the court, Democrats should gather evidence and bring it forward once a Democrat is President.
Let the Trump base fume. Fox viewers average 75 years old. It's big money that inflates them.
After all, if Hillary behaved with Putin the way Trump does, she'd be lucky to survive. There are Israelis who still believe Yigal Amir is a hero.
@Brian McConnell exercised his right as the leader of the majority party (duly elected I might add) to employ the exact same argument made by Joe Biden in 1992 to not allow for the nomination of a SCOTUS judge in a Presidential election year. He said, the people will chose in the Nov 2016 election who will pick the nominee. Dems lost the election and the people picked who picks the nominees and the GOP still runs the Senate. Had Hillary won, she would have dissed Garland also as he was too conservative. what is not acceptable to the anti-Democracy anti-Republic left elitists is the idea that populists won based on the way the game is played.
1
@Brian
Clinton went down for sexual offenses too, which were absolutely proven and were an abuse of power because the victim was the employee of the perpetrator.
And I'll stop believing it's fake news when there's some actual proof of a sexual assault. 36 year-old memories are very shaky evidence, which is one reason for statutes of limitation.
3
Are you crazy? The democrat party is the most clear and present danger to the survival of the United States of America. Your party doesn't support the constitution and only platform is to divide and conquer Americans based upon race, gender, religion, ethnicity and sexual preference. Democrats no longer see us as American citizens but views each through a prism to exploit for votes.
7
The tribe has become too big to be cohesive.
3
@KJ
It's become to diverse to be cohesive.
1
Just witnessed Trumps put down of Fords testimony at his rally in Mississippi. Just disgusting. America is doomed.
1
@evans head
What was it that Trump said about Dr. Ford' s testimony wasn't true? She actually remembers where or when the alleged incident occurred? No. Her witnesses corroborated her testimony? No. How she got there or got home? No. At what point in time did stating the facts of an issue become a put down & disgusting?
3
@WCHJ66
Just for a moment, rule out the he said/she said divide.
Your president chose to mock and make fun of the woman who is a wife and mother , which then makes the 6 o'clock news in countries all round the world .
What about a bit of common decency?
If you didn't see it as mocking and disgusting then you are in the minority.
It was only a couple of days ago he said her testimony was very credible.
Trump could drown puppies live on stage at a rally and get a standing ovation.
Thank goodness for Thomas Friedman and Times commenters. I would have no idea what values are more important and what politicians are more morally superior. Also glad good old Tom no longer takes a salary as he laments all that are profiting over the division and thats all he writes about.
Most readers of the Times still do not understand the dynamics of what elected Donald Trump. It is because he is not a politician, he doesn't adhere to the norm, he does talk about America first and because he has delivered on his promises. And yet all that is ignored by the liberal media in attempt to garner pay back for the foolish act of the American people in electing him and the entire congress.
If this is the beginning of a civil war the Times is as culpable as any other source.
3
@David Baker
Absolutely. Republicans grumbled about Obama, but they didn't conspire to overturn the election in this treasonous manner.
3
@Stan
Right. Ol' Mitch just said the only goal for republicans was to make sure the Obama presidency was a failed one, consequences for America be damned. Nothing traitorous there at all, right?
The country is horribly divided and it's all the Republicans fault. A more erroneous, ignorant view of the world would be difficult to achieve.
3
This article calls for renewed civility and bipartisanship. And yet, half the article is spent blaming the right for everything--as is typical of the NYT. So which is it, Thomas? Do you want ACTUAL bipartisanship? Or do you just want to keep calling the right "the enemy" with whom you "can't find common ground on which to respectfully disagree"?
3
@Joe
Exactly. A pretense of impartiality hiding rabid globalism.
3
So, it all the Republicans fault aye? Democrats screaming about kavanaugh throwing an ice cube 30 years ago. Digging up someone from even farther back to lie about sexual assault and then hiding their find until just before the vote, antifa thugs assaulting people in the streets for supporting the wrong candidate, speech codes on campus, the never ending denegration of white heterrosexual men (the only group that can be mocked, excluded and threatened with impunity,) every Democrat in the Senate voting for a constitutional amendment to undermine free political speech. Endless delays on every Trump nominee no matter how uncontroversial. So the Democrats never did anything to contribute to this civil way huh?
You can analyze what going on-- and you're right, there's a civil war brewing. But you decided to be just another partisan rock thrower and examine only one side. You should go back to Lebanon until you smarten up.
6
On the day Tom Friedman’s parent publisher publishes a decidedly partisan attack on POTUS using information that a weaponized IRS already had but did nothing with (There is no there, there). Friedman decries the behavior of the Republicans that is in response to the democrats. This would not be the first time a New York paper started a war to make money- Spanish American war, USS Maine. They use to teach that in history
5
Yes, that is the solution, but only partly, One must take a step back to speak to how Americans - from the Centres and across the Left - can regain that courage and, as important, keep that courage vital in the complex future our world faces. Im sorry to say, I'm not hearing that from you, Mr. Friedman.
2
The Republican party will no doubt destroy what is best in America, diversity and fellowship. They feel left out, as they are unwilling to include peoples whom are different in all ways. When I see a sign designating some candidate a "conservative", I know that person wants to dictate personal choices for me. I am so saddened that more Americans have not voted in the past for people who care about them and their lives. Mr. Friedman is correct in his opinion that this is a civil war. Please get out and vote on Nov 6, for the person who has your interest at heart: not their interests at heart.
4
@Cecily Ryan.
Hmm. When I see a Democrat, I see a person who wants to dictate personal choices for ME: Cut me out of the internet if my views are too conservative, take away my guns that I've not managed to shoot anyone with for the 4o+ years I've owned them, take more of my income to redistribute to people more to their liking. In return, they give me the liberty to smoke weed and for my daughter to kill an unwanted fetus.
3
The problem there is nobody to lead us. The Left is equally pathetic. Think Schumer - Pelosi.
4
@Crow
Most decent and competent people stay as far away from a political career as possible. Mostly it's sociopathic egomaniacs and incompetent slackers who are left to run for office. On BOTH sides of the aisle.
What a joke. This article should be labeled, WHY MY SIDE IS JUSTIFIED DESTROYING OUR ENEMIES. It is a completely partisan hack job disguised as a plea to the sanity and rationality of the American dream. This is a one sided look at how the other side started it and a reassurance to the writer that picking up his pitchfork is a means of defense and not the destruction of those who have the audacity to disagree with him. Completely shameful!!
7
I never thought the United States would fall for a lying demagogue that trades in manipulation of their worst fears and hatred, but I was wrong. Witness the willfully ignorant, arrogantly stupid at these Trump pep rallys. Facts and evidence do not matter. The tribe stays in it's silo of Faux News, the echo chamber of state propaganda.
5
"Now there is only a high-wage, high-skilled job and a low-wage, low-skilled job. And that has fractured the middle class and left a lot of people behind."
Fix that and it will put an end to this rather (Un) Civil War.
It is amazing how much better people are able to get along when most of them are not a couple of missed paychecks away from catastrophe.
Divisions will still exist but we will not be at each others throats.
4
@Concernicus
I agree, however the solution would be socialist in nature.
You would need to improve your education systems, perhaps even provide free post secondary education.
@Concernicus
Throw in an immigration moratorium and I'm on your side.
If anyone can bring the country together again it's Donald J. Trump!
3
I'm watching Sarah Sanders at the moment.
The problem is the power of the lie. Hitler and Goebbels knew it. Trump knows it. Sanders is a "good American."
The crowds of white people placed behind Trump at one of his rallies fulfill a default human condition: the willingness to believe lies that are convenient and that appeal to emotion rather than intellect.
It's time for the anti-trump majority to start calling it what it is. These people are ignorant, many of them perhaps willfully so. But they are the minority that has been given dominance over the majority by gerrymandering, the electoral college, the SC (Bush v. Gore), etc. It's time for the majority tribe to assert itself.
8
Mr. Friedman was predictably biased in his analysis, even if I share his larger lament. A few examples:
"And nothing is sacred. Brett Kavanaugh defended himself the other day with the kind of nasty partisan attacks and ugly conspiracy theories that you’d expect only from a talk radio host — never from a would-be justice of the Supreme Court. Who can expect fairness from him now?"
50% of the country saw the exact opposite. They saw a man who had been tried and convicted of being a gang rapist in your paper and many other places, Sir, sans any corroborating evidence whatsoever -- and the very normal human anger that anyone (who might not be guilty of gang rape after all) should properly display under such burning in effigy for two straight weeks.
You hilariously catalog the sanity of the Republican Party as one member of your nuclear triad without mentioning a new Democratic Party dedicated to open borders, ending ICE, making everything free under the sun, identity politics and all the irrationality inherent, guilty-by-accusation alone, a belief in treaties negotiated by presidential fiat alone -- and a party which is frustrated that holding both the Senate and the Presidency due to these phenomena called "elections" should have more say over the probable elevation of a justice to SCOTUS than one which held only the presidency. (Or take the ACLU, now running ads conflating Kavanaugh with Cosby.)
Many rightly fear this hard left gaining much more in the way of power.
8
@John Linton
It would be, essentially, the reconstituted Soviet Union, and it'd end pretty much the same way.
2
Yes, it would be nice if Democrats and Republicans could get along better. But please pay attention to what's in front of us. The Republican leadership are no longer our partners in democracy who simply have different political views. They have chosen to break and overwhelm our democratic processes by gerrymandering, voter suppression and dark money campaign financing. Now they are packing the federal courts with judges who will enable their partisan agenda. Hard as it may be to accept, the Republican Party has walked away from our democracy in favor of gaining unassailable--I repeat, unassailable--power for themselves as a minority party.
5
@DJY
And the Dems have broken that process with massive encouragement of illegal immigration, attempted thought suppression via social ostracism of any ideas to the right of Lenin, and legislating through judges who ignore the law in order to push a political agenda. See? Si?
1
Much of what Mr. Friedman describes in his article is a good description of our current situation and how we got here. However; he leaves out some important events. The great recession of 2008 was the coup to gras to the America we knew. It was a Keynesian tricle down moment that failed to lift all boat; but, did rapidly and quite obscenely lift the worth of the 0.1%. Most particularly the people and industries who were most responsible for the great recession made out like bandits while a much greater number of Americans lost their jobs, their homes, their savings,their trust of honesty and rewards of justice. From the tea party to the 99% movement to the folks who elected Donald Trump, they are all the result of the failure of trickle down economics as practiced by our best economists left or right.
The mistrust of the elites that these events have created in minds of most Americans left or right and their search for someone who can bring back the America of 60 years ago has caused the great divide in America. We are like Europe was in the 1920 and 30s trying to reestablish some mythical golden age pre WW l with the left and right squaring off in the papers, the parliaments, the streets and finally WW ll. We have become what, Louise Penny described in one of her books, a rowboat society. We are looking backwards at the past as we row hard unware where all our efforts are leading us.
2
As a Canadian I have been watching these last few years as the USA I grew up with, the USA of space exploration, the civil rights movement, the World Series, Broadway, technological innovation and really cool cars, slowly disappears. When Trump was elected I told my daughter that she was alive at the beginning of the end of the USA as a world power. For those of us who used to love you, please do something to stop this slow and seemingly inevitable decline into mediocrity, mendacity and meanness.
6
@Nancy D Don't worry. We are still the USA of space exploration, the civil rights movement, the World Series, Broadway, technological innovation and really cool cars. And we are just as much a world power as ever.
People ought to lighten up. There's no more mediocrity, mendacity and meanness under Donald Trump than under previous presidents. Sure, Donald Trump has a different personality than Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. He uses hyperbole -- he's more Ciceronian than Cicero -- and he fights for what he wants. That bothers some.
But at heart he's not a bad guy. He puts his country first, but not only. He knows how to make a deal. While he may take more credit than is due, you have to be pretty churlish to deny him any credit for our strong economy and the results in Korea.
The American president can't save the world. Some seemed to think Barack Obama could, and gave him the Nobel Peace Prize before he even got started. That award now looks like a joke. If Donald Trump were given the same prize, it would be deserved. Certainly he's done more than someone like Justin Trudeau.
Tell your daughter that.
4
@Nancy D
Yes, and the decline coincided with the rise of the left. America was great when it was stable, conservative, and self-controlled. It lost it when it became diverse, liberal, and tolerant of anything and everything except what used to be considered normal.
2
@Stan
To so summarize (and correct me if I'm wrong), America was great when it was racist, sexist, and homophobic? As soon as all citizens started gaining equal treatments (or heading in that direction), things fell apart in your eyes?
The thing that keeps me up at night--we are all hoping in the magic power of the vote--what if the vote doesn't work?
2
The far greater danger to this country is from within, to paraphrase
the retired marine colonel ,is spot on. Unfortunately we have a President who stoking the fires and a powerful national TV network
to back him up. The future looks bleak.
5
Our instincts to avoid those who do not see the world the way we do are now working against us. We must, no matter how painful, attempt to reconcile with those we think mean us harm - not to do so will ruin our beautiful America. Let us agree to disagree, but not attack or retreat, but to listen and think, and do the hard work of coming back together. The forces that brought us to this place must be exposed to the light. The realization that the pursuit of profits has driven this division must be seen. Our entire nation has been sold-out to the advertisers on cable news and social media. The more divisive, the higher the ratings, and the more money to be made. The unholy alliance between industry and media has driven our madness. CNN and FOX exist to make money FIRST. Don't ever forget it.
2
@Ultramayan
I disagree to some extent. The NYT, for instance, does in fact put politics before profit, because if they weren't so blatantly partisan they would probably have a greatly expanded readership.
3
I find Mr Friedman's article interesting. What is interesting is he and others that have contributed their opinions in the comments section are willing to point out that it is the other side that is at fault, not us. Our convictions are pure and right and therefore our methods are also pure. As Jesus stated in a famous parabel, "People see the sliver in other's eye, but fail to see the plank in their own", shows the ability to look introspectively is so rare, it is a superpower. Friedman's article is an example of this as he lists examples from the right, but ignores the left as they drive out GOP politicans from public places like airports and restaurants.
The debate in this country will continue and it is a good thing. The level of civility is what is the bad thing. Recently, I joked to my wife that I should hold out a sign that stated "In defense of the 1st Amendment, please offend me". The American Experiment demands free speech, but also demands that you will be offended and must accept that offense. This is part of being an American. As a new year approaches, let's continue debates in this country, but let's keep it civil and respectful. That goes for both sides.
4
@Jim H
And in your genial praise for the First Amendment -- which I deeply enjoin, Sir -- you have alighted on one of the frenzies that more contaminates Mr. Friedman's side, that being the denial of speech. (Not to mention due process.)
2
Yet it is a bunch of Democrats trying to trash a man and his family with false allegations with ZERO evidence. As a man of color, if this new standard of "credibility" determines crime allegation....I am screwed. Imagine me, brown and working class, having to refute a negative against a Ivy league over educated, private schooled, rich progressive white women like Mrs Ford......
6
I vote for the 'two-party system' as the core problem of electile dysfunction. Right-left, Rep-Dem, liberal-conservative, hawk-dove, is a limited menu of political options.
I was reading with interest until you wrote "sane Republican party". It isn't republicans screaming at democrats at restaurants and their homes. It isn't republicans rioting over a lost election. It isn't republicans attacking left wing speakers at universities. It isn't republicans shooting democrat congressmen at baseball games. Insane indeed.
30
@Patrick
Nice cherry picking.
It is the Republicans working only for the wealthy. Increasing the deficit by zillions in order to give the wealthy a tax cut they don't need. Inciting hatred and racism. Destroying the long-standing norms of our republic. Actively and aggressively suppressing voting rights. Destroying public education. Actively working to permanently destroy the social safety nets millions need to survive. Destroying the environment. And there's more. These actions hardly compare to getting shouted out of a restaurant, or protested at a speaking engagement. No one rioted over a lost election. That is a lie. And, if the Republicans would stop propping up the NRA, maybe that congressman would not have been shot while he played baseball.
6
@Patrick It's because the rich Republicans are all in their gated communities and the poorer ones are holed up with their guns. I wonder what they're afraid of.
3
@Patrick: You don't need to do aggressive and violent things if you're already in control. That's why Kavanagh's tantrum was such a shock: the rulers of the country are always civilized and smiling. For that matter, that's why Trump was such a shock: those in power are not accustomed to the naked face of discourtesy being loosed.
