One Political Plaza - Home of politics
Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register
Main
A post for all Americans
Page 1 of 3 next> last>>
Nov 21, 2020 13:04:49   #
whitnebrat Loc: In the wilds of Oregon
 
"THESE are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine wrote this during the depths of the American Revolution in December of 1776.
Abraham Lincoln echoed that sentiment in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 : "Four score 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."

This republic is as torn apart today as it was in both of those conflicts and is in as much jeopardy of dissolution as it was in either that depressing winter two-hundred and forty-six years ago or in the midst of our own Civil War. While the divisiveness we see today is not yet broken out into armed conflict, it is not far from it.
We have armed groups protesting the policies of some of our political parties, and we have equally fervent believers resisting them, although unarmed. We have just had an election that has tested the limits and norms of our two-hundred-forty-six year history. We have just had a presidency that has done the same for the office.
The divisions that have become evident in the last four years are not new. They have existed since time immemorial.
The cave-dwelling tribes fought with each other with the same level of violence that we have seen on our streets albeit without the death and destruction levels seen then.
The disagreements between Catholic and Protestant factions in Great Britain still rumble in Northern Ireland.
Racial divides not only seem evident here in our own country, but manifest themselves in the intense animosity that is evident in Europe with the migration of Moslem immigrants to the north … mimicing the onslaught of refugees piling up against our own southern border.
We live under a Declaration of Independence that proclaims "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, ..." The Constitution begins with "We the people ..." This does not mean just "some of the people" or that "some men are created equal", even though women and slaves at the time would disagree.
The Constitution has evolved through amendments and time to include all of the people living within the United States that are defined not only as citizens but as members of our society. The one thing dividing citizens and non-citizens within our boundaries is the right to vote. Otherwise our system of government extends all the rights and privileges of this nation to all its inhabitants … or at least that is the intent.
There are those on the Progressive side of things that would give unearned money and status to many lower-class inhabitants of our society. There are those on the Conservative side that would like to make us into the society of the founders time, where white males ruled the roost. There are some who would like a pseudo-theocracy, while others prefer no theocratic preference at all. There are those who would advocate for an oligarchy, where the very rich dictate what the rest of the citizenry will do and earn, while there are others that equally voice the opinion that a communistic society is the way to govern effectively.
All of these viewpoints have their proponents, some more loudly than others. In our own (so far non-violent) civil war, we are testing the bounds of civility and the ability of government to maintain our society. The words from the far right of the political spectrum have turned in many cases ugly and demeaning to their opponents. The far left has stridently refuted those sentiments and both sides have argued in the streets.
There will always be disagreements between social, cultural, ethnic and moral segments of our society. Many of the divides that have opened up have (until now) been papered over by either social agreements or legal suppressions. Those were the result of compromises (for the most part)that both sides of the argument agreed to or were forced to accept. It would appear that those compromises are no longer being accepted by large swaths of our society.
Compromise and tolerance for other viewpoints has been the glue that has held our country together for the entire time that it has been extant. Compromise and tolerance is the only way that it will continue to bind our society together.
Barry Goldwater put it this way: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue". Extending this to our current internal conflict, I would propose that "while extremism is useful for maintaining liberty, to use it to suppress other points of view without compromise is no virtue."
We must learn to compromise and learn to tolerate other ideas, ethnicities, religions, and lifestyles. So long as they do not directly affect our personal lives, they have an equal right to their own lives and thoughts. It is this intolerance of others that has brought us to this precipice, and only adopting a less extremist view of our own preferences and lifestyles will pull us back from the edge.
It is our choice to either be lemmings driving our society over the edge of the cliff, or pulling back from this divisive situation, and reform a more tolerant and accepting society.

Reply
Nov 21, 2020 13:22:04   #
Carol Kelly
 
whitnebrat wrote:
"THESE are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine wrote this during the depths of the American Revolution in December of 1776.
Abraham Lincoln echoed that sentiment in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 : "Four score 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."

