and I lived through the Vietnam War Era in which the division(s) was/were pretty severe. This is infinitely worse.

We had cities burning back in the 60s. Student takeovers of college campuses. National Guard shooting protesting students. Black activists and white supporters being murdered by white supremacists.

No offense, but DON'T BE STUPID! I moved back to the county I grew up in in 2002. This was a county adjacent to a moderately big city and major media hub. It was also a center of union activism from the start of the 1900's.

It was a bit of culture shock to see how far to the right the opinions and worldview had changed after being away for 16 years. But these are still my neighbors and sometimes friends. I will never cast them aside because they bought the hogsnot being sold by the only easily available media. I know they are being sold a shit sandwich because I got woke and have the time to find more independent sources that will actually dig down into facts and history.

Trying to wake other people up is not as easy as tossing them aside, so what do you want to do?

I hope your awareness is more important than your sense of superiority.

unite wih those people no one is stopping you

if they want to come to my side of things then fine but I'm not going to unite with racist, misognist, ignorant,
you can

In many ways, we were a nation built on diversity. "United" does not mean being of the same beliefs, morals or even prejudices. One of the primary things we must be united in is to keep this damn thing glued together despite our differences.

Humans will always suffer from a wide variety of character flaws and none of us even approach perfection. I must be willing to accept that many Americans will always hold on to their prejudices, hatreds, spite, immorality, racism, and even outright stupidity. However, I must also hope we all - with time - outgrow the worst of these flaws. In my 70 years, I've watched us very slowly improve in many of these areas.

Just stop and look back at our history - even as rotten as some parts are - and how the nation was built by a huge variety of people of various nationalities, ethnic background, social and economic status, etc. I also remind myself frequently that for many years, I worked jobs all over the USA with a tremendous variety of hard working folks, and very rarely was politics discussed, and no divisiveness was felt. We simply stayed focused on the task at hand, talked about families and fishing, and shook hands at job's end.

We currently have a very large number of wealthy people and foreign interests and assets that want nothing more than for us (the commoners, if you will) be divided and at each others throats every day. And, social media and an irresponsible press are making things much worse and amplified. We must try to be united in fighting these very evil forces in every way we can, or they will eventually destroy us.

your beliefs to meet in the middle the racist, misogynist,and the dangerous ignorant?

But, I must accept that they have just as much right to exist on this planet as me. I've had to do that in order to stay at peace with the world, or it will drive me nuts. If I allow their flaws to rent space in my head, I'll just die a bitter, hateful old man - and no better a person than them.

They are the ones that must live with and deal with the consequences of those flaws, not me.

For me, the word "accept" means "to be at peace with". It does not mean I have to buy into their crap or agree to it. For example, I accept that my neighbor is a Libertarian and that I cannot change that. And, I may need to work closely with him to cut down a tree or fix a car.

I had to learn many years ago that I can't change other people, as much as I would would like to at times. What I can do however, is try to set a good example for others as best I can, and try to get along with everyone.

Another point here is that nobody has appointed me "labeler in chief" to assign character flaw labels to other folks. Have you been given that authority? Would you be willing to attach that label to that person's coat? Conversely, would you appreciate someone sticking one to you?

Keep in mind that labels can be very destructive in themselves and they tend to be hard, or impossible to remove. Any poor young woman that's been unjustly labeled a whore will tell you that in no uncertain terms, as will anyone labeled as retarded.

Republicans have managed to rent enormous space in American's brains - sowing hatred and division - and we must shut it down.

and more whole heartily disagree with you
.
I'm not going to be that symbol of the ostrich with its head in the ground
and of course I am going to be thinking about the "other side" I noticed the snark with not allow to rent space in the head. What willful ignorance,
I am sorry to say this but glad your thinking was not prominent with the thousands of people that took a stand for equality in the civil rights movement.

Except in cases of facing a serious outside threat such as the Axis powers. Even here on DU there rarely is unity.

But if we don't divide the country into several countries, we may be headed for another civil war. The divide is growing stronger, with many Americans thinking a buffoon like Trump is a leader. We need to go the way of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

You really should spell check -- especially when typing a phrase like that.

graded on home turf and good for you for standing up for those that believe people and dinasaurs lived arm and arm

you like how, for did not I didn't use a contraction like I just did now, pretty clever, huh?