4
"After the end of the Cold War..." you begin, but neglect to mention: the soviets were broke; north korea was a village; and iran, though a mess of our own making, was nowhere near the center for terrorism that it has become...all of this occurred under the kind of complacency that began after ww2 and reached full stride as madison avenue took over main street (no one can say we weren't warned, the 1948 film "the hucksters" put it out there), a complacency or maybe better, a distraction (by all the glittery bits of materialism) that has metastasized.
inattentive foreign policy gave us the
changes noted above, the social problems that came from profit taking from (the glittery bits again) without reinvestment (societal responsibility) in, the republic.
name it...education (free inquiry and debate on campus, please...), the economy, (huge debt, greater gaps, big bubbles bursting. bail outs, with their financial burdens, gasp, socialized.
and finally our politics, divisive by choice (the baskets of the campaign symbolic of the left effort to divide the "pluribus" and conquer the "umum"...and now, with h(R)c at it again, continuing the process, which, this long time progressive sez, is providing no cogent opposition, only trash talk and the promise of more trump.
lenin's ghost must love it, mlk's is in tears.
2
Its easy to believe the craven and soulless manipulators like Gingrich and McConnell are responsible, but at the end of the day, the fault rests with the benighted masses who treat politics like a reality TV show, fail to read up on and understand the issues that confront us and our children today, and continue to blindly and spitefully hurl themselves in the abyss quite contrary to their own interests--taking the rest of us with them.
Nope, I'm not sympathetic.
1
"No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's." that's the upside of the globalization that Mr. Friedman & virtually every corporatist Democratic & Republican politician have espoused since Regan. The downside is that now neighboring states & towns are going to war.
1
We need to get back to a LIMITED federal government!
Virtually every contentious issue should be decided at the state level. That way, if you don't like something in your state, you can go somewhere else and still live in this great country.
From Wikipedia: "The Tenth Amendment ... expresses the principle of federalism and states' rights, which strictly supports the entire plan of the original Constitution for the United States of America, by stating that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated to it by the United States Constitution. All remaining powers are reserved for the states or the people."
If people in one state want to teach their children scientifically inaccurate things, and those in another want to allow late term abortions, they should be free to do so. Furthermore, as long as it is on their own dime, the other states shouldn't have a say in those decisions.
The variety of thought in this country is what makes it special and unique. We have should have 50 experiments, each evolving into a better places for their citizens.
2
Has one of these Republican tribalists been taught how the Roman Empire died mostly from within?
Ever since the days of Ronald Reagan, the Republicans have pushed for a deep divide in order to gain power. Now they have it! Isn't it great to have a person like Trump in office as leader of the so called free world, aided and abetted by Mitch McConnell.
With this country's deep focus on war, guns, and greed, the corruption just gets worse every year. It's time for all people if they care about this country to move in a new direction. Hopefully, this will take place in November. It's sad to watch Trump, the modern day Nero, play his fiddle of lies and misinformation, while the country burns down around him.
Perhaps a little balance to some of the statements would be useful.
"... Now there is only a high-wage, high-skilled job and a low-wage, low-skilled job."
Perhaps the Left's emphasis on a college education, embrace of "xxx Studies" degrees and the denouncement of "For Profit" educational institutions (many of them post HS trade schools) have some bearing. The country is in dire need of skilled tradesman. I see many job ads for ,welders, carpenters, electricians, etc. I have yet to see an ad stating degree in XXX Studies required.
"... 'globalized' city slickers, who, the small-town folks are sure, look down upon them."
HHHMMmmmm, could comments of, "Basket of Deplorables," "cling to guns, or religion" and like statements foster that feeling?
<i>"... McConnell denying Obama his constitutional right to appoint a Supreme Court justice with almost </i> a year left in Obama’s term"
- 25 Jun 1992, Biden said:
“It is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow, or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of the majority of his predecessors and not name a nominee until the November election is completed.”
- 27 Jul 07 - more than 18 months remaining in the Bush Presidency
Senator Charles Schumer:
“With respect to the Supreme Court at least, I will recommend to my colleagues that we should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances."
1
I fear we can no longer turn this ship around. Trump's despicable behavior is only the tip of the iceberg, below him are tens of millions of Americans who are addicted to the adrenaline rush of outrage. Chaos has come again.
5
"What stops it? When a majority of Americans, who are still center-left and center-right, come together and vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it — now, right now, not just when they’re leaving office or on their death beds."
In order to do this we must find the essence of who we are: Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Native Amercan, atheist (as atheists are deeply spiritual also). This tribalism, this hatred for the Other, reaches far deeper than political party, class or ethnicity. There is a core value in each of us that knows we are all one yet refuses to acknowledge this transfigurative fact. We don't want to be transfigured. We want, not oneness with all, but all for this one, this self. This existential struggle is daily fueled by Trump, and this may be a boon. He may be doing us a favor. We cannot avoid the hate he spews. The alternative is for us to love and dissolve this hate, smother this civil war.
It's all a con
Fox "news" is a perfect example of the con.
If you are part of the Rich and Greedy Elite -- already controlling most of the nation's wealth and power, and seeking the rest -- what would your strategy be?
You don't fear unions -- they are virtually powerless to challenge your wealth and dominance. Boycotts are ineffective if you are, say, AIG -- who can boycott you -- and how? State government, especially red state government are already "pro-business" -- no worries there. Move there if needed.
The only fear is a progressive federal government -- how can you prevent that? Thus Fox: Create false narratives to attract poorly-educated whites to your side -- there are not enough rich people alone to support you.
You need allies who -- make make them think think they could be rich -- that Liberals are preventing that through taxes and regulations. Those things could provide a better safety net, schools, infrastructure and cleaner environment -- but convince them otherwise. Add guns and abortion -- Bingo!
Tell them that Democrats care *only* about "illegals* and minorities -- and hate "hard-working Americans" (i.e., white people) in that dog-whistle. All this adds up to a giant DISTRACTION -- one that keeps, at all costs -- working-class whites from realizing that as they continue to support GOP help-the-rich policies that they themselves continue to circle the drain.
That's the con -- with Trump as master con-man. Democrats need to convey this.
5
@Hangdogit It seems to me that you are the one lacking in education. Progressivism has led to the criminalizing of people who think differently than they do - thus of us for example who desire that our elected representatives in Congress write the legislation, not Federal agencies who are unaccountable to us. You can't talk about immigration or Brexit or tax cuts or the second amendment or protecting the pre-born, or acceptable political discourse say the elite snobs. It is gotten to the point where pc dominates and populism will rise and keep rising against it. It will happen on Nov 6.
3
Give me a break, Tom Friedman. You're just as partisan as anybody. And the divide between the Republicans and the Democrats is nothing new.
Just look back in history to the venom directed at Thomas Jefferson. And read Mark Twain's satirical essay "Running for Governor". And recall Preston Brooks (a Democrat) savagely beating Charles Sumner (a Republican) with a walking stick on the floor of the United States Senate.
Yes, passions are high. They always are. There's always something political to get upset about. But to single out the Republicans for blame, as you do, is silly. Your own partisan leanings make you take a side while calling for not taking sides.
Fact is, there is no right or wrong in politics, just personal views. We can never know if Obamacare is the best law we can have or whether abortion should be available at any time on demand. Opinions differ.
Sure, some people on both sides are giving their passions free rein instead of more prudently bridling them in. But nobody seems to be breaking the law. And to suggest that we are anywhere close to a "civil war" is ludicrous.
Let people be passionate. We'll survive this. Like Robert Mueller's Russian investigation, after a while people just move on to something else. What seems to be of great importance ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Or sometimes, not even that.
4
I keep seeing and hearing pieces like this, and while the lie that "both sides are same" is not being repeated all the time and the republican party is taking its fair share of the blame, I don't hear the name Rupert Murdock or the word fox news.
The propaganda that spews from the pie holes of the traitors who work at fox is a big part of the reason so many rural and small town folks think we city folk look down on them.
After watching their unbending support for the so called man in the White House I do look down on them. I didn't used to, but there is no avoiding it now.
3
"Partisanship is awful! And it's all the other side's fault!"
4
I get very tired of these "both sides" articles in the Times.
There's only one side here that actively rejects science.
There's only one side here that tries to make Christianity a state religion.
There's only one side here that preaches hatred of "the other" - anyone who isn't a member of their tribe.
There's only one side here that enthusiastically supports a corrupt President and his corrupt and unqualified lackeys.
There's only one side here that tries to give more to the richest among us at the expense of everyone else.
There's only one side here that consistently values raw power over the good of all Americans.
There's only one side here that actively looks to take away people's constitutional right to vote.
This isn't a "both side do it, so be nice and talk to each other" issue. So stop framing it that way.
5
@RWilsker - it is a common mistake to believe that trying to understand the enemy means sympathizing, collaboration or agreement. Look what you've written here. Like most comments, it may be true, but it accomplishes nothing. You could say it encourages votes in our favor, but NYTimes comment sections are the choir already. And even if there is a Blue Wave in November, the Trump supporters and GOP are not going away. If anything, they could become more extreme. Sooner or later we have to apply cool analysis to the divisions. Without name calling and finger pointing, as those are fruitless dead-ends. If we are better at logic, if we believe in logic, why aren't we applying it to seek solutions? It isn't enough to be "right"......we have to figure a way out of this mess. It's only the nation at stake.
4
The extreme self righteousness, general stereotyping and demagoguery, and complete lack of self awareness by so many of the progressives in this comments section is disturbing, and a case study in how we got to where we are.
4
Maybe we should imagine that the Democrats nominated a Supreme Court Justice who was a heavy underage drinker, got into bar fights in college & was accused of mutiple incidents of sexual assaults. Let's say a President Hillary put up the nominee, then went to rallies & mocked the nominees accusations. What would the GOP reaction be?
5
All great civilizations met their demise due internal strife and breakdowns in community. Very few were brought down by external forces.
We are moving in that direction and the pace is accelerating. We are in an age when truth no longer matters and my alternative facts are all that matter. Where character and integrity are for suckers adn losers.
We have politics for the sake of politics that leads to nothing being done to address the realities of our problems. Politicians that don't understand economics or science make decisions based on ideology rather than data.
Eventually, the have nots will rise up against the haves and take away what was stolen from them. And the politicians will fiddle while the country burns.
The uprising will be the only effective, corrective force and will lead to a period of anarchy taht will end in either a reestablishment of the American Ideal and Exceptionalism or oligarchy/dictatorship.
4
Friedman contends that in the 50's and 60's we were lucky because we had a strong enemy, the Soviet Union, which held us together.
Faced with the terrifying might of vast Soviet Armies, we were less quarrelsome and more united.
Friedman has a terribly romanticed view of what it means to have an enemy.
Maybe Friedman ahd his friends didn't feel the fire and the shrapnel of those days, but some of us did.
Guys who did not make it into college were drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam. Many of them never came back.
Friedman, I must concede, is partially right. When you have to fight an enemy you don't have the luxury of fighting other Americans.
Of course, tyrants and dictators and genocidal maniacs have always known this. So long as the Reich saw itself as encircled, they would be cemented together under the authorituy of a Fuhrer.
Also, Friedman makes contentions that are contradictory and that even he concedes are contradictory. In bemoaning the divisions that afflict us today, he says that although the divisions in the sixties were in some ways worse (quantitatively they certainly were: Just count the numbers killed in riots, the numbers arrested after demos, not to mention the carnage of Indochina) he thinks that today the divisions are, in some way, worse. But he is not able to tell ua why the divisions are greater today. Perhaps its because the divisions are not greater today.
1
This is U.S. Apartheid in its fianl. violent phase. This sickness needs to be identified correctly: White, Elite Supremacy. It is the same as when rich white plantation and business owners got poor white farmers to fight and dye for them in the civil war of the 1860s. The added twist is that today tribal separation runs deep along gender lines. I don't believe that this time women will stay home and keep things running as usual.
1
Friedman writes:
"... that are missing today: a growing middle class, the Cold War and a sane Republican Party."
Followed by:
"When I look at all the people today who are propelling their political careers and fattening their wallets by dividing us, I cannot help but wonder: Do these people go home at night to some offshore island where none of this matters?"
Thomas, as you write how the Republican Party is insane, did you do that to bring us ALL together? On the other hand, I assume your wallet is fatter for writing this article, from what ever offshore island where you reside.
3
Lincoln said it best:
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events."
but then:
"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
@G. Slocum
One should probably be careful invoking any quote with the phrase "by false accusations against us", given today's Left's propensity to assert all accusations are true.
3
“Basic norms of decency” died in 2016. Any Democrat who fails to acknowledge that is doomed to fail, and rightly so.
4
@DoConk
Funny, because as I remember things, it was Democrats disrupting Republican rallies through provocation and even violence, but rarely the reverse.
3
i really like this column but you are ignoring the source of conservative tribalism - conservative media. FOX is the #1 problem with it's carefully crafted lighting, sets and messaging. Rush was probably the first to start sewing the lies and stoking the victimhood in his listeners. now we have dozens of lying liars spewing conservative hate and victimhood. what is there to match it on the left? MSNBC? maybe? the rest of the media is either called "lame stream" or "liberal". two very bad words in the conservative tribal outlook. facts for them are whatever their leader says they are...... and he's the reigning world champion liar.
2
I find it sadly amusing that after opining how dangerous a place we are at today because we are so tribal; you then engage in tribalism! You say we need to try and come together but then blame one side for all the problems we face (is purile an abt description?).
When the left and right can listen without violence; when Republican and Democratic ideals can be debated without generalization, when we can define a person by their character and not the color of their skin (or the makeup of their genitalia, religion, country of origin, Etc.), when we can afford everyone basic rights, then and only then will we start to heal our divide.
But you're not interested in that; you use flowery language to hide the fact that you are no different than those you criticize. That's fine; we live in a pluralistic society and we are all allowed our opinions. Please spare us the virtue signaling; GOP = evil, Democrats = good; we get it.
4
It's simply the incremental leftward ratcheting of the 100+ year-old Progressive movement toward its Marxist revolutionary goal. It's just now at the point where its left-wing anti-Americanism is becoming crystal clear to the rest of the electorate, who once naively believed that Progressives were only well-intentioned though misguided liberals.
1
Those of us on the Democratic side have been screaming about this since the Clinton years, when a cabal of rich donors along with the Gringrich House led years of partisan investigations to try and discredit him. Papers like the Times seemed happy to go along with the slanders as those Whitewater/Filegate/Travelgate stories made good copy I guess, but it contributed to our current state. The focus on Hillary Clinton's emails during the 2016 election was just a continuation of this phenomenon.
3
Summary of the article: tribalism is killing us, and it’s the other tribes fault.
Sounds legit.
8
You and your peers are entirely complicit in fomenting this civil war through your intense and unobjective partisanship. If you want to provide real value and thwart this war, you and your minion must provide balance to the news. So, how about civil war part III, emphasizing how Obama created racial division, how Obama vilified police, and how ACA provided affordable care to only those who don’t pay for care and increased the cost of health insurance premiums to the middle class three fold. Yes, three fold, as any employer funding employee health insurance will attest and this isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Yes, Garland was treated unfairly, but the Biden rule gave credibility to his treatment. The war will end when every news outlet is equally critical of Democrats and Republicans alike. What are your thoughts on the Democratic Party’s changing views on the rights of due process and presumption of innocence? Does Trump’s narcissism and prevaricating define him or today’s political culture? There was a time when you were balanced. For guidance and a moral compass, see the evolution of Bret Stephens and George Will”s Op-Eds. Want to be brave, challenge your editors and insist on greater literary freedom. How about moving the NYT center? Risk your job. You can’t possibly be this narrow minded.
6
The role of FOX news in fanning intense anger, especially in folks without jobs who hang around and watch its black propaganda hours each day, cannot be underestimated. I know one such man who had a good job in the local school system, retired with a good state funded pension and now is in a pretty permanent state of rage...about food stamps, free education for all, etc. etc. All thanks to FOX as his only source of "information". Something needs to be done to fix our broken media system.
6
@diane
And also, a panel convened to look into the NYT, whose readership (if they read Michelle Goldberg regularly) most likely now "knows" that Kavanaugh is a gang rapist due to his gender... No reflexive hatred there.
5
@John Linton
well if the FBI is allowed to do its job, i think we will get closure on that issue....although 'gang rape' is needlessly inflammatory and inaccurate....
the real issue is 'judicial temperament' and perjury. If he has committed the latter, surely he should be prosecuted. i hope you agree.
What passes for political debate these days:
"You're the problem!"
"No, YOU'RE the problem!"
(repeat ad infinitum)
2
Peter Thiel supports Trump....and he does plan to leave for an offshore island: he has citizenship in New Zealand.
1
@Carole Grace
Yes, and when the going gets rough he'll be there in New Zealand with a lot of other billionaires and multimillionaires, most of whom are in fact liberals.
During the campaign how many Hillary Clinton events were surrounded by the opposition where the attendees were harassed and met with violence?
1
Your first comment about the lack of a “sane GOP” reveals your left-wing bias. But I guess it’s ok with you that Sarah Samders and Ted Cruz can’t even have a private meal in a local restaurant because of their political affiliation. And let’s not forget how we evil Republicans “cling to our God, guns, and Bible.” Or how deplorable we all are.