This republic is as torn apart today as it was in both of those conflicts and is in as much jeopardy of dissolution as it was in either that depressing winter two-hundred and forty-six years ago or in the midst of our own Civil War. While the divisiveness we see today is not yet broken out into armed conflict, it is not far from it.
We have armed groups protesting the policies of some of our political parties, and we have equally fervent believers resisting them, although unarmed. We have just had an election that has tested the limits and norms of our two-hundred-forty-six year history. We have just had a presidency that has done the same for the office.
The divisions that have become evident in the last four years are not new. They have existed since time immemorial.
The cave-dwelling tribes fought with each other with the same level of violence that we have seen on our streets albeit without the death and destruction levels seen then.
The disagreements between Catholic and Protestant factions in Great Britain still rumble in Northern Ireland.
Racial divides not only seem evident here in our own country, but manifest themselves in the intense animosity that is evident in Europe with the migration of Moslem immigrants to the north … mimicing the onslaught of refugees piling up against our own southern border.
We live under a Declaration of Independence that proclaims "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, ..." The Constitution begins with "We the people ..." This does not mean just "some of the people" or that "some men are created equal", even though women and slaves at the time would disagree.
The Constitution has evolved through amendments and time to include all of the people living within the United States that are defined not only as citizens but as members of our society. The one thing dividing citizens and non-citizens within our boundaries is the right to vote. Otherwise our system of government extends all the rights and privileges of this nation to all its inhabitants … or at least that is the intent.
There are those on the Progressive side of things that would give unearned money and status to many lower-class inhabitants of our society. There are those on the Conservative side that would like to make us into the society of the founders time, where white males ruled the roost. There are some who would like a pseudo-theocracy, while others prefer no theocratic preference at all. There are those who would advocate for an oligarchy, where the very rich dictate what the rest of the citizenry will do and earn, while there are others that equally voice the opinion that a communistic society is the way to govern effectively.
All of these viewpoints have their proponents, some more loudly than others. In our own (so far non-violent) civil war, we are testing the bounds of civility and the ability of government to maintain our society. The words from the far right of the political spectrum have turned in many cases ugly and demeaning to their opponents. The far left has stridently refuted those sentiments and both sides have argued in the streets.
There will always be disagreements between social, cultural, ethnic and moral segments of our society. Many of the divides that have opened up have (until now) been papered over by either social agreements or legal suppressions. Those were the result of compromises (for the most part)that both sides of the argument agreed to or were forced to accept. It would appear that those compromises are no longer being accepted by large swaths of our society.
Compromise and tolerance for other viewpoints has been the glue that has held our country together for the entire time that it has been extant. Compromise and tolerance is the only way that it will continue to bind our society together.
Barry Goldwater put it this way: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue". Extending this to our current internal conflict, I would propose that "while extremism is useful for maintaining liberty, to use it to suppress other points of view without compromise is no virtue."
We must learn to compromise and learn to tolerate other ideas, ethnicities, religions, and lifestyles. So long as they do not directly affect our personal lives, they have an equal right to their own lives and thoughts. It is this intolerance of others that has brought us to this precipice, and only adopting a less extremist view of our own preferences and lifestyles will pull us back from the edge.
It is our choice to either be lemmings driving our society over the edge of the cliff, or pulling back from this divisive situation, and reform a more tolerant and accepting society.
"THESE are the times that try men's souls.&qu... (show quote)


Our president did not divide the Office of Presidency. The radical Democrats did because they couldn’t accept losing to someone who was not a politician. I know of no one who would like to see an all male governing body. On the contrary, they seem to be celebrating the numbers of women coming into the House. I’m sure we would all like to see an end to the division but not at the cost of liberty and not if it means allowing cheating at elections. That destroys our faith in elections. I, personally, always wonder why I’m going to the trouble to vote when I know the cheating goes on, BUT I always get out to vote no matter the weather or the long, long lines.

Reply
Nov 21, 2020 14:14:27   #
Seth
 
Carol Kelly wrote:
Our president did not divide the Office of Presidency. The radical Democrats did because they couldn’t accept losing to someone who was not a politician. I know of no one who would like to see an all male governing body. On the contrary, they seem to be celebrating the numbers of women coming into the House. I’m sure we would all like to see an end to the division but not at the cost of liberty and not if it means allowing cheating at elections. That destroys our faith in elections. I, personally, always wonder why I’m going to the trouble to vote when I know the cheating goes on, BUT I always get out to vote no matter the weather or the long, long lines.
Our president did not divide the Office of Preside... (show quote)


Well said!

You know, speaking of women in government, I haven't seen the feminists congratulate all those women who have been elected to the House. Oh, that's right, they're Republicans, so in the eyes of the left, they're not real women.

Reply
 
 
Nov 21, 2020 14:53:05   #
Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon
 
whitnebrat wrote:
"THESE are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine wrote this during the depths of the American Revolution in December of 1776.
Abraham Lincoln echoed that sentiment in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 : "Four score 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."

