Politics
I genuinely think America is over. More to the point, I think America should _be_ over. I don't think there's a "we the people" any more, and that would be fine if we had a proportional parliamentary system with RCV and we could make small shifts at the margins and guarantee high degrees of regional autonomy. We can't, though, and there's no incentive for anyone in charge to diminish their own role on the stage to make it happen.
Politics
@literorrery I'm not quite ready to call America over yet, but I think it's a distinct possibility that things might get to that point in the next few years.
We have _serious_ problems that our current politicians aren't even willing to admit the existence of-- but then, a majority of their constituents today feel that response is rational. That's changing.
From the perspective of the PNW's political climate, it's easy to see the country as unsalvageable.
*hugs*
Politics
@literorrery I agree with that to an extent, but this divide has always been around. We just never realized the sheer extent of it. The good news is, it seems to be shrinking. I think a fairly good litmus test on this is Trump's approval rating-- which is dropping steadily.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/
Politics
@mawr I'll admit, I don't know whether or not those numbers mean "people think Trump's politics are bad for America" or whether they mean "people think Trump's optics are bad for their politics." We already know that people lie to pollsters because there's a gap between what people believe and what they think society tells them they should believe.
I'm willing to accept that others still think it can be made to work.
Politics
@literorrery That's solid.
I don't have answers, just lots of questions and interesting facts to speculate on.
Politics
@mawr It's things like this that make me say what I do: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/opinion/where-did-we-the-people-go.html
http://www.alternet.org/media/conservative-and-two-liberals-swapped-news-feeds-it-didnt-end-well
If we as a society can't agree on what's considered a fact and who counts as a reliable source, I don't think we can't build the consensus necessary to successfully be a polity. All sides will see the others' attempts to govern as founded in irreality.