The party of JFK is dead, having been hijacked by left wing extremists. And you have the nerve to point out the lack of sane GOP? Listen to the likes of Maxine Waters encouraging riots and violence.
This article nicely sums why DJT was elected and has a good chance at a second term.
5
There are the haves and the have nots in this country. The GOP has the corner on the have nots and concrete thinkers among us, people who too out of touch with right and wrong and who have their hands out for government services. They keep trying to insert religion into everyone’s life under the guise “family rights”. They are individuals who need the Nation’s safety net more than most snd yet they support the destructor of our safety net, the GOP. I guess you could refer to them as Republican lemmings.
1
This shift has happened because Republicans and their Christian allies have gone from wanting policy outcomes to wanting to destroy and subjugate large swathes of the American public. I am an atheist, and my family members are multiracial and some are gay. How can I find common ground with people who want me and my family reduced to third class citizens? This isn’t a political fight, it’s an existential one
5
@Doug K What? The gospel of Jesus Christ is available to all who repent of their sins, and accept the gift of salvation offered by Christ himself. That is the best outcome for all.
1
@Doug K You wrong Republicans. They do not want to treat atheists, or multiracial or gay people, as third-class citizens. Whatever gave you the idea that they do?
2
"Flake, the departing Arizona Republican, called this out this week: “We Republicans have given in to the terrible tribal impulse that first mistakes our opponents for our enemies. And then we become seized with the conviction that we must destroy that enemy.” And yet what is the "brave" Mr. Flake doing? Flaking out and retiring instead of staying to fight to take back the party he believes in. Undoubtedly into a cushy conservative think tank job, a memoir, and millions while his party continues to run off the right wingnut cliff into fascism. Oh, and I'm sure he'll still vote for Kavanaugh like a good little GOP lemming.
1
"It's the economy.stupid"
Bill Clinton
Globalization split society into winners - the owners of capital/ factories - and losers - workers who saw their jobs move to low wage countries or their jobs taken by immigrants willing to work for less
Not just in the US. UK as well - now rent in two on Brexit
1
Friedman is usually more self aware than this puff piece. He is trying to make an arugment of the genesis of the current civil strife in America, but when he blames the GOP for losing its sanity and goes on and on about how Garland was "refused" without stating Garland was not an outlier, but a norm to hold off during an election year, Friedman simply cannot see that what he writes about the GOP, those on the "other side" simply can substitute DEM for GOP and make the exact same accusation of insanity. Maybe one day this paper can enlist opinion writers that remember how to look and write about an issue objectively. Until then, then only predicate that makes sense Friedman wrote is that the nation is deeply divided between big government and return to local government, between unfettered abortions and sanctity of life at conception, and between social mores long established and a new polyglot relativism. This paper knows better but cannot seem to shake its hatred of Trump long enough to analyze its own reportage as mostly never being objective anymore. Too bad.
2
Days from nomination until the next presidential election:
Kavanuagh - 848
Bork - 496
Garland - 237
To all of you screaming and making comparisons about Garland it's funny how I don't see you screaming about Kavanaugh or Bork. Also to the allegations, of course they are serious and if true should prevent him from serving...but you so called intellectual leftist apparently forgot to read To Kill a Mockingbird.
2
> @simon_schama
> 18 Feb 2017
> Face it everyone, we have a cold civil war in this country
From someone who knows a thing or two about civil war - the author of an award winning history of the French Revolution.
Even from across the pond, it has been obvious for some time that your country is tearing itself apart.
Reading this piece, Mr Friedman starts out sounding reasonable, then exhibits exactly the "fear of the other" tribalism that he says is killing the country. All his criticisms are of the GOP, yet it is the Democrat party whose doctrine is rooted in tribalism, AKA "identity politics". He says he encounters dinner parties where people hope the other side is not there, but fails to criticize democrats for hounding GOP officials in restaurants having a personal meal. He criticizes Brett Kavanaugh for vigorously defending his reputation from an organized smear campaign, yet fails to mention that the democrats invented "Borking" and judicial trial by unproven accusation, and are the ONLY ones who have engaged in it. The GOP doesn't do it to democrat nominees. The democrats also said that it was "extremely important to respect the results of the lawful election in 2016, then launched their seditious "resistance" as soon as they lost.
Democrat identity politics and failure to accept the results of a lawful election are the root causes of the current national split, the GOP reaction has been mild in comparison. What is especially scary is how blind most of the readers of this paper are to this (judging by the comments) and how Mr. Friedman would rather play to HIS tribe by putting the blame 100% on the GOP instead of allocating the larger portion to the democrats, where it belongs. Now let's see if a counter viewpoint can be a "Times Pick"
30
@Kosciusko
You apparently slept through the entire Obama presidency.
For eight years the GOP claimed Obama was not our legitimate president (birtherism) while at the same time vowing to make his presidency fail. And yes, refusing to move on his SCOTUS nomination was indeed beyond the pale. Yet now, Republicans have the gall to complain that the Democrats aren't falling line behind Trump when they despised and undermined Obama at every turn.
Identity politics has existed forever and is not the same and the political tribalism we are currently experiencing where our two political parties are facing off as if they're on a battlefield. As for the rest of your complaints, I agree completely that hounding people in restaurants and rioting is unacceptable. But, you're talking about the actions of private citizens. Sometimes, some people behave badly. That is hardly news and is not the problem. It is the behavior of the political class and their talking heads in the media that is the issue and the current animosity in this country is ALL on the Republicans.
3
@Kosciusko Trump lost the popular vote. That is what makes people angry.
2
The Republicans may not "do it" to Democratic nominations, they just block them entirely. The reason Harry Reid took the first 'nuclear option' due to frustration with the number of Obama nominations being blocked. And then, shall we mention Merrit Garland not even getting a hearing. That was bad faith!
2
The only people that truly believed that the social media was progress were the people selling the Internet. But at this point, it feels like a never ending feedback loop. It won't completely solve the problem, but how much do you want to bet that if the Internet (or at least social media and comment sections) were shut down tomorrow, at least half of the vicious cycle would be kept from feeding into it. That would be a start.
1
Thank you so much, Mr. Friedman. Be assured there are still millions of us who are either center-left or center-right. We are frightened and appalled by what we see has happened to our country. Yes, the forces on the right and far-right from hate radio to Murdoch, coupled with movement in the GOP from Jack Kemp and Gerald Ford to the party of Pat Buchanan culture war, are mostly at fault. Gingrich gets called out by Friedman correctly too.
But you on the left, particularly in the academy, the entertainment media, the writing and chattering class, and the culture warriors joined by identity politics in all of its corrosive excess, have done your part too. Don't preen in your own reflected glow of self-righteousness for you, albeit on a lesser scale have contributed to our current distress/division.
3
But Mr Friedman, who can we vote for that represents the center left and right? This time is breeding power so far right and left, there are no moderates to vote for. We used to lament how partisan politics has become. We had no idea how bad it could get. A Supreme Court nominee who on national television expresses such extreme partisanship? Wow.
@shc
Sometimes, when you're involved in, or close to an issue, you can't see the issue clearly.
In the US you have no "left" party.
You only have a far right and a center right party. The Democrats look left to you because your only point of reference is shifted right.
1
@shc Democrats expect nobody to remember Clarence Thomas. I'd say accusing the Democrats (rightly) of a "high tech lynching" is more of a charge than Kavanaugh made. After Democrats pulled the same tactic, that time trying to offset two identity groups. They haven't come up with a new tactic in 30 years.
In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR on Monday, Greg Miller, author of the new book about Trump and Russia, "The Apprentice," discussed how Mitch McConnell responded to CIA Director John Brennan's confidential report about Russia's interference in the election on behalf of Trump. Instead of reacting with alarm about this sabotage of our democracy's cornerstone, McConnell reportedly threatened to charge the Obama administration with interference in the election if it made public the full extent of the Russia story. Gross asked Miller if this could be called "treason." Miller thought that might be going too far, but the fact that McConnell showed once again how far he will go to put party over country speaks for itself. The next question, of course, is why does he retain the blind obedience of his fellow Republicans in the Senate?
3
The problem is not the GOP, per se. The problem is the American people.
The GOP's actual constituency hasn't changed, at least in the last 100 years or so. Since the actual beneficiaries of the GOP only are a few percent of the population, the GOP is perpetually on a hunt for what kind of emotional distraction will sell in order to get people to vote against their own interests.
America has always had its Father Coughlins, its Charles Lindberghs, its Joseph McCarthys, its George C. Wallaces. What has changed, gradually, over the last 40 years is the fraction of America to whom this repulsiveness appeals.
Don't expect the GOP to change until the population at large changes out from underneath it. Such change requires 2 things, each rather simple to express, but, I fear, in practice beyond redemption. The first is to stop, and ultimately reverse, the onslaught on public education. The average American has become a dupe, a rube, ripe for the picking. Second, the torrent of openly corrupting money into the government needs to be reduced.
Without these 2 changes we are headed over the cliff.
1
I can't help feeling a little encouraged by a lot of the comments I'm reading. I am hearing people on both sides respectfully debate the pros and cons they saw in this article. While historically I've considered myself conservative, I find myself agreeing with Bluestar - the GOP needs to break. It has not been conservative for some time; if its current definition of conservative is allowed to prevail, it would be disastrous for the nation. The country needs both conservatives (who see the good that is worth preserving) and progressives (who see the good that is worth fighting and changing for). If the two sides, who will inevitably disagree often, cannot hear each other, learn from each other, and hold each other accountable, we will never have the political vibrancy we might. And, if we continue to devolve into hating "the other side," we will be increasingly blind to our own foibles. Until the GOP dies and/or is reborn, I see little hope of this. They are in no position to honestly balance progressive voices, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
3
Perfectly needed column, I am grateful.
1
I'd like to see discussions start on how we can peacefully divide the country. I don't see any other way.
5
@gregdn
As a sanctuary state, with an increasing number of illegal migrants, California is already becoming an extension of Mexico.
1
The conclusion at the end of this article is a common refrain that we hear today: "We all need to just put our differences aside, come together, and support moderate politicians."
But the problem with this is, it doesn't do anything to address the myriad of very real problems that were listed at the beginning of the article and are the cause of the divisions. No moderate politician is offering any real solutions to these because the only solutions to problems on this scale are big, bold, and NOT moderate. Most Americans are of course unhappy with the level of division, but they're also increasingly more unhappy with the idea of these problems being put off any longer.
This is not the first time this dynamic has played out in our history. Some of our most dangerous moments but greatest accomplishments have happened at moments like this: the American revolution, the civil war and end of slavery, the New Deal and post-WWII order. So get ready and don't expect a kumbaya moment to come anytime soon.
3
The time for Progressives and Liberals playing moderates is over. All that gets is the GOP and far right wing agenda accomplished. Standing firm and for something loud and proud attracts people not hand wringing and appealing to rules that died 20 years ago. As one of our greatest Presidents stated:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs; who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
1
@Josh
Couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, going forward, I don't see any path for compromise. I only see the prospect of one side completely beating the other, just like we saw in the Civil War and Revolution.
Identity politics and tribalism didn't start with Gingrich. That's a risible bit of projection. It started in the 1960s with the "counterculture," and I dare say Friedman loved it then.
He only hates it now because the rest of us are starting to fight back. He liked it better when the "squares" just laid there and took it.
5
For divisiveness, look at what Newt Gingrich kicked off as Speaker of the House, and Grover Glenn Norquist's "Taxpayers Protection Pledge."
1
Being "tough" is venerated in Trump-speak. 21st century "tough" is measured by how much pain one is willing to cause others, not how much one is willing to personally endure.
I am tribal, in that I admit outright disgust and shame at crowds of fellow citizens cheering a man directing them toward to who to hate. I hope Dr. Ford is not physically threatened by any of his mob. 40% or so of my fellows support this game show host embodiment of all a first grade Sunday school teacher would warn us to abhor.
McConnell is worse. He is aware of what he does. He leads a party that by design imposed economic hardship, loss of homes and jobs on fellow Americans so that their party could gain power to ruin the economy. The cost of borrowing for tax cuts and war will eventually become due. Their reward is the ability to promote an angry conspiracy theorist to the Supreme Court where he will have the ability to get back at liberals who defended his accusers who stood in the way of his entitlement.
4
Two big differences today than from 20+ years ago.
First, the disagreement between the right and the left used to be on policies that were more mundane, less threatening, with the exception perhaps of abortion. Taxes, foreign policy, spending habits, economic approaches, trade. People don't see these at immediate threats. Today's battles deal with real time, deeply personal, life changing matters. Banning gays. Preventing an entire religion from entering the country. Preventing families of citizens from moving here. Separating children from parents.
There used to be a morality that we could all agree on. Lying under oath was bad. Shooting unarmed men was bad. Having an affair, until the last 5 years, was enough to make you resign or drop out of a race. Raping someone was bad. Saying you can go up to any woman and kiss them and grab their private area (until two years ago) was disqualifying. Taking kids from their parents was inconceivable.
Then one side said - well, its only bad if someone on the other team does it. When our guy does it, he's just being persecuted and its politics. Nothing demonstrated that more than the Marist poll in which 54% of republicans would still want Kavanaugh to be confirmed, EVEN IF HE IS FOUND GUILTY OF ALL THE ALLEGATIONS.
You can't have a civil discourse when we can't agree upon what is civil anymore.
8
When I started reading the column today, I thought to myself "Oh no. Please not another column telling me that I need to approach my Trump supporting neighbors with a plate of brownies and open a dialogue." Thank you for at least acknowledging that it was Newt Gingrich who started this war, and McConnell who has been the general giving the marching orders.
For my part, I'll be happy to sit with any thoughtful center right Republican and discuss trade policy, immigration, taxes, even abortion rights, and try to find common ground. But, no, I will not sit down with any of the people (many of whom looked like they could be my neighbors) who stood laughing and cheering behind Donald Trump last night while he mocked a woman assault survivor. They are as despicable a group of people as I have ever seen.
9
I believe Jim Webb, former Senator from Virginia, would be able to start bringing Americans back together as President. Please read his WikiPedia page about his background and service to our nation. I'd like to see him run as an Independent candidate.
1
The civil war won't begin until the shooting starts and that I fear is not far off.
4
Let’s not forget the understated power of so-called social media, which, more to the point, should be called “anti-social”.
Evil in all its forms.
1
Agree. And give credit where credit due: David Brock's book from about 15 yrs ago, Blinded by the Right, identified that the GOP was practicing "enemy" politics in the 1980s, and when USSR collapsed, chose "liberals" as the next enemy to unite people to hate. It is horrible, distasteful, nasty and most importantly, unpatriotic. It is founded in the beliefs of people John Dean nicely identified as "authoritarian conservatives" who believe (1) they deserve to be in power and (2) tell you what to do, esp in your own moral life. I don't understand why either of these strategies succeed among people who are otherwise decent people, but they do, sadly - like negative campaigning. The GOP puts power ahead of patriotism, and yes the McConnell refusal to conduct hearing on Garland was a shot across the bow for which he should have been widely condemned. I never thought the country would see a bigger jerk as a national leader than he, but we managed to do it.
4
What stops it? Perhaps if our public schools were adequately funded and empowered to teach a holistic and fact-based curriculum, our young people would be equipped to distinguish fact from fiction and make better political decisions.
I do not believe in conspiracy theories, but I have often wondered if the global elite have deliberately prevented schools from exposing the negative factual realities of our oil-based capitalist society (income inequality, global warming, mounting garbage crises, 3rd world exploitation, institutional racism, the unsustainability and selfishness of "the American Way of Life" and the necessity for massive societal change if we are to survive as a species.
3
In the spirit of bipartisanship, perhaps Bernie Sanders shouldn't have announced his opposition to Kavanagh, a well-respected judge, and his intent to rally the American people in opposition, even before a single hearing was held? Look, it takes two to tango, and blame the Republicans and not the Democrats shows that you are not immune from tribalism, Tom.
7
Mark my words, the gop and their gun toting followers will not leave office peacefully after they lose the mid-terms and the 2020 presidential election. tRump is laying the ground work by challenging the very foundations of American democracy. We are headed for a very real Civil War Part II.
6
I'm 33 and it's hard not to feel like I haven't had war declared on me and my generation by today's GOP, whose policies increasingly favor the old and rich, taking all they can get while they're still here.
Degradation of the environment and runaway climate change? That's a me problem.
Social Security insolvency? That's a me problem.
Crushing student debt? That's a me problem.
Crushing rent and housing prices? That's a me problem.
Failing public infrastructure? That's a me problem.
A tax cut that explodes our national debt on the tail of recklessly expensive wars? That's a me problem.
Wage stagnation? That's a me problem.
