Writing in today’s Financial Times, the very clever Janan Ganesh said of today’s divided America, “… the question of what day of the week it is will generate a 50-50 polling result”.
Imagine how farcical the nation’s name would be had it been the United People of America instead of the United States of America.
The current bitter political division is far from the normal left-right divide in a democracy. Instead it’s bound up in hatred and malice, a very unhealthy state of affairs.
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The degree of Tribalism and malice in US politics is amazing ever inflamed by current presidential candidates put forward by either side and after this election we all are indeed going to living in interesting and potentially worrying times
It does make me wonder if we here are bound for the same status.
If by some strange quirk of fate Trump gets elected (and let’s face it anything is possible in the USA these days) we’ll see a vindictive purge of anyone who he views as an enemy. The Great American Dictator will have come to power. He has already undermined the Supreme Court with his Republican-leaning appointments. With the two geriatrics duking it out (excuse the boxing pun, as neither could fight his way out of a wet paper bag) it could open the way for a hung election with neither getting the 270 they need to get across the line. That would really throw the cat amongst the pigeons with a “contingent election” then being needed. Trump will say it is rigged of course if he doesn’t get the nod. Kennedy, for all his alleged foibles, might be the ‘party’ pooper yet.
Lock the idiot up! Down with the Maga republicans! Right?
Hmmm I feel that NZ is becoming equally divided. Not on the same basis as the US which is more along historic team/tribal allegiances. NZ is now more split left:right than in the past, and superimposed over that is a faux ethnic split. I say ‘faux’ because the Maori group comprises part-Maori (no full blooded Maori exist) plus hand wringing Whities, and the others are made up of various ethnicities and cultures.
Moreover the basis of the split is an endless array of grievances around how badly Maori have been, and still are, treated. These grievances are largely fabricated, as are the fatuous interpretations around the Treaty. Sadly some/most “Maori” can’t stop looking backwards, and carping and moaning about their lot. Constantly demanding reparations and privileges for imagined wrongs which impede our democracy and create ill will.
The result is a split that I can’t see mending. It’s too well entrenched.
To be fair the last 3 years of the Labour government was very similar.
Yep. There’s huge hate out there, and hateful people are dangerous in politics because they don’t care about playing fair. They will slander and abuse to win, if it works, and they will do it with a smile. America’s (and party our own) politics has gone septic, and dangerous.