I did no such thing. Also, you misspelled dinosaurs. Furthermore, if people and dinosaurs lived at the same time (which they didn't) "arm and arm" (I think you meant arm in arm) is not an accurate characterization of a relationship which would have been more along the lines of predator/prey.

lets focus on the issue, This kind of reminds me of that GOP Sen. on with Katy Tur earlier this week who couldn't answer the question
just spouted nonsense and refused to answer the question.
I know you are an intelligent person because you know grammar and spelling. I'm sure you're good at counting numbers too!

so do you want to unite with the creationist and their beliefs? You know some where in the middle, maybe you can convince them the earth is only a 100 thousand yrs old and you can give in on them that Flintstones is a documentary
hope there are no mistakes, I hope I used the right there.

thanks, I'll always make sure to use the spell check

so I don't offend you

Last edited Sun Sep 24, 2017, 11:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Good, let's do that.

Desiring some degree of unity of national purpose or reaching out to identify common goals is not the same as acquiescing to views or beliefs that are repugnant or nonsensical.

To give this some context of my own personal experience and perspective, I was born in 1957 about a month before the Russians launched Sputnik (first manmade satellite to orbit the earth). I'm old enough to remember JFK's assassination and how we achieved his goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960's. Our progress into space with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs captured the imagination of nearly all Americans. It was an inspirational matter of national pride despite the institutional racism and other bitter divisions within our society.

I also remember the Vietnam war and how it tore our country apart. My family viewed it as a grave mistake that unnecessarily wasted the lives of young Americans while wreaking a holocaust on poor people halfway around the world who had battled for decades against foreign invaders while trying to gain independence for their country. Many others believed the USA was always on the good side and that we had to draw the line against the spread of communism. They were in their hearts patriotic Americans outraged at protesters who seemingly sided with our enemies and against our brave soldiers who were putting their lives on the line to defend our way of life.

Were the flag waving supporters of the war evil people? My bet is that nearly all of them were woefully ignorant about Vietnam, its people, its culture, and its long struggle to overcome subjugation by foreign powers. Hell, our own government was willfully blind to the extent they totally misjudged the situations and made bad decisions. I've been watching the excellent documentary by Ken Burns, and it just breaks my heart how the promise of a young generation was betrayed and wasted in an obscene war after being inspired by a young president who told them to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Yesterday my wife and I went to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and viewed numerous exhibits on our space flights of the early 60's to 70's. It brought back all those wondrous memories of watching our astronauts blast off into space, walk on the moon, and return safely to earth. One of the aspects of their experience was what they termed the "Orbital Perspective." They could see the Earth as a blue sphere with no artificial boundaries upon which all of human history transpired and all life as we know it depends.

How does all of this relate to the issue at hand?

Like it or not, we're all in this together. We all have many interests in common. We want security, both physical and financial. We want our children to have a good future. Believe it or not, people on the other side of the Left/Right divide are not all evil at heart. More often than not they are badly misinformed and very much the product of the family and culture in which they were raised.

To be sure, there are despicable racists and greedy oligarchs who can never be swayed by any facts or rational arguments or appeals to the better angels of their nature.

Bringing about necessary positive change does not mean wasting our time and resources trying to change minds we cannot reach. But to achieve our goals it is absolutely necessary to point out all the interests we do have in common and to avoid unnecessarily reinforcing the divide which makes it impossible for Americans to work together for common goals.

A great president once said "A house divided against itself cannot stand." He was speaking about the institution of slavery, but his message very much applies today. I think the bitter divisions in our country are more artificial than they seem and have been fostered by the malefactors of great wealth who need the American people to be divided so they can further enhance their own wealth and power.

Nothing is easy, and nothing is quick. But everything will be more difficult and take longer if we waste our passion building walls instead of bridges.

sound like a good caring person but I also think you need people like me also caring but want action and there were people marching to stop that war, who were called un-american by the America love it or leave it crowd.

Environmental protections will not work without national standards, for starters. Pollution in the air and environment doesn't care about state lines, it goes where it will.

We need to come together, but talking is not gonna do it. It's going to take a paradigm shift in culture or technology (or maybe both) to bridge the divide imo.

And, while I admire those that reach out, and try to educate and invite others into our big tent, I am extremely jaded.

I feel that if someone will fall for lies and distortion routed in racism, and sexism, they will do it again. No trust from me ever.

I've talked to a few deplorables that claim they only voted for him due to his economic policies, but when I ask what they thought of Clintons job plan, they just stare at me. If I ask if they visited her website to view her stands on the issues, they make excuses and scurry away. I'm done with these people, we don't need them. If I volunteer next time, it will be to get out the vote, not to change minds.

Is that everyone agrees with them and bows down to Donnie Short Fingers