Tens of thousands of dollars to have a child, not even mentioning a family? That's a me problem.
If any of you on the right read this, I hope you don't blame me for feeling such animus. So much of what matters to me and my future is under assault.
189
@T
You might have the wrong party on a few things...
Social Security insolvency owes not least to liberals who won't make reasonable compromises now to save the cost curve.
Crushing student debt owes to stacking colleges with more bureaucrats than professors -- and going on an endless country-club building spree -- not to states not ponying up even more tax money for these reality-free zones.
Wage stagnation is changing more rapidly due to the accelerated growth induced by those invidious tax cuts. Yet, the debt goes up faster first as a result. But having the private sector (versus the state) be the main locus of human economic activity will free people from needing to be dependent as much on the state -- and make future entitlement reform more possible. (This is rather unfairly tarred as "starving the beast" when it really means giving people jobs instead of handouts.)
1
@T I'm 35 - no kids. I'm going to have my kicks the best I can but will not be purposefully subjecting anymore unsuspecting humans to this so called life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness thing.
@T
I'm not on the right, but I can empathize with you, because I used to say the same things. Still,you have age on your side, while I'm twice yours. In this society , age is not as honored as you may believe. The Baby Boomers said the same thing about the WW2 generation. Most of the things that impact you, impact me as well. No matter how hard it seems , drop one level below and see what's going on. I'm not saying feel sorry for me. I'm a veteran, I receive a pension, I have a side hobby that generates supplemental income because I need to and I have a network of friends and family that are supportive. The support is the most valuable. Arm yourself with what you have at hand. Ask yourself if you can control the things around you, or protect yourself in a worse case scenario. If you see the things you outlined as detrimental to your survival, what are you doing to survive ? There's one "me" problem you forgot to jot down: feeling sorry for yourself. There's an easy remedy for that and it's called volunteer work- at least to get the perspective of lower level discovery I aforementioned. I'm telling you nothing different than what my grandfather used to tell me. He grew up in the Deep South over 100 years ago. My great -grandparents were born into slavery. While it didn't totally stop me from whining and feeling sorry for myself, it made me think how much of an Ace card I drew. They have passed on long ago but here I am. Stick around and see how things come full circle.
1
I could not agree more. We need to treat the current state of affairs with as a danger to our democratic form of government. I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. Consequently, I am a lonely individual. I would gladly pay more taxes if it would help balance the budget. I would like to leave my children with a country that respects diversity and accepts all people as being worthy of fair treatment in the workplace. I would also like to leave them a country where higher education does not result in a lifetime debt burden and where the most vulnerable of our citizens can rely on a place to live, something to eat and health care when they need it. But I would also like to see money withheld from wasteful programs that serve no purpose and things that we used to call pork that we can ill afford to pay for. No one speaks for me or represents my interests in either party. I do not believe that I am the only one that feels this way. Unfortunately third parties have a poor record of winning elections but i believe that is what is needed. We need a political party that speaks for the middle and not the extremes of the right of left.
5
@George
I describe myself exactly as you do, I don't think we're in the minority, I just think that many of us don't vote regularly.
1
A non American spectator I am quite clearly be able to discern the emerging underlying pattern of the tribal warfare of the political class.
It’s natural consequence of uniquely American financial system that exploits the society rather than serving it. It’s grotesquely convoluted economic model which enabled “700 billion dollars bailed out at the banks where we gave to one company, AIG more money than we spent in years and years and years in welfare for ordinary Americans. We said we didn’t have enough money to help poor Americans but somehow in a moment, we found more than 150 billion dollars to help one company. So, you understand that not only was the system dysfunctional, not working, but it led to widespread feelings that the system was rigged, unfair and that, of course, gives rise to mistrust in government, in institutions and in societies that do not function very well” to quote Stieglitz.
No future to America unless it realises that the economic ecosystem of mixture of government, NGOs, universities, co-operatives and the private sector complimenting each.
I fully agree that “what is going on politically in America today is a far graver threat than any our nation faced during my career, including the Soviet Union. And it’s because this threat is here and now, right at home, and it’s coming from within us. I guess the irony of being a great nation is the only power who can bring you down is yourself.”
2
I don't always agree with Thomas Friedman. We have sharp disagreements about the shape of our modern economy. Thus, he, along with Paul Krugman, by making the working class obsolete, have helped fuel some of the backlash now so evident before us. See my essay here at https://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/when-market-man-consigns-the-common-man-t....
The working class's demise, a bit premature, don't yo think, hand-in-hand with the demise of unions, has helped, since George Wallace and Richard Nixon, move them into the Republican camp, especially the white men. They have done this on racial and gender grounds, against their economic self interest, and their hatred of government as opposed to a government temporarily captured by union busting corporations - a long occupation, admittedly...is at the fault line of one of the great divisions leading to the next Civil War, with or without shooting: great divisions over the role of the federal government in American economic life. This was tolerable under market obsessed Democrats like Bill Clinton, and yes, even accomodating Barack Obama, but Friedman is right: if we are at each other throats today over the racial and gender divisions, in relatively good (but misleading) economic times, what will happen during a sharp economic crisis...?
My two guiding analogies to our times are the 1850's here, and the 1930's in Germany. Neither will suffice by itself; our times are unique, but they are instructive.
What a complicated scenario! Seems awfully difficult to replace a Cold war, might as well give up and start another war with ourselves?
Here's the simple Root cause clever Thomas should have considered:
A minority party, Republicans are leading like a majority with a mandate. This is because of corrupted voting districts they drew for themselves.
We've been call this increasingly dangerous situation GOP gerrymandering for the past - oh- 10-15 YEARS or so while Democrats slept through mid-term elections.
Democrats have got to take back the Congress before new maps are further corrupted by Republicans.
States can do this. California did.
California has fair elections now. Politicians who argue in good faith.
Funny how our manufactured debt problems went away with the uncompromising Republicans who manufactured them.
4
@Mike California is fiscally and otherwise bankrupt. Another example, if you have one, please.
McConnell robbed the President of his power to appoint a Supreme Court judge, but Obama let him get away with it. After the Senate abdicated its advise and consent responsibility, he should have installed Garland, even during his lame duck period. This crucial lack of nerve on Obama's part caused grave damage to the nation. The only way to right this wrong now is to defeat Kavanaugh's appointment, win a Democratic Senate majority in the midterms, and match McConnell's obstruction until Garland or someone like him is appointed. After that, legislation should be passed reinstating the 60 vote rule, and mandating a reasonable time limit for the
Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty of advise and consent. Talk of term limits is silly, because that would require a Constitutional amendment.
7
All excellent points.
Your reference to venom is important. What strikes me almost more than anything else is the absolute, untethered hate that spews from RW media outlets, from so-called Christian leaders to talk radio to Fox News. There's no moderation. There's no tether to reality. There's no shame. And there's no national Republican with the integrity to say that it is wrong. Jeff Flake has said some appropriate words, but most of it is mealy-mouthed, and he's retiring. Even the sainted John McCain couldn't or wouldn't call it what it was.
I sometimes wonder about the families - spouses and children - of the haters. Surely they can see what's wrong with what their spouses and parents are doing. But I was struck by a reference to Kavanaugh's kids after the hearing last week, when it was reported that his daughter told her parents that she would pray for Dr. Ford. The impression I had is that her concern was not with what her father did to Dr. Ford, but for her lying about it in public.
This is the next generation of tribal members and haters, and I am not optimistic for our future.
3
Civil is a good part of this.
I've been disappointed with the results of elections before, but I've never taken the spoiled brat approach of yelling "Not my president" and demanding the Constitution be changed to invalidate the election results.
3
@Margo Well, given that twice in 20 years the majority of voters have seen their wishes obviated and now find themselves ruled over by a dictatorial executive selected by the minority, such a response should not come as a surprise. How long, in your estimation, should the majority meekly submit to minority rule before we refuse to tolerate it any longer and fight back in any and every way possible?
2
It sure feels like a civil war. Wars are fought by those who win and define the future and those who loose and define the past. I can clearly see the tribalism of the Republicans; their way of life is in the past. Don't forget how our Civil War ended: The Confederacy lost. The winner, the Union, defined the future of the United States.
I retired from the armed forces a few years ago after 26 years of service and deploying to 3 wars, and I agree wholeheartedly with Tom's friend Col Mike Mykleby. The danger to the US is far more internal than external, and the likes of Newt, Mitch, Devin, and Donald are greater threats to us that Putin, Khamenei, or Kim. Not because of the policies they advocate, but for the methods by which they tear down our democratic institutions.
9
@Jim R. Thank you for your service.....and I wish I could recommend this post a thousand times.
1
And also give some credit to Vladimir Putin. He masterfully exploited the divide within us and has succeeded to a degree which he could have hardly imagined.
1
The author starts by bemoaning how divided our nation has become, noting how we have lost our ability to respectfully disagree, and then goes on to accuse everyone who disagrees with his political view of either being insane or having malicious intent towards our country. You can't simultaneously claim to dislike how divided we've become and also blame everything on one side. That only further stokes divisiveness.
First bring back the super majority rule for the senate. The real problem is the political system is broke.
Gerrymandered districts elect politicians who are rewarded for NOT compromising. Getting nothing done used to be a way to get thrown out of Congress. Competitive elections will enable middle of the road candidates to win who will seek compromise and achievement over partisan gridlock.
Campaign reform. Citizens United was a mistake. $ does not equal speech. Money must be regulated. First, ALL $ either to candidates of PACs should be public. Every droller should be traced to its original donor. Money should be limited especially by any organization out side an election district. If you can't vote in a district keep your money out!
The system is skewed to the minority party (GOP) and they will do whatever they can to maintain their illegitimate hold on power. To justify this they use extreme language and actions. The opposition has to be enemies o justify their extremism. D.T. brilliance was understanding that and amplifying it to a shrill. The majority is tired of this shame. The GOP needs a whooping, they need to become an insignificant minority party until they clean house, but that will not happen until we change the laws and address the structural cracks in our political system
1
While tribalism may be a not so predictable offspring of interconnectivity, it sure sells a lot of packets of soap, and that's what pays for your news.
It was clear from even the earliest Trump rallies, many thought they were at the Wrestling (the villains, the boos), and suspended disbelief.
Just like actors who play doctors are approached by strangers for medical diagnosis, and the human brain does not understand that a phone is not somebody actually talking into your ear, this "thechno psychosis" is all prevailing, and will allow the politicians of the future to do far more damage than this crop.
Plus it sells a lot of boxes of soap.
@Evan you’ve never heard boos at a Dem rally? Really??
What is America's greatest "gift" to the rest of the world?
The concept of competition.
Everything we do, from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep is based on competition.
Internally, we have competition down to a science. An evil science, but a lab perfected science it is.
So, this divide, the one that is polarizing the US, the one that got Trump enough votes to put him over the top, is attributed to a significant portion of the American public thinking that their status as "white people in America"—and all the said, unsaid, and previous benefits thereto—is shrinking as blacks, hispanics, and Asians are increasingly invited to take part in American society.
They might get something that I can't get anymore that I used to get all the time.
Competition.
Once the world, starting with the US, embraces the concept of cooperation instead of competition, a great weight will be taken off of humanity. We already see this is countries (not us) that have embraced a universal health care system. One step in the right direction. Those countries look at us incredulously, and say, why don't you get a system where everyone pays in, as we do? And then we have to explain corporate greed, lobbying, and big American pharma which is all based on.....competition.
This is a wobbling top about to fall over.
But until we get these entitled "what's in it for me and my friends" Republican conservatives out of office, this divide will only grow deeper and more dangerous.
1
We should all read Orwell's 1984, again. It was a tough read when I was a student in the 70's, but it's worse now that it appears it could become a reality.
The wealthy believe their children will always be able to move away from the violence, the pollution and the ugly side of poverty. The wealthy believe they will always to protected...on that off-shore island.
I agree, Gingrich & McConnell are the two most Un-American, un-patriotic tyrannical hate-mongers to show up in congress in the last century and if we survive their vision of the UNITED STATES, they will be vilified along with their prodigy, Trump.
As for Kavanaugh, he too is the heir apparent of the privileged class who believes he is entitled to a seat on the Supreme Court. As I said in another Comment...Kavanaugh saw nothing wrong with assaulting a young Christine Blasey..she was a "Holton Hosebag", not worthy of the respect due a girl from another Catholic school. Abusing, harassing, debasing those beneath your own privileged status is okay by these despicable people. People beneath your social and economic status are to be used...as Trump and the GOP are using those falling from the middle class.
Right now those five Senators can send a strong message regarding tribalism and can vote to reject Kavanaugh, he's frightening. Stand up to McConnell. Put these tribal leaders out to pasture before its too late.
America, courage & humanity over tribalism!
4
I can’t help but blame the rise of Fox News for much of this. Over decades it has fanned the flames of tribalism with lies and distortion.
The negative effects are seen in the Republican Party but the party itself has changed because of fox. You can’t fix this by changing the party, you need to hold fox to a higher standard.
5
"But in the early 2000s, most high-wage, middle-skilled jobs disappeared. "
Sorry Mr, Friedman, they did not disappear. The jobs and industries, research and development was sold or given out from underneath the workers of the middle class. We were all betrayed and you Mr. Friedman maintain the myth of simple disappearance by statements like the one above that fails to acknowledge what really happened.
When we take to the time to exam and understand what happened to jobs, industries, communities and institutions only then can we understand why we are facing civil outrage and a disillusioned, angry citizenry. Americans are tired of being sold out by politicians who lie through their teeth and the wealthy, powerful special interests of both parties. Donald Trump focused on the great discontent of former and want to be members of the middle class and channeled that anger into a political win and dysfunctional administration.
Trade with China, the European Union, the nations of the Pacific as well as Mexico and Canada have torn away our jobs. We are not enriched nor do we live better because we pay less for something if well paying jobs here that supported infrastructure, education, defense, community safety are summarily exported. Hillary told us those jobs are not coming back. Donald Trump said "they are and we'll make America great again." Who would you like to vote for?
I do not support Trump. I loathe Hillary Clinton and her elitists.
I want jobs but neither of them.
1
How can we keep our country moral, decent and honest? How can we protect our little children? How can we stop promoting indecent and immoral lifestyles to the rest of the world? Simply put God back into the equation.
Whether republican or democrat, male or female, Christian or atheists, if what we think, say, or do is decent, moral and right...then it comes from God. If what we think, say, or do is indecent, immoral and wrong then it does not come from God. You can only lie to yourself and others, but not to God. This may be why separation of church and state exists. Blessed be those that believe in His name: who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Very basic: The Constitutional system is NOT WORKING. In the end, all systems depend on people. I think you are right McConnell, more than Trump, has assassinated the Republic. He should be tried for treason; he betrayed his country to his party. Perhaps we need a new Constitution and new institutions!
2
@Publicus Great way to handle public policy disagreements - try your enemies for treason, which ironically is clearly defined in the Constitution. This, of course, is Totalitarianism 101 thanks for saying what good progressives always think.
Our hatred is good!
It seems to me that media has created the spark, hoping for an ember that will turn into an open flame. Propaganda at its finest is found all around us nowadays, fed to the people of this nation as a steady diet. Well, we have a choice, don't we? We don't have to eat the offering, do we....Turn off the media, drop Facebook and Twitter, and talk face-to-face with other citizens like we used to before in America. There isn't any civil war coming, the media just wants us to think there is, inevitably. That's not correct thinking, that's defeatist thinking. Let's all get a grip on ourselves, what do you say? Start thinking for ourselves again, and we can find solutions that work for us all.
JimBob
3
Outrage sells. We are overstimulated and over-engineered. And this essay adds nothing new. Its predictable and nostalgic for an America that has never existed.
1
Welcome to the real world. Those of us not rich, or white, or male, have seen this coming for years. When every time Democrats made a concession, Republicans moved the goalposts further to the right. When the election of a Black man unleashed a torrent of bigotry that was exploited by Republicans following in the footsteps of Nixon and Reagan. When Mitch McConnell twisted and warped the Senate to fill his pockets and feed his ego.
Sadly, I do think it will come to physical violence. In fact, it already has. Charlottesville was the opening salvo. Last summer in Portland, Oregon police attacked peaceful (albeit, loud and profane) protesters in order to protect armed, out of state bigots who marched illegally in support of their hatred.
My question is, who will the government protect next time? Innocent citizens or the armed angry mob?
5
If the GOP would only step back from this Supreme Court nominee and withdraw Kavanaugh and put forth a moderate. Garland, or someone similar. That would be a meaningful healing step and at the same time the 60 votes majority for a Supreme Court Justice should be restored. It is up to the Party that started this mess, to take steps to end it. That is leadership.
5
At what point will democrats stand up and fight? We are in the midst of a civil war redoubt but legislative leaders up to this point have advocated surrender and compromise while the right digs in deeper and stockpiles more ammunition by the day. Like it or not there are times when we must fight and give our all lest we ourselves perish.
2
Mr Friedman never mentions massive immigration into the US over the last twenty years, on an unprecedented scale, as a source of the current high level of social conflict. This massive immigration is not a politically correct explanation, but it is extremely compelling by other criteria (other than the criterion of political correctness). Could it not at least get a passing mention?
2
We have reached the point where irreconcilable differences divide us. I for one don't see how we can continue as one "united" states when there is no gray area upon which to build a bridge between views that are so divergent. After these last 2 years, if there are people who would still vote for Donald Trump and who are happy with the course this country is taken, the last thing I would want is for them to have a say in the running of a country that I would ever want to live in. I don't know how this will all play out - everything is topsy-turvy and what was recently common practice has now been thrown out the window - but we cannot go on like this! When lies are a part of our daily routine and no accountability is held against those that actively deceive the American people, unchartered territory is where we are headed and I can only hope that decent people come through all this with most of our rights and liberties and freedoms intact.
4
Well, we had 250 years as a country. That's a good run, a lot longer than many other nations got. I would have preferred a more dignified ending, but as a historian I can take the long view. Something else will grow out of this, maybe something better. The time in between, though, will be fraught with pain for millions of people.
4
"What stops it? When a majority of Americans, who are still center-left and center-right, come together and vote only for lawmakers who have the courage to demand a stop to it ..."
I'm not sure the left-right division or even the conservative-liberal division are as important as they used to be. Due to diminishing of the middle class, ambiguity of the term "liberal", shrinking of the unionized left, rapaciousness of the corporatist economy, the major division is now between uppers and lowers, predators and prey.
The battlefields of power and money shifted from politics and economics to ethics and morality. Now the battles are fought in the realm of ego and character.
"Do these people go home at night to some offshore island where none of this matters?"
Probably not, but they're absolutely sure that when the time comes, the .1% will give them a coveted spot on their offshore island.
As if.
3
Virtually all of our Presidents knew that they represented all of the nation’s people, not just those who were his fervent supporters, or his Party. This, in fact, a bedrock principle of a representative democracy. The theory underlying the principle is that everyone wins a Presidential election; no one loses.
Trump has destroyed this principle with the willing collaboration of the Republican Party. This fissure is widening, endangering our nation.
3
Bi-partisanship is what's needed, but there is little chance of that coming about in the near future. Aside from a few extremists on the left, Democrats support bi-partisanship. However, one needs only look at how the GOP behaved when Clinton and Obama held out their hands for compromise. The GOP leadership knows that their pro-corporate, pro-rich policies won't sell without a big dollop of racism and hostility to the poor and immigrants. This is their only route to victory. To change this situation, the Democrats need to take into account the feelings of those who have rejected them, point out the benefits to the country as a whole from policies they espouse and encourage lots more victims of GOP policies to vote in 2018 and 2020. Once the GOP sees the success of that Dem strategy moderates may be able to reclaim their party and work with Democrats to solve the huge problems facing the county.
1
@Alan Mass actually you should thank the DNC for trotting our an unelectable candidate in 2016 as the reason for DJT’s election. As long as you call us racists and hostile to the poor the results are likely to be the same. Ever heard of the quasi-definition of insanity? Perhaps your party should look for the next JFK.
It constantly amazes me that so few commentators recognize the intentional dismantling of the structures that encouraged compromise, informed citizenship, and a functional political system.
Those structures included
* the Fairness Doctrine (which prevented broadcasters from being propaganda outlets)
* antitrust enforcement (which prevented media consolidation)
* campaign finance limits (which prevented plutocratic domination of the government and rampant bribery of legislators)
* the Voting Rights Act (especially section 5, which prevented discriminatory state and local legislation but which was unwisely and unjustifiably ruled unconstitutional by the Roberts Court)
* statutes that effectively banned influence peddling, also basically invalidated by the activist Roberts Court in the McDonnell case
* the proper use of the filibuster (which was not intended to be available as a general tool to blockade bills or nominees without significant investment of personal resources like time and energy by the filibustering senators)
* a House of Representatives that grows in size to reflect the growing American population (it hasn't been increased in size in a century or more)
* a coherent public education system that did not assume that all outcomes for all students can or should be equal and did not confuse the provision of social services to children and families with the academic learning needs of students
We have lost too many guard rails. More are falling. Will we wake up?
8
Tom Friedman describes the displacement of tens of millions of American workers over two decades as if is a natural phenomenon, like the weather. It was a direct result of admitting China to the WTO and allowing US capital to set up shop in a Communist country with lax labor and environmental laws, all in search of low wage workers. ...it didn't have to be.
Also, when he speaks of 'tribalism', he needs to take a closer look at his own party and their media cohorts, that rely on identity politics to slice and dice the American electorate by race and gender, further dividing us.
2
One only has to read the New York Times and its readers comments to find the venom from the left. Blame Trump in print all you want on a daily basis, that's your First Amendment right, and, like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, deride his supporters with vicious insults. But every once in a while take a look in the mirror if you want the truth. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto was quoted as saying after Pearl Harbor that all the Japanese had done was provoke and awaken a sleeping giant. What does Friedman and the Times think is happening after the Kavanaugh debacle?
2
Relatively good start for an article, then went into common liberal media attack mode. To be fair here, state your political leanings, the proportion of positive to negative Articles about Pres Trump. Kavanaugh. Obama. Hillary. Perhaps you are the one stoking the fire, being unreasonable. Perhaps your echo chamber or bubble glorifies your resistance and divisive rhetoric. Perhaps the civil war will turn more violent - but wait, it has, at the encouragement of the Democrats who are cheered on by the main stream media, taking sides and carrying pitchforks alongside the socialists provocateurs.
1
@Jon damn! That was spot on.
The coming civil war was started by Obama when he proclaimed, I don't have all the facts but the Cambridge police acted stupidly.
Without the divisive Obama we would not have Donald Trump.
2
No mention of Robert Bork, Harry Reid, weaponizing the IRS or unmasking? I wonder why?
4
@dave
Weaponizing the IRS? Another complete fairy tale of the right.
I'm a white male and yes, I used to be irritated by some of the silly noise being made by some of the chic-est people. But you know what? Being white male is not a thing, really. The chic noise was annoying but no more than annoying. Not a reason to go fascist. The upside - or it ought to be an upside - of all this white male privilege - and now I realize how much of that I really do have - is that you take it for granted, it's not your identity. That gives you a lot of distance, or it should. So getting a little irritated by a little bit of chic silliness, and realizing that in fact you do have a lot of advantages even if you personally don't discriminate against anyone, should not send you into massive fascist political hostility. Seriously.
2
@XXX
Exactly what privileges have you gotten that were simply based on you being a white male? Shorter life expectancy? Since you've decided to surrender equal opportunity and due process for all white males, maybe you could be more specific what those privileges were.
1
America is currently one Trump tweet away from a bloody civil war...280 characters from mutually assured self destruction.
The center will prevail, but not until empathy returns. Characterizing the Trump supporters, the deplorables, as stupid and uneducated rubes has not helped. The system has failed many of these people and their votes are a very rational response to that failure. Regardless of political beliefs, the rise of the anti-establishment candidates is hopeful.
1
Mr. Friedman laments the incivility of not compromising and cheap shots in the media and social media and then does the thing he lamented. It Friedman's world if the republicans would just agree with the democrats we'd be just fine, all would be well. Why is it republicans must compromise, why not democrats? Where is the Jeff Flake on the democrat side? There is no Flake on the democrats side because democrats stick together no matter what. So Mr. Friedman would have some credibility if he would acknowledge democrats partisanship in the Kavanaugh hearings, their blatant choreography, their contempt for Brett and the fact they made their minds up long before the hearings. Please, you're a hypocrite.
1
The who's who we boo will all get their own divisive MAGA Confederate statues even if Democrats regain power. Trump will the biggest statue, tax payer paid, and the rest of the most divisive characters America can muster will too. The twice losing side will continue to divide our nation for atrocious reasons AGAIN - hence the MAGA motto.
Double-down do-over for the Civil War they lost, and no Lincoln in office. The GOP has been pushing for de-emancipation for decades pretending to be the party Lincoln.
"Who can expect fairness from him now?" Fairness from Judge Bart, a nominee selected in trump's image?
"Cheating" or stealing? Mitch was the pre-trump dictator and should be investigated by the Dems for anti-Constitutional actions and held to account for his dastardly behavior. Checks and BALANCE demands a Gorsuch or Bart replacement with Garland. We have an illegitimate SCOTUS about to get another horrible partisan tribal man as justice.
How can "the base" support the conman-in-chief while he loots their pockets with tax rip-off schemes. He's truly a self-made con, off the backs of his base of tax payers and other's money. Ironic they all wish they could be him - a con, a fraud.
"the courage to demand a stop to it — now, right now, not just when they’re leaving office or on their death beds." But everyone's taking the Fred Trump route instead as their kids inherit the corruption gene.
"only power who can bring you down is yourself.” With help of a Russian trumpian horse.
2
The number of readers of the New York Times who are responding something like “yes, but it’s all their fault” or “we might have been bad, but they are worse” or “yeah. But they don’t get it” is depressing.
As Lincoln said
From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.
1
If you can’t beat em, smear em. If that doesn’t work, threaten a War.
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
3
So, it appears as though our vulgar liar and crook in-chief may be just a symptom of our political unraveling, and we the people the cancer eating up this suffering democracy of ours (remember Pogo?). Trump's worse sin has been, and is, our losing the trust in our institutions, and trust in each other. Republican tribal loyalty has become a travesty, as it disregards the truth and the facts...if not friendly to their designs, a pluto-kleptocracy governed by mafiosi, ready and willing to enrich themselves...at our expense. It sounds odd to say it, but isn't it ironic that, in an era of widely available information (via Internet), we cling to what we believe in, however false, provided it entertains us? Otherwise, how to explain the 'success' of Trump's demagoguery at his stupid rallies, where lies fly like bees to honey, plus the wild applause when he demeans the subject of his rancor? Have we forgotten that politics, the art of the possible, is also an art for compromise? Are we this foolish, and pig-headed, that we forgot how to think for ourselves...so to stop charlatans in power, 'a la Trump' and 'a la McConnell'?
1
You neglected to mention RBG’s comments about Trump she later walked back. How can she be impartial, if your standard is public comment?https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/07/12/politics/justice...
3
It's a sign of the times, of our decline and metastasizing corruption that a politician cares so little about his legacy. I'm talking to you tribalist-in-chief Mr. McConnell. Now, Mr. Flake, if you and your undecided counterparts care about your own legacies and an attempted preservation of the credibility of SCOTUS, you will know what to do.
Midterms 2018: Let the Big Reset commence.
3
Every Republican is the enemy of Democracy, truth, and fairness. Thus every Republican is my enemy. Gingrich light my anger, McConnell the racist traitor flamed it, and Trump was the last straw. The GOP should have done everything in their power to keep Trump from hijacking their party. If that failed, every single honorable Republican should have gone on TV and told his constituents that electing Donald Trump will ruin our country. They should have said even though they were life-long Republicans they were going to vote for Hillary Clinton because she was the only person on the ballot qualified to be president of the USA. They should have urged their constituents to follow their lead. They didn't. One Republican who is resigning is the only one speaking up, no matter how timidly, and too late. Still, watch him vote for Kavanaugh as he has voted for every backwards GOP appointee and policy his entire life. No quarter. Conservatives declared themselves my enemy years ago when they embraced the lies of Australian Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. They declared war, and now they have it. I was the one voting against my interests so the less privileged could have a few more benefits. They stabbed me in the back to vote for Trump. They can rot in his utopia for the 1% like immigrant children in his tent camps for all I care. If they are too stupid to help themselves I'm through with trying to help them. I've adopted the GOP libertarian mantra - I got mine, the heck with you.
2
What this pieces ignores is the not only is the other identified as enemy, but that enemy shows that it considers those not aligned as enemies to be annihilated. This piece talks about the conflict between women, and those who cling to male power and privilege, but what of the battle between those who attack all men for their alleged power and privilege and those simply born male? Or what of those who admit to being pro (traditional) marriage, or pro-life? They've confessed to a mortal sin. Support the 2nd Amendment? You're a school shooter in waiting. Want strong border controls, you're a racist one step removed from a lynch mob. Want to see your kids raised with a healthy concept of sex and marriage? Too bad! The state will teach them to embrace homosexuality, transgenderism and other such practices. The war as Friedman puts it isn't about 2 sides that disagree about how things should be, it's about 2 sides that don't agree in the other sides right to exist.
1
Friedman is the king of false equivalencies.
When the President of the United States equivocates about Nazis -- yes, Nazis -- and his party does nothing to object; when he rips children from their parents and then cages them, one is not a tribalist to stand up and vehemently oppose these things.
There is no compromise in some instances (like, say, with Nazis for instance). If your platform is to punch me in the face, and I stand in 100% opposition (do NOT punch me in the face), I am not being tribalistic. I am being self preserving, and/or standing up to moral depravity. What, should I compromise and simply let you slap me instead?
Keep in mind the civil war happened for a very good reason: one group of people was enslaving another group of people and it had to stop. In a great tragedy this precipitated a war. But there was no equivalence between the North and South then, just as there is no equivalence between white nationalism/authoritarianism and democratic forces now.
To suggest there is is essentially to be in a kind of denial about the danger we are presently in.
4
Mitch McConnell is without question one of the vilest, most dishonest and inexcusable people to defile American politics, and that includes other thugs like Newt Gingrich and Jesse Helms. History will not be kind, and to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson about Nixon, when McConnell finally dies “his body [should be] burned in a trash bin,” and “his casket [should be] launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles.”
That would be far better than McConnell deserves.
3
Fox News and Talk Radio are laughing all the way to the bank.
4
Tom, remember "The Earth Is Flat"? The book you wrote? You extolled globalism. Now you bemoan it, seeing its impacts on us.
Formula for bemoaning a problem while simultaneously exacerbating it: 1) Introduce the problem broadly at first, disingenuously inviting bipartisan consesnsus; 2) characterize one side of a binary misleadingly in order to subtly demean them ("men who believe that their gender still confers certain powers and privileges"); 3) cherry-pick examples of one side behaving egregiously while omitting all the blatantly obvious instances of the other side doing the same.
This is the stuff of talk radio, just (perhaps) a little more eloquent. As a reader, I feel more isolated and tempted to withdraw to my tribe than ever. Well done!
1
This would be unbelievable, except that it's Friedman. It takes him 15 paragraphs to locate the true responsibility for the tribal nature of our politics, which lies in 20 years of Republican extremism. And then by the end, he simply forgets that, and asks for some kind of Renaissance in the center. that might be okay, except for the fact that it completely ignores that the center has been dragged rightward for over 20 years by extremism on the right. So there is no longer any such thing as "centrism," at least not by reference to the current political poles. What Friedman is advocating, and he knows this, is unilateral surrender to the right. That's fine with him. That works for him. It's not going to work for the rest of us.
Thank you Thomas.
Maybe I understood all this because I am a Canadian. We are now the enemy of the GOP. We are a highly successful liberal democracy that has rejected the right wing political, social, religious and economic philosophy of the of the USA.
There is no United States of America, nor will there ever be again. Once you learn not to listen "Use it or lose it " is axiomatic.
I have lived in your country much of the last 25 years and watched ideology prevent evolution. Darwin told us what happens when species fail to adapt. You have no politics only confrontation.
The center of your Democrats is our conservative, it is what made the USA the best country in the world when Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan called for your country's destruction. I hope your country dissolves peaceably, you have, thanks to your "conservative" Newspeak no language capable allowing dialogue.
1
"Poverty is a kind of violence, the worst kind" - Gandhi.
"The rich aren't like you & I...they're soft where we're hard & cynical where we r trustful. They're careless people,They (break things) then retreat back into their money leaving others to clean up the mess." - F. S. Fitzgerald
Rich=not having to work. This gives them leverage bc they can walk away from any deal.
Their safety net is money. Its the only thing they trust or comforts them and so desperate to protect this.
For them ROI is everything (& 7% is gold because it means their holdings double every 10 years). That means being forced to work becomes more remote. Taxes make all this harder
The American Rich on the Right r a class of elite that care about nothing else than themselves. This goes way back
When FDR took over there was a Wall Street plot to over throw him. It failed. Unions got traction. For a time, they aligned with the mob which gave them the ability to serve tit-for-tat with the rich. If they threatened to move a factory overseas a brick would sale thru a living room window: tit-for-tat, a promise of real violence against econ violence
About 1960 tariffs were lowered. Kennedy's began war on the mob. In 65 factories were off shored to Singapore. In 71 RICO went into effect. Thousands of factories moved to COMMUNIST China. The median wage has remained flat since 72. Now comes Trump who corrals the rabble & delivers massive tax cuts @ the expense of everything else. The rich on the right care not
3
This Civil War redeux is basically over the same issue of the first ghastly conflict: racism, bondsmen, and slavery, based on the latest republican give-away to the wealthiest. This miniscule, tiny subgroup, least in need for another dime as compared to the vast majority of American Workers' wages and personal wealth remain stagnant, even lower than ever is this the obvious example that slavery is upper-most as the nation's economic policy.
There is no other policy that compares. In taking away the choice of the first universal healthcare program that we Americans have ever been offered is another 'tell' in the bondsmen continued suffering. If taking away the mandate doesn't kill Obamacare outright, installing a political Justice to the supreme court will surely finish the job. Whom then do we Americans find that will offer us healthcare? That tiny, miniscule subgroup, that's who. Just as it ever was.
Then of course even more of our legal freedoms will be gone. Women's rights will be next which pleases the average management power structure no end with even lower wages compared to men, reinstalling the glass ceilings do to forcing more babies into a woman's career track, especially those poorer in resources.
Make no mistake that the intent of trump's agenda is to restructure our society's current path, with the republican leadership's demonization of the falsely labelled "entitlements" to become privatized.
This second Civil War is the same as the first.
4
As a senior citizen with few years left on this planet, it pains me to read this accurate depiction of the current state of this nation which can no longer be called the "United" States. I do believe however that the country will survive and come unite once again with future generations who will return to civility and compromise. Sadly, I will not be here to witness it.
For now, Mr. Vladimir Putin rejoices in his well-conceived and executed strategy to debilitate our nation from within. A nuclear arsenal need not be deployed. His brilliant exploitation of cyber warfare and interference in our now fragile democracy suffices for now.
3
Yeah, we would all like to divide it up. Especially those of us who subsidize the red states. But it's not practical. There is no nice, neat Mason-Dixon line along which to cut it. And in fact, even in the Civil War, it could not be cut along the Mason-Dixon line which is...the southern boundary of Pennsylvania. There are simple, if politically impossible, things that we could do: 1. control money in politics; 2. reform the primary system; 3. restore the Fairness Doctrine in some way that can work in the digital age. 4. eliminate the Electoral College. These four things would pour much oil on our troubled waters, sufficient to calm things down. But it's too late, unfortunately. We seem to be locked into the worst case on all four.
1
In the end, a disappointing commentary. You propose a reasonable path of center-left and center-right people coming together, but most of your column is spent bashing the Republicans without noting the extremism coming out of the Democrat party. Until you wake up to this there can be no reconciliation.
I think the only way to ease the conflict is to reduce the value of what we're fighting over--control of the federal government.
In practice, this would mean devolving as much power as possible to local areas (maybe states, in some cases). Given ideological sorting by geography, the information revolution, and advances in technology, this could yield a more representative democracy while greatly easing partisan tensions, which I agree have become close to frightening.
Blue and Red America no longer share values. We do however share interests. Everyone wants peace and prosperity. Leave those issues to the feds and devolve as much else as we can.
It pains me when superior men and women are made laughing jokes by a tool that calls himself our "POTUSA" When he mocks a woman that tried to do the thing before a cheering crowd that included women.
The women should be ashamed, he is telling them that they account for very little in his world and they should be quiet and do what they are told.
It's beyond belief. Do women really drink his "coolade"? If so shame on them.
1
I am the same age as TF. As bad as things seem now, I felt worse about the country in the late '60s and '70s. Viet Nam showed us that "leaders" in both parties lied repeatedly to srart and keep us in a war with no purpose, and were willing to sacrifice 55,000 young Americans to sustain those lies. Watergate tore away any remaining illusions about presidents' trustworthiness. Civil Rights showed the racism and violence under the country's skin. With this perspective, our current plight doesn't seem quite as dire. The sense of a civil war is largely the result of politicians, mostly Repubs, who thrive by stoking social divisions among us to distract us from them picking the pockets of the 99% to benefit the 1%. A politician who presents a path to economic fairness and responsible govt can tap into the frustrated majority who feel unrepresented by both parties. Such a leader would help us join around our common interests, and shine light on the jinned up differences that both parties have fed off. Trump is a temporary boil on the body politic that will be lanced before much longer.
3
Friedman warns us about tribalism. Then criticizes only one side. Civil War part 2 is wishful thinking?
I have voted democrat in every election since I could vote, but I am deeply troubled by the rising tendencies of the left to reject or dismiss fundamental principles like freedom of speech and due process. The media has been obsessed with utterly trivial but salacious matters like Stormy Daniels or throwing ice and has utterly utterly failed at every juncture to seize the opportunity to heal the divide. When North Korea is denuclearizing and no media outlet celebrates this as a triumph, you have to really suspect what they are here for. Elitism has defined the media ever since that became accessories to the Iraq War. Freidman, YOU are the problem.
1
Perhaps the best observer of where we are as a people. Mr. Friedman is no slave to cliches or the easy journalism that plays to the peanut gallery. We need more tough love that hopefully will inspire voters to rid America of at least some of these despots.
@Doc yes, and the Clinton dynasty would be a good place to start.
Mr. Friedman, this is one of your many great columns! Thank you. I will share it widely. Barry Schoenborn.
1
It’s hardly just our nation. Globalization, unchecked immigration and Socialism is being voted out across the world, including Italy, Sweden, Germany and just in the last 2 months, the two largest Provinces in Canada have tossed aside the Liberals. If you want to enjoy the fruits of Socialist sm, you’re going to need to go to Venezueala, Bolivia or some other authoritarian State where you won’t be able to vote to throw the bums out when they fail.
1
This column is Exhibit A as to why there is a problem. He heaps ALL the blame right on "the other guy" while taking none for himself. Classy.
1
I believe the reason so many of us have moved beyond "concern" and past "worry", all the way to "terrified" in the present milieu is not the divisiveness between group interests, or even the tribalism of post-partisan extremism; it just may be that none of us alive have ever experienced either political party dominated by a very cohesive base of true believers. I strongly recommend a book written shortly after WW II and right at the start of the Cold war. It is Eric Hoffer's "True Believers" and I am so glad I dusted off my old paperback copy of it...a few alligator clips to hold the pages in and I began to read and couldn't stop until I had finished the book. It's not too long, broken into bite-sized chunks and easy to grasp all of Hoffer's most dire prognoses for societies that abandon reason and embrace fantasy, myth and spectacle. The true believer is totally committed and impervious to doubt and truly blind to anything that does not conform to the national or social myths that a ruthless and unscrupulous leader panders shamelessly. Germans in the 30's did not want the responsibility of citizenship, having always preferred to remain apolitical and give a ruling class all the power and all the responsibility. Hitler consolidated this base by playing to longstanding resentment of mainly Jews. Like the Germans of an earlier time, our democracy will not be taken away from us. We will willingly give it away in a cultish frenzy of tribute to the leader.
1
And lets not forget the "Southern Strategy", under Nixon, Reagan and Bush by which the white democratic south turned almost entirely republican in a generation. Not to mention the repeal of the fairness doctrine under Reagan, and the subsequent rise of hate radio and Fox News under the guise of free speech, stoking the very divisions you mention, and now supercharged by a variety of amoral social media sites and the web. Unless people of goodwill get off their butts and take the country back by supporting a reasonable middle road that acknowledges the necessity and value of compromise not to mention civility, the Trumps of this world, enabled by their henchmen like McConnell and Murdoch will prevail in their march to a zero sum world and a tyranny of the minority. The completely unqualified supreme court nominee is the tip of the iceberg and Merrick Garland the canary in the coal mine.
1
You mention much less violence in today’s; however black lives are being violently destroyed before our very eyes by police and massive shootings are occurring more frequently.
1
@ Dante - "The Democrats are far from blameless in tribal
politics but as usual they are given a pass and told to plow
forward in righteousness. Righteousness starts wars and
does not avoid them".
Huh?
Righteousness simply means "doing the right thing", it
means doing what's right, as opposed to doing what's
wrong. Righteousness is why the US finally entered WWII,
it's the reason millions of men and women gave their lives
to stop Germany's Third Reich.
Secondly, Democrats do not claim to be "blameless"
in the current state of affairs, they acknowledge their
mistakes and seek to correct them by continuing the
legacy of the Founder's: to "Form a more perfect union".
1
Speaking of the American Civil War, Part II:
Trump's scurrilous rant Tuesday in Mississippi against Christine Blasey Ford -- blatantly framing her as a liar and misfit for the entertainment of his audience -- catapulted this Sick (and Sickening) Lowlife to a new low. In one moment, at one more misogynist rally, this Contemptible sham "president" poured tar and feathers over an honorable woman, and tons' more salt into America's Trumpian wound.
What's more, Trump's horrifically Ignorant Audience was complicit -- these pathetic lost sheep who have given their souls carte blanche to this unconscionable "president".
The U.S. is being suffocated by a demented power grip of its three most powerful leaders: the president (Trump), a justice nominee to the Supreme Court (Kavanaugh), and the Senate Majority leader (McConnell). Never in my many decades of life could I have imagined our fair nation adulterated by such deplorable people at the highest ranks.
The day cannot come quickly enough that we will be rid of these deplorables: these true Misfits.
2
@Ken keep that rhetoric coming. You may be unpleasantly surprised in future elections.
The most gauling thing is that one side is by far the minority. The Republicans control the levers of power through gerrymandering and the electoral college. If elections were fair, Republicans would rarely win them. Instead we all suffer from their false Christianity and sanctimonious extremism! My God, just last night, Trump made fun of a sexual assault victim, and his crowd of Republicans laughed and cheered!
2
Every other article in this paper is designed to divide people on race, gender or class. How can you print something like this with a straight face? How can you tell yourself that identity politics is different from racist politics? Do you actually think you're not part of the problem?
2
Nice article, Tom. I am a Libertarian and tend to support ideas from both sides of the aisle depending on the issue. You nailed it with your thesis, that political divisions in this country are threatening to actually tear us apart, but I am simply amazed at how you acknowledge this fact while remaining blind to your own hypocrisy on the matter of open-minded ideaological debate, which would be the antidote to much of this division. Are you even aware that you lost half your readers in paragraph 8 when you essentially called the entire GOP insane? When you argue with your wife, do you "score points" or attempt to understand her point of view? Same issue really. Quite frankfully, and respectfully, I ask you and all your colleagues to take a hard look in the mirror and ask "Is the way I choose to report the news, responsible for tearing America apart?" The rason we are being driven apart is that nobody thinks they are to blame. It's "those idiots who watch Fox" or "those whackos watching CNN". It's ALL of us, people. And you too, Tom. Turn off the TV, close the web browser and read a little history. Then you'll discover the importance of that which binds us and the relative triviallity of everything else that's constantly being sold to us as "Breaking News".
3
Populism, of the left (communists) or the right (nazis), creeps up on a culture in the same way a frog can be brought to a boil.
I agree that there is a bit of false equivalency in the sense that truth definitely favors those who live their lives in 'the center' or 'center-left'. Not much truth in the hard-right to far-right camp. When one side holds willful lies and deceits as a rallying cry with religious fervor (both figuratively and literally), we are indeed heading down a dark road.
1
Could be much more explicit about the cause of this situation and the rabid right - Rush, Fox, Koch Bros et al - who are actually reveling in your lamentation as exactly what they hoped to create. A liberal apologizing for the right and how we all need to hear them. Their agenda is not just about policy and "America". It is about race. They deserve to all end up fenced in together in Wyoming with their guns and a little bit of food. Let them have their own Civil War, and leave global humanity alone.
1
Bring it on. Time for some bloodletting.
People like Trump and McConnell are symptomatic of the millions who support what they do. They along with Trump and McConnell are traitors. A Civil War may be the only way out of this insanity.
1
Perhaps it really is time for women to take the reins.
2
When I talk to my republican friend we can not talk about what is going on in politics, most news is fake to them fox is the only one telling it like it is when it comes to news. I try to fine middle ground to keep friendships of a life time tough for all of us Trump is cleaning house in there eyes. I'm at a loss on how to change any of there thoughts they drank the cool aid and are intoxicated with the guy.
1
You want to know why our nation is divided? Because we have a Bully-in-Chief who takes great joy in mocking people. He is the antithesis of a role model. He weaponizes Twitter to demean, ridicule, and degrade any one with a dissenting thought.
But the real culprit is not Trump. The real culprits are the Republican elected officials who turned a looked away when it all started. They held their nose and let him continue his insults and rallies with no holds barred- so they could get their tax cuts and their conservative Supreme Court. And now we have him mocking Dr. Ford.
The elected Republican officials who KNEW he was wrong to shout and scream and rant and demean others are truly at fault. They had the power to put some checks and balances on him but were afraid of their voters to take a stand. And they too did not want to become a Twitter casualty of Trump, should they rebut his childish charges. How Senator Cruz can say a positive word about Trump is astonishing. Trump openly criticized his wife and father! But Cruz is right in there with the rest of them, supporting the Bully-in-Chief so he can get re-elected.
The history books will not look favorably on Trump - but they will excoriate the Republican Congress for sitting idly by, retiring, saying nothing, and letting this happen day after day after day.
1
@EB I think Dr. Ford has done a pretty good job of mocking herself, particularly as her story keeps changing in materially important ways.
Calling it tribalism hints of both sides are guilty. To me, one side believes in democracy, the other does not. The one that does not has won, the opposition has lost, the civil war is over. Thank you McConnell, fox news, RW radio jerks, complicit R's, etc.
1
Very well said.
1
Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend that I hadn’t seen in awhile. As we ordered, I gravitated to politics, which just seemed natural in todays environment. I think I started off with something like “Kavanaugh is guilty” and you would have thought I started WW3.
When he started talking, my jaw hit the table so hard that it separated from my skull. Five minutes before, we were good friends having a great time, and the next, we were heading to the munitions tent to gather our weapons.
Where did he get those alternate “facts?” Where did I get mine? Suddenly I realized that almost everything we know and believe today is coming from news outlooks and more importantly, its commentators.
It’s Fox versus MSNBC. It’s Rush Limbaugh and his fellow talk shows versus, well, I don’t know because I don’t listen to radio.
Next week, I turn 80. I was born before TV, internet, cell phones, ETAL. I got my news from News Reels on Saturday at the movies and The Philadelphia Enquirer. I think we were Republicans, but I’m not sure any of us knew why. If someone was a Democrat, it was more like a religious belief than an enemy.
This November, the Blue Tribe will probably take at least the House. Will the wars stop? Not hardly. It will just get worse because now it’s time for retaliation against the Red enemy, unless we elect someone who can stop this insanity and have arms long enough to reach the other side. The next time you vote, don’t just vote against someone or something; vote for the Future!
1
Obama’s election only aroused the sleeping dog of racism that has been with us since we became a nation. After the scenes of Bull Connor putting his dogs on demonstrators were broadcast around the world it became not politically correct to an overt racist. Racist learned clandestine racism served them better so for years they practiced behind doors. They were able to build more jails under fund more schools and maintain the status quo in the inner city ghettos. Then Obama got elected and the racist of America hit the panick button. Trump came along and no matter what baggage he carried they loved him because he was going to protect them from the dark horde. We will find the American Civil War fought from 1861 to 1865 was not ended in Appomattox when Lee surrender to Grant it just went covert. Until we finally admit that racism trumps everything in America we will countinue our the Civil War that wasn’t ended in 1865.
1
@Steven McCain remember Herman Cain? He had the support of many on the right. But he was quickly removed by allegations of sexual misconduct. The biggest fear of the Left is a conservative, electable black whom the Left can’t destroy.
Dear Fire starter
I took the time to read and try to understand you and I want to take your attitude to a logical conclusion. A. You hate conservatives and the right wing. But have you ever thought about what would happen if the right and left get so dysfunctional the nation begins to disintegrate? B. Here is what I think would happen: Since the USA underpins the world economy it would cause a depression and possibly an economic collapse around the world, civil unrest would escalate and a feed back loop would start. Economic collapse - more civil unrest, more civil unrest - more economic collapse.
If the USA becomes weak enough our enemies would descend on us. China Russia, Iran
In other words it would get ugly and millions would die. So when I read the venom you seem to have for your fellow citizens it makes me realize you are thowing gasoline on your own house and lighting a match.
2
@LB You are acutely perceptive. Kudos.
We need more Amy Klobuchars and few if any Lindsey Grahams to keep this country together.
2
Great nation's are never defeated, they crumble from the inside. Both sides lie about each other with half truths. I'm tried of polical campaigns that smear the opponent. Tell us what you can and will do for us, not what someone else can't do. We need to learn to be nicer to each other, more tolerant and think about someone else besides yourself.
1
walt kelly comes to mind
27
We have always been overly proud of our "exceptionalism." Remember, the Founding Fathers were grand at over-arching claims of righteousness, and equality, while most of them kept their slaves until they died. We are reduced to a hope for the appearance of a populist savior who will captivate the Trump voters and put the country back on course. Just like other countries, we long for a charismatic leader, not the triumph of our supposedly superior governing systems.
The American Civil War part 2. Brought to you by the NRA and the second amendment conservatives who have been buying guns like the AR15, large capacity mags. and ammunition by the case. There are those radical alt-right types who want to see Armageddon and want to be well armed when the likes of Rush and LaPierre have stirred things up to shooting war.
You say it can't happen here. Think again. NAZI's in the streets carrying guns are already here. Those shooting, like the one in Las Vegas could be just a warm up by the enemy within. I hate to think of the kind of wold my great grand sons will face by the time they can vote.
1
@USMC1954 The Vegas mass shooter's motive remains a mystery, but it seems more reasonable to assume that shooting up a country music festival would place him in the antiTrump camp rather than the opposite. How did you miss this?
It may not have started with McConnel, but his intent to cheat the Country out of any moderate Supreme Court Justices (not liberal, just moderate), and reducing the vote to 50 for a Supreme Court nominee, Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts in many states, -- these types of things smack of unfairness.
The sense of unfairness causes anger. That anger intensifies when the situation continues without an end in sight. It continues when a majority of Senators is voted in by a minority of the Country's voters (low population states control the Senate). When an unrepresentative majority of Congress is voted in by gerrymandering and voter suppression. When a candidate wins the majority vote, but is sent home so that a minority vote candidate can take her place as the President of the US.
It is a sense of being cheated by those Republicans in power. Who have no desire to serve the people, only a desire to feed the typical Fox-viewer type rage so that they can continue to suppress the majority.
A feeling of being cheated by the politicians accepting huge sums from the NRA and other corporate vampires that have only their profits in mind - human lives, human health, catastrophic global overheating, clean air be damned.
A feeling of being treated without dignity, by those Republican politicians in power. A feeling that others are using dirty tricks to hold on to their power. A feeling that "State TV" is constantly stirring up grievance.
What a mess.
1
A possible solution is a viable third political party of centrists. That way no extreme-left or extreme-right legislation could get approved without the political backing of centrists. Why is it so hard to establish a viable third party in our country. Most democracies in other parts of the world have al least three, if not more, viable political parties. A major third political party may be the only way out of our current predicament, and the timing couldn't be more favorable.
2
There is another thing that can stop it, Tom: the distortions and lies and bad faith by acrimonious radical Republicans can push a larger majority of the country to the center-left and more left; and push that larger majority to not just vote, but also be more politically engaged and active.
Liberals and Democrats have endured decades of name-calling, shaming, and unfounded accusations about our patriotism and our moral character, but the past few years have given the most dramatic proof that this is in the main mere projection. Decades of intransigence and diminished compromise from Republicans makes it hard to engage.
The sane response to routinely reaching out your hand and having it slapped most every single time is to stop extending your hand. While today's tribalism is regrettable, it is entirely understandable given the bad-faith actors in our political scene violently pushing away those of us on the left who would far rather work with them to build a better Union.
4
@Jacob Sommer Build a better Union on your terms you mean. We don't agree.
As someone born the same year as Tom, I believe a big difference between what divides us now and what divided us fifty years ago is the country then was not really divided 50-50 as now; also, the DC politicians did agree to disagree back then, something sorely missing today.
3
Maybe I am naive, but none of this partisanship particularly fazes me. It is driven by real forces that are splitting the middle class, and by the weird flow of information on the Internet. But we've had many periods of turmoil in the past and came out OK, or perhaps the better for it. Well, maybe that is naive, I am not so sure we came out better after the Restoration. But I also think the next generation of voters is going to be a bit smarter about handling information than their parents. And FWIW, they seem destined to be quite a bit more liberal. As someone who was born in the conservative 1950s I just remind myself that the 1950s were followed by the 1960s. The tenor of the times can change quite quickly, especially when the country lurches to one extreme or another.
1
Missing from this column is any mention of right wing media, front and center in which lays Fox News, which has captured the minds of at least 40% of our public in a propaganda cult which confines them to an alternative upside down, black-is-white reality, without which this Civil War II, including the election of Trump would not have been possible.
6
@walkman We on the right absolutely think you've described the left in your up is down, black is white, left is right picture.
Tom,
Definitely gloomy.
I think we need a powerful external threat that will unify both sides. You in other writings have identified climate change as such a threat.
There are lots of non-fossil alternatives in the wings of the global economy: OTEC, space solar, ground solar, nuclear,wind, geothermal, etc. The goal is extremely cheap electricity to power the World, capture carbon dioxide, desalinate ocean water, make jet fuel and lubricants from air and water. This should do it, it is humane, practical, and very doable.
2
As one of the very few remaining NYT columnists I have any respect for, this is a disappointing piece. Speaking to the deepest divisions anyone can remember, you fail to recognize that the divisions are pretty evenly divided. In my experience, the only way to heal divisions as deep as this is to begin by acknowledging some of the rational complaints coming from the other side as well as acknowledging some of the mistakes made on the side you favor. Please remember, that it was the Democrats who decided a "resistance" was preferable to the traditional "loyal opposition" that had previously characterized political divides. The term "resistance" has some very serious and dangerous connotations. and I have yet to see an editorial or op ed in the one time dispassionate NYT questioning the wisdom of such a working political strategy
4
@Michael Mikita
Mr. Friedman left out one of the "choices" among jobs available: in addition to high skill/high wage and low skill/low wage, he should have included high skill/low wage, which increasing numbers of us have.
7
I love how its always the republicans fault about everything. When one side calls themselves the "Resistance" in an open and free democratic/republican country, that tells you everything you need to know about where we are as a nation.
Both sides are to blame for this eventual civil war we are coming to. The left and the right. And to be honest, I think we need to just break up as a nation, and be done. Once you have unelected judges mandating things that the body politic does not support or want, a political system based upon democratic norms is over.
So, break up. Each side go their separate ways. I honestly no longer care or want to be in a country with about half the folks who live here now. Better to end it now without bloodshed than the fight that is coming - and one that, I believe, the left will lose badly.
3
@Jason Remarkably, just like the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. Exactly so.
This is an excellent depiction of what is going on in the US today. However, there is one point that I feel needs clarifying. Yes, there are highly-skilled and highly-paid jobs at one end of the spectrum and less-skilled and not well paid jobs at the other. Where do educators with Masters and Doctorates fit in here? Public school teachers in a number of states are forced to work second and third jobs to pay the bills and universities have been giving contracts to instructors and lecturers which are impossible to live on. This also needs to be addressed as putting in years to study, taking out student loans and then not being able to make ends meet is certainly not part of the American dream.
4
Long past time to get out the magic markers, a big map and divide it up — like it should have been done decades ago. We all will be happier, more productive and better off. This is an overdue divorce. Please, let us get those proceedings underway.
4
@Paul Hopefully there is a middle ground but it’s difficult to see at this point. Both sides are so utterly sure of their own ideas that compromise is not considered.
1
No country can withstand a continuous sophisticated wide ranging propaganda campaign for decades on end. Fringe believes used to be expounded in little newspapers held in a few sporadic news boxes on the street. Now they are billion dollar enterprises that coordinate with the highest political figures.until we reform information, this problem will only get worse.
4
@Stuart Reform information sounds like code for censorship.
When Friedman says our present economy is lacking its middle -- it consists in high-paying, high-skill jobs and in low-paying, low-skill jobs -- he misses an important category: the low-paying, high-skill job. Teaching is in that category, including my own 20-year associate professorship at a state-located university. So, until recently, was nursing; so are many other professions that take a very high level of commitment and training but pay poorly, often well less than some of the low-skill, equally important jobs day to day life depends on. Many of us are people who worked their tails off and hold good-sounding jobs, but have somehow missed out on compensations we felt we earned. Mr. Friedman, you need, please, to add that category to your list, and to start trying to understand the more complicated picture that emerges as a result.
5
As seems to be the rule with the NY Times stable of commentators, we are met here with an all too familiar narrative that seems more designed to obfuscate than clarify. Each day we are met with weapons of mass distraction intended to divert us from fundamental reality--and that is that there is no second civil war; we are still fighting the first one. In a sense it is the only one, the identifying trait of who we are as a nation. There was a time--when subjects like American history and civics were taught to every school child. Apparently, those subjects became too dangerous and were removed from the national curriculum. We were taught about sectionalism and states rights, for example. Two issues that continue to define who we are. All that has really changed is that, with the "great migration" of African Americans to the North, the Mason-Dixon line moved north as well so that now it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between Alabama and Wisconsin. The hallmarks are the same, however, with segregation and anti-unionism leading the way. Our democracy, always a frail and vulnerable institution, is now directed by men who see themselves as heirs to the Greco-Roman tradition of slave states.
8
@Vincent Amato This analysis is very much incorrect. African Americans are moving south now. The best options for minorities are no longer in the northeast and California. Job options and cost of living considerations have made southern states preferable. The best cities economically for minorities are in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. Also, more minorities are moving to the suburbs.
3
@Vincent Amato A very perceptive analysis. And, the NYT as a "weapon of mass distraction" - priceless.
We always talk about the "Intent of the Founders." We forget that John Adams appointed John Marshall to not just Justice, but Chief Justice of the Supreme Court literally weeks before Jefferson was to take office. The Senate confirmed him. The intent was that the President appoints and if the person is qualified, the Senate confirms. By all accounts, Jefferson and Marshall, despite being cousins, despised each other but Jefferson did nothing to change the process. Mitch McConnell caved in the cliff of an eroding system. I'm note sure if anyone trusts anyone enough to do a process reset, even it they wanted to. If the Democrats take the Senate, they will have no choice but to do the same thing, making it even worse.
4
The civil war we find ourselves in is due, in effect, to manipulative marketing brought on by the likes of Gingrich and Limbaugh that started in the 80's during the Reagan administration. Chief in this strategy was to introduce a new lexicon, part of which was singularly defining any Democrat as a "liberal." This couldn't be further from the truth. Gerrymandering districts became key strategies to keep seats in Republican control. Mitch's overt obliteration of rules is the icing on cake for this long baked in strategy to manipulate voters into believing things that are just not true. The chicken has come home to roost, and they will have to own what they've created. I just pray that leaders in both parties emerge who will denounce this language and behavior and correct our course before it is too late.
6
Because the truth is both depressing and simple, it is tempting to look for a more complex explanation. The truth is this: The political divide is driven by a racist backlash to the Obama presidency. The howls of outrage and protest from its perpetrators ring absolutely false in the face of the Trump presidency.
I'm fully aware of the alternative explanations for Trump's ascendancy, and the desperate effort to list all the causes EXCEPT racist animosity. But the brutal fact of the matter is that racism is a firmly anchored systemic part of America. It infiltrates every aspect of our nation, from culture to economics to education to politics. It is as absolute as the air we breathe. We expend 99% of our energy pointing out how this is just not true, and 1% addressing it for what it is.
It was in this that the Obama presidency came about, right along with the McConnell opposition. We elected a black man president, but instead of showing us what was possible out of what we had changed about ourselves, it showed us instead what would happen if white America was not paying attention, not mobilized. Hence, Donald Trump, America's first white president (all credit to Ta Nehisi Coates for this remarkable insight).
There is no compromise to be made here. There is no equivalence that grants a concession to the racism that is driving this presidency and tarnishes every single one of his supporters. There is, and can only be, resistance. If that means civil war, so be it.
9
@Jim Spot on, thank you.
The dangerous time we live in ....moderate people are too wrapped up in their own lives with too many sources of distraction and entertainment to care enough about politics to do something. The extremes (especially on the right) have ignited across democracies and are tearing the political fabric apart, taking advantage of economic grievances real and imagined.
Maybe we need to hold our hands up and accept that human beings are not happy if they are not suffering or in conflict with something....boredom and complacency are inherently unstable....
2
Tom, Your story seem s one sided. Have you forgotten Nov. 2013?
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pushed through a controversial change to Senate rules Thursday that will make it easier to approve President Obama's nominees but threatens to further divide an already polarized Congress.
Fifty-two Senate Democrats and independents voted to weaken the power of the filibuster. The change reduces the threshold from 60 votes to 51 votes for Senate approval of executive and judicial nominees against unanimous GOP opposition. Three Democrats — Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Carl Levin of Michigan — opposed the change.
The rule change does not apply to Supreme Court nominees, who are still subject to a 60-vote filibuster threshold, or to legislation
Who was resisting this change?
8
Mr. Friedman, I was really curious to see how fast you go from “we’re drowning in tribalism”, to “it’s all the GOP fault, they’ve gone crazy”.
What’s ironic is that I totally agree with all the bad things you say about the Republicans. But you don’t seem to see anything wrong on the left; doesn’t it take two to tango ?
You might want to remember that the newspaper that publishes your opinion pieces has become the standard bearer of a very dangerous process of revising standards of guilt - unsubstantiated accusations passing for evidence, as long as they are made by people who traditionally have been victimized. This emerging caste system, where people have more value depending on the group to which they belong, is a core element of the tribalism you’re describing.
7
@Gimme A. Break
You're correct with your comments about the left. However, the right, with Fox News, has done far more damage.
1
@Full Name Of course, I disagree. Now, all Tucker Carlson has to do to make his point is to show split screen clips from MSM reportage of the same event, from say MSNBC, CNN and CBS. It's a joke, Pravda on steroids. No way Fox is the main mover here. There's a reason the right is called reactionary, they react to perfidious stupidity of and from the left.
@Gimme A. Break "Takes two to tango" is one way of expressing it; seeing out of the left eye better than the right is another.
Oh, such a selective memory. Fights over Supreme Court nominees go back to Senator Kennedy's mean-spirited and divisive diatribe against a highly qualified Robert Bork, who deserved better treatment from the Senate Judiciary committee. Nasty comments from Senator Harry Reid, wrongfully stating that Mitt Romney did not pay taxes, were carefully planned for the Senate floor so Reid could not be charged with slander. Candidate Hillary Clinton, referring to a quarter of the U.S. population as a "basket of deplorables," fueled the most recent antagonism. These are all Democrats. I, for one, am glad that Republicans are fighting back. The cynical and specious arguments against a straight arrow like Brett Kavanaugh convince me of only one thing - Democrats will sink to any level to keep their tenuous grasp on power.
30
Citing different examples for each one of your tenets, we could make the opposite case... But it would include no real hatred for women as the GOP supports by virtue of electing Donald Trump.
1
@David Ricardo Ahhh yes, the oft quoted deplorables. Don't mind with rest of the quote though.
@David Ricardo: Umm, I hate to remind you of this, but Republicans hold every branch of government. This mess is all Republican and Republicans own it.
And if "Bart O'Kavanaugh" is your idea of a "straight arrow", with the temperament and veracity to sit on the SCotUS, you have pretty low standards.
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“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — Abe Lincoln, June, 1858, campaign speech for U.S. Senate.
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I came to this country as a student in Tennessee in1962. My first exposure to a tv was in the student dorm one morning when James Meridith was admitted to Ole Miss with federal marshals accompanying him. Then at the football game where our all white team was playing Rutgers who had a black wide receiver who was incessantly showered with racist rants by the student section. I knew then that this country was badly divided and it has been ever since.
Neighborhood busting, busing of school children, the emergence of LGBTQ, abortion, immigration and finally globalization has has a deafening impact on civility and in each one of these the GOP has been complicit.
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@Hmmmm...SanDiego But never the Demorats? This is insane, on its face.
@Hmmmm...SanDiego
LGBTQs didn't "emerge", we've been here since the dawn of time.
@Hmmmm...SanDiego
It was the Southern Democrats who fought integration. However, all of them have now migrated to the Republican Party, which in no way now resembles the party of Eisenhower, much less Lincoln. It's time for a reboot.
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
--- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Our new Civil War is already over.
This time the South won it.
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Bravo Mr. Friedman. The entire world’s future hinges not a little on the outcome of America’s current ‘civil war’. Few genuinely wish your country ill while many harbour the genuine hopes for it’s future wellbeing. The threats to it from without pale before it’s own powers for self-destruction.
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What stops it? The extreme Right and its media mouthpieces can stop spreading venom and the American center can come to the polls, as Mr. Friedman suggests.
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@Anthony How about the venom of the left, seen daily on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS?
Wow, according to Tom, Kavenaugh defended himself WITH nasty partisan attacks. Silly me. I thought he was defending himself FROM nasty partisan attacks that had politicians labeling him as an evil rapist, despite any corroborative evidence, despite 30 years in the public eye, despite 6 FBI background checks, despite 100s of people who actually knew him speaking up on his behalf, etc. Tom's writing vividly demonstrates the gulf in rational thought leading us down this dark path he so fears.
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What does it profit us to gain all the riches in the world and lose our soul? is the verse. True the economy is booming and we are ripping apart. When the foreign minister of our administration proclaimed enemy of Iran who speaks so much more articulately and properly in english than our president who is so insulting points to the evil of separating children from mothers, how can America have a soul? When this administration can mock a woman who comes forward with her sexual assault and still garner support from his party and church leaders, how can America have a soul? Make America... again???
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@RobT You're giving me Jacques Kerry as some sort of lodestar to America's soul? Insane! And a woman such as Dr. Ford is pitiable and will likely turn out to be mockable as her story continues to unravel.
The die has been cast. The Rubicon has been crossed. It's a done deal. Now, it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Kavanaugh will be confirmed, and America will begin 30 years of backward evolution, headed for a second Dark Age. But there's hope. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer, and this will be based on a "survival" algorithm. This model will provide irrefutable proof of how we have tricked the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about exactly what is supposed to survive - creating minds programmed de facto for destruction. When we do this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity. See RevolutionOfReason.com
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You start off making sense, but then you try to pin it on the Republicans, as if they are the only ones guilty of bad behavior. They don’t call it the “Biden rule” for nothing.
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@Larry Megaditto.
You place blame squarely on the right. No blame for democrats. There can be no meeting in the middle if one parry is not willing to accept its portion of the blame. This opinion piece is the very thing that it’s compains about.
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@Shlomo Yahudi
Both sides are not always equally wrong. One side can be much more to blame than the other.
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@Full Name Theoretically perhaps, practically, rarely. And here, on the evidence, Friedman indicts himself. J'Accuse!
Mr. Friedman is a hypocrite. He bemoans "tribalism" and yet his column in essence asserts that the Republicans are the root of the problem. He refers to the Republican decision to refuse to consider Merrick Garland as the turning point and refers to it as cheating. Yet I think many Republicans would argue they were never disrespectful to Judge Garland, that they were exercising an appropriate constitutional check on the Judicial branch, and that the turning point was Ted Kennedy's vicious attacks on Robert Bork. While acknowledging my own biases, I think the Republicans would get the better of that argument. If Mr. Friedman wants to get beyond "tribalism" it might be more effective to consider the ways in which people on his own side of the aisle have conducted themselves. A little self-knowledge goes a long way.
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@Douglas F You are sooo right, but Friedman refuses to admit that he isn't the judicious lineman in the middle, but is rather the partisan in the field or on the court. It's a joke, and reduces an otherwise perceptive column to a partisan screed. One can only conclude, since he's long been around, he's a pro, that he is in fact just another partisan hack, more polished than Blow but irretrievably positioned on the left, and all of his work should, must, be read with that in mind, if you want to bother reading it at all. Pity.
Thomas says: “We shout at each other on television, unfollow each other on Facebook and fire verbal mortars at each other on Twitter — and now everyone is on the digital battlefield, not just politicians.”
A similar point is made by Zeynep Tufekci in today’s NYT. Simply put, social media are fertile soil for trolling, and because trolling pushes traffic, the profit motivation is uninclined to combat it. At most desultory attempts are made to placate massive reader revolt.
Until Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and even Google are firmly regulated, the promotion of tribalism will continue on Social Media with its Twitter conductor-in-chief: DJ Trump.
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In the middle of my night, far, far from America I awoke to hear in an earphone a ranting madman debasing a decent American woman. Listen if you can, if only for a few seconds. If you are a decent American you will not be able to tolerate more.
But then, add picture to sound (URL below), and study the ordinary Americans all around him, second by second, if even for only a few seconds, especially the women. One woman seems almost to show doubt - pure speculation on my part - while another is overjoyed by what she hears.
Long ago I had a close friend who studied the madness of crowds, with I think as starting point the crowds who gathered before a dictator in the making, a master of myth making.
I suggest that a study of the madness of the crowds that Donald Trump manipulates by exercising what may be his one true skill will show how closely we in my country of birth, are approaching civil war.
Take just a minute and look to see what this might lead you to reflect on:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/02/politics/trump-mocks-christine-blasey...
I am terrified by what I see, and although I write from far away, I know that my American president has the power to succeed in his plot against the world, his own and the one I now live in.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
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I've read countless summaries of how this nightmare of an administration came to be. This is one of the best. Mr. Friedman has named the criminals responsible.
It's true that you can fool some of the people all the time, but we never dreamed that group was as large as 40%.
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Once again the author follows the talking points I’ve heard over and over again since Trump was elected. Usually it takes the form of how the white working class is scared they are losing their majority status and are desperate enough to elect Trump because of so called ‘dog whistles’ that somehow are code for white supremacy, nationalism, etc. I have never thought that way, nor am I scared as a white working class man that someday I will be a minority. What the author and others like him fail to understand is that Americans are tired of having all these isms stuffed down our throats or get the label of racist, sexist, blah blah blah... there’s no middle ground with the democrats, either you with us(and every oddball we bring in) or against us. We raise our kids, work hard, and hope to have a little left over to retire. It seems the democrats have cast us aside and basically said we don’t need you white man because the ground is shifting and we can carry on without you. Yeah, right. If someone would take the time to look at the past elections for the last 40 years they would realize there were never extremists elected. It was the middle ground. Clinton talked against welfare, Reagan gave you the feeling of optimism. Trump symbolizes the common idea that America has strayed from its core
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@Mark
That is certainly the tact that Hillary took. I agree with you.
However, Trump is unbalanced and unstable. No matter what you think of the Democrats, we need to put an end to Trump, and the republicans won't do it. They won't even try and control him. I find myself having to hold my nose and vote for the Democrats, because Trump is a far worse option.
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@Full Name That would be "tack", a nautical term. And Trump is exactly what's needed to hit the Demorats back just as they have been used to hitting. And that scares them, as any bully would be scared, immensely.
It is rare for Friedman, but this is an excellent column.
@Rob Crawford Yeah, except for the one-sided part.
The problem is, most of the "battlefronts" you describe are not ones where common ground SHOULD exist. They are where Republicans want to take the country backward:
Women's equality? Non negotiable.
A multicultural society? Non negotiable.
Shrinking middle class? This is corporate worshipping Republicans fault, not liberals who would implement a better balance between socialism and capitalism to ease economic pressure on families.
Rural against urban? That's a made up problem to stoke white resentment. Yes, cultural misogyny exists, but it exists everywhere, even within big cities.
The tribalism you're describing falls squarely on the shoulders of Republicans. It has left women and minorities fighting back, not to take anything away from others, but to continue to insist on our equal share (which we still don't have), on our place at the table.
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@Tony in LA
I grew up in the midwest, and now live in the northeast, with a stop in LA. The arrogance of the coasts and large cities towards the midwest is very real. It is not a made up problem.
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Everyone benefited from the New Deal, but no one benefited more from it than poor whites and rural interests. Their behavior just shows their ignorance and ingratitude.
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@XXX I suppose you could say the same thing about first wives, although they don't feel that way. But you do raise the good point, confirmed by Ken Burns' piece on the Roosevelts, that FDR and Eleanor specifically reached out to the working folk in this country, battered severely by the Depression, and made them a pillar of Demorat support for decades, but now banished by the left, such as you. Hence, as Michael Moore appreciates, Trump prevails. And I don't see the left taking them back.
Thank you, Mr. Friedman, for bucking the trend among many New York Times writers and hanging the blame on exactly those who deserve it: the Republicans.
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@Paul Edwards Ha! Find one NYT writer who doesn't hang the blame on Republicans, all the time, for everything. Ha!
Sadly, this article is an example of what it decries.
Less than helpful; in fact it only accelerates our already rushing national corrosion.
Not sure if Friedman can do better.
Not sure if it is even disappointing; it is so predictable.
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One of the finest opinion pieces I have read all year, thank you.
Even though Mitch McConnel is the poster boy for tribalism, I believe he is symptom of the virus of broad spreading of misinformation and acute ignorance in our nation.
There has always been fake news but with talk radio spurning conspiracy and then those stories being picked up with social media and spreading beyond what we have seen before, it is really a watershed moment in our nation.
When the majority of the republican party does not believe a birth certificate is real and insists our 44th President was not American, that is acute willful ignorance and hatred pure and simple.
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@ZigZag Not not an American, but not a 'natural born' American, as the Constitution specifically requires, which doesn't mean he arrived in an egg, but that he weren't born on US soil. And the Hawaii 'life birth' cert doesn't actually disprove that. If they're right, he's an English subject, as Kenya was UK territory then, and daddy was a Kenyan. This is a serious constitutional argument, which you mangle and spew nonsense about.
@ZigZag
And I'm always impressed by the canniness of CNN, the NYT, and MSNBC to never fall into conspiracy thinking themselves (Trump colluded with Russia, Kavanaugh is a gang rapist, etc...)
Amazing the composed rationality we've seen from the Stormy network, 24/7. No birtherism there.
Perhaps Reagan's victory lap for a war Gorbachev ended wasn't such a good idea after all. I think Friedman is wrong to return towards the center though. Democrats were just as willing as Republicans to entrench the legacy of the 1980's which has enabled everything since.
The "center" means Republican from about 40 years ago. I regrettably admit the stance would provide an improvement over our current circumstances. However, the appeal is merely an attempt at nostalgia from an aging demographic. There's no going back at this point. History is written. We can only move forward.
Personally, I place my faith in demography. Not only ethnic but also generational. There's a date somewhere not far in the future where the majority of voters won't remember Newt Gingrich's name. The feuding animosity of the Reagan years forward will be dispatched by something entirely new. McConnell will be remembered only as a disgrace.
You can already hear the heartbeats of this new movement. You see it campaigns from young unorthodox candidates. They are polite without remotely resembling the traditional Democratic career path. They are willing to compromise where compromise is appropriate but stand by the principles of economic and social justice without compromise. They reflect the values of the future, not the past. That's ultimately what will get us out of this mess.
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Trump actions follow tactics of "divide and conquer". His success and behavior always tries to polarize voters/citizens. Doing so captures attention and drive the debate to a new low that could not be imagined by rational thinking. I agree with Mr. Friedman that the only solution to this charade is a robust outcome on November 6th where voters speak loud and clear that this behavior and kind of leadership must end. Thanks for your perspective!
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Voting out extremists who destroy our democratic institutions in order to remain in power will not be enough unfortunately.
We have to find a way to stop the propaganda of fake news coming from right wing media outlets such as Fox and Breitbart spreading through social media and tearing apart our social fabric.
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I don't view Republicans as an enemy, merely a misled population instigated to rage by the leaders who carefully cultivated hatred and anger in their followers to gain power. Further narrative about Newt Gingrich is called for here. As a Congressman from Georgia, he was the Republican House Speaker in 1994 when he declared the "Republican Revolution" that seeded the unrest in America as the Republican party embarked on a malicious series of attacks on the Clinton's that continue to this day. Before that time, all was well with relations in politics save a few skirmishes. Gingrich started this current conflict and following leaders of his party continued and amplified it, most recently McConnell and Trump who seem to be deliberately fomenting civil unrest, hatred and anger. All of this is contagious through the media outlets.
No, I don't think the Republican followers are the enemy. They were duped into hatred and anger by very adept leaders who employed basic psychology. My criticism is limited to the leaders who mislead.
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@Shakinspear what about the identity politics democrats who mislead and divide the nation while duping their followers.
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Overall I agree with you; just unfortunate how you fail to acknowledge the degree to which intransigence and arrogance on the left mirrors that on the right; examples are Rahm Emmanuel's arrogance in the early Obama years mirroring that of McConnell. How arrogance and abuse of absolute power when in control were abused by the Democratic Party, as in the passage of Obamacare. And one could go on and on with examples on both sides. At the root of it all is the two party system with extremists in both parties, controlling their 'bases', and center left and right overall left out of the debate.
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@Jeffrey Hartog You will never get this type of acknowledgement. Just as with the right, the left has an absolute certainty in their minds that their ideas are the best ones for the country and they are unwilling to compromise.
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@Jeffrey Hartog
and you fail to acknowledge the difference between a President or a Majority Leader and a party operative.
The long arc of history reflects widening tribes: our ancestors defended small villages, then city-states, then nations. We're now in a temporary regression to smaller tribes and paranoid wariness of the Other. It's all due to fear. But like cornered animals, fearful tribes can be dangerous.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sacramento-street-psychiatry/201...
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This is happening because of the fact that gap between rich and poor is widening. In 2016 Election America put a TV guy in the White House with some false promises. 45th should know that after 2 or 6 years from now nobody will see him in TV or talk about him. He better work for his legacy right now. How he will be remembered. DOES HE CARE?
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I've already been challenged by a Tea Party member and ex-marine going back to September 2004. It was a fight.
I did avoid trouble. I was polite and quiet when I should have spoken up. Now, I wear my "Impeach 45" tee everywhere. I've been challenged twice. I was shoved once A conservative friend was shocked when I told him I nearly went to war then and there. (I was outnumbered 3:1). Push back.
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I don’t usually like Friedman, but this article is great. He hits the nail on the head and doesn’t pull any punches. Kudos Friedman!
@Kurt He hits himself on the head, which is the only explanation for its obvious one-sidedness.
Nice piece except you went WAY too easy on Trump. He has been throwing gasoline on the fire ever since
he started running for office. He has directly, and indirectly, been advocating violence by his followers.
He has been trying to discredit our our law enforcement and intelligence services, and the free press. He is all about hate, authoritarianism, - and not much else.
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Secession. Its time has come. The U.S. is too unwieldy, its Congress too corrupt, its voter districts too byzantine, its executive branch controlled by corporate America, its culture too primetime TV, its judiciary too partisan. California's economy is the 5th largest in the world, only behind the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany. We pay more in federal taxes than we take in. It's time to reinvigorate the democratic experiment.
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It is not only Republicans who are to blame for the state of uncivility. Republicans are not disrupting Senate hearings, shouting down speakers on college campuses or chasing couples from restaurants.
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I blame Senator Mitch McConnell for much of this. He came from a beautiful state with a legacy of cities and regions and colleges such as Berra and Centre. Whatever realm his motivation came and still comes from should be investigated and unmasked. In my eyes, he is the Araron Burr of our times. Even Herbert Hoover would think hard on disowning him as a politician.
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@Mary OMalley Gore Vidal thought Burr an admirable fellow.
What stops it? When the Republican Party repudiates the divisiveness the President sows.
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Sorry, you're right (no pun intended). You're just late to the party (again, no pun intended). This civil war differs from the last in that the haves will be the only winners. And when the rest of us have nothing to lose, well those gated communities will need, and will have armed guards. Welcome to the Banana Republic of America.
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If there were a "value meter" for the opposing sides in this epic and vile slander and hate filled contest as to the direction of this Republic for the next generation, each would be pegged in opposite directions.
What matters to each side and the evaluation of the opposition's value judgement is astounding. One side, the Progressive/Socialist side, many still revere Ted Kennedy as the "Lion of the Senate" and there are Senators still occupying chairs they held when Ted left a woman to drown in a canal in a car he had no licence to drive because of his multiple drunk driving offences.
The Oval Office is occupied by a man who had never held office prior and he defeated the iconic woman who was expected to win the contest in a 97% expectation. The "victor" is reviled.
The two major tribes have diverged and "Never the twain shall meet."
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"a balanced approach to immigration “
We used to have a bracero program with Mexico. Farmers were allowed to bring in temporary Mexican workers as long as the workers returned to their families in Mexico at the end of the season. This let farmers to pay their workers low wages because the cost of living was so much lower in Mexico, and it let the workers’ families to remain in their own country. When the bracero program ended, the workers had to cross the border illegally. The ones who made it across were fearful of going back and forth. Many decided to bring their families here.
The pubic grew upset over the costs associated with the illegal families. In 1986, a compromise gave amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants in exchange for stopping all further illegal immigration.
The amnesty encouraged other poorly educated people to move here without permission, on the gamble that they, too, would eventually be granted legal status. The PEW Trust estimates the current size of the undocumented population at 11.2 million. An estimate from Yale has it at 22.8 million.
If we offer another amnesty to any of the people who are currently here illegally, we will encourage the rest of the undocumented to stay, and we will signal to everyone around the world that that the gamble of coming here, without papers, pays off.
A “balanced approach to immigration” might mean telling all illegal migrants to go home, and again allowing farmers to bring in seasonal workers.
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"Do these people go home at night to some offshore island where none of this matters?"
No, they don't. And rest assured, they'll be the first people we should go after, should our Republic founder.
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FOX News & Right Wing radio propaganda is a big part of what's been driving this. It coincides perfectly with Newt's insanity of '94. Just drive through the Heartland and be dismayed. We cannot have Democracy AND State TV. Bring back the Fairness Doctrine or watch Democracy melt away.
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