This republic is as torn apart today as it was in both of those conflicts and is in as much jeopardy of dissolution as it was in either that depressing winter two-hundred and forty-six years ago or in the midst of our own Civil War. While the divisiveness we see today is not yet broken out into armed conflict, it is not far from it.
We have armed groups protesting the policies of some of our political parties, and we have equally fervent believers resisting them, although unarmed. We have just had an election that has tested the limits and norms of our two-hundred-forty-six year history. We have just had a presidency that has done the same for the office.
The divisions that have become evident in the last four years are not new. They have existed since time immemorial.
The cave-dwelling tribes fought with each other with the same level of violence that we have seen on our streets albeit without the death and destruction levels seen then.
The disagreements between Catholic and Protestant factions in Great Britain still rumble in Northern Ireland.
Racial divides not only seem evident here in our own country, but manifest themselves in the intense animosity that is evident in Europe with the migration of Moslem immigrants to the north … mimicing the onslaught of refugees piling up against our own southern border.
We live under a Declaration of Independence that proclaims "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, ..." The Constitution begins with "We the people ..." This does not mean just "some of the people" or that "some men are created equal", even though women and slaves at the time would disagree.
The Constitution has evolved through amendments and time to include all of the people living within the United States that are defined not only as citizens but as members of our society. The one thing dividing citizens and non-citizens within our boundaries is the right to vote. Otherwise our system of government extends all the rights and privileges of this nation to all its inhabitants … or at least that is the intent.
There are those on the Progressive side of things that would give unearned money and status to many lower-class inhabitants of our society. There are those on the Conservative side that would like to make us into the society of the founders time, where white males ruled the roost. There are some who would like a pseudo-theocracy, while others prefer no theocratic preference at all. There are those who would advocate for an oligarchy, where the very rich dictate what the rest of the citizenry will do and earn, while there are others that equally voice the opinion that a communistic society is the way to govern effectively.
All of these viewpoints have their proponents, some more loudly than others. In our own (so far non-violent) civil war, we are testing the bounds of civility and the ability of government to maintain our society. The words from the far right of the political spectrum have turned in many cases ugly and demeaning to their opponents. The far left has stridently refuted those sentiments and both sides have argued in the streets.
There will always be disagreements between social, cultural, ethnic and moral segments of our society. Many of the divides that have opened up have (until now) been papered over by either social agreements or legal suppressions. Those were the result of compromises (for the most part)that both sides of the argument agreed to or were forced to accept. It would appear that those compromises are no longer being accepted by large swaths of our society.
Compromise and tolerance for other viewpoints has been the glue that has held our country together for the entire time that it has been extant. Compromise and tolerance is the only way that it will continue to bind our society together.
Barry Goldwater put it this way: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue". Extending this to our current internal conflict, I would propose that "while extremism is useful for maintaining liberty, to use it to suppress other points of view without compromise is no virtue."
We must learn to compromise and learn to tolerate other ideas, ethnicities, religions, and lifestyles. So long as they do not directly affect our personal lives, they have an equal right to their own lives and thoughts. It is this intolerance of others that has brought us to this precipice, and only adopting a less extremist view of our own preferences and lifestyles will pull us back from the edge.
It is our choice to either be lemmings driving our society over the edge of the cliff, or pulling back from this divisive situation, and reform a more tolerant and accepting society.
"THESE are the times that try men's souls.&qu... (show quote)



Two angry males.



Reply
Nov 21, 2020 14:58:45   #
roy
 
Carol Kelly wrote:
Our president did not divide the Office of Presidency. The radical Democrats did because they couldn’t accept losing to someone who was not a politician. I know of no one who would like to see an all male governing body. On the contrary, they seem to be celebrating the numbers of women coming into the House. I’m sure we would all like to see an end to the division but not at the cost of liberty and not if it means allowing cheating at elections. That destroys our faith in elections. I, personally, always wonder why I’m going to the trouble to vote when I know the cheating goes on, BUT I always get out to vote no matter the weather or the long, long lines.
Our president did not divide the Office of Preside... (show quote)


Who told you anybody cheated,trump,trump,Did trump cheat in 2016? There has been no conformation of any cheating,after how many lawsuits is 20 or 30,lost count. And as far as I know trump started the cheating crap a long time ago,but you can keep on hollering it if it makes you happy but all it does is make you sound silly.

Reply
Nov 21, 2020 15:08:51   #
roy
 
byronglimish wrote:
Two angry males.


Trump has nothing to do with it does he? He preached to his followers for 4 years,but just his followers. He talked about everybody elese like dogs,. So the majority of Americans got tired of it and that's why trump lost.Its his own fault nobody else's but his he can stomp around,he can fire people he can try to as much harm to the country as he wants,He can try to make it as hard on joe as he can,but this country will go on without trump.

Reply
Nov 21, 2020 21:03:33   #
ImLogicallyRight
 
Seth wrote:
Well said!

You know, speaking of women in government, I haven't seen the feminists congratulate all those women who have been elected to the House. Oh, that's right, they're Republicans, so in the eyes of the left, they're not real women.


Good point. To the feminists, real women have to be on the left, whether they bleed or stand to pee.

Reply
 
 
Nov 21, 2020 21:12:27   #
ImLogicallyRight
 
whitnebrat wrote:
"THESE are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine wrote this during the depths of the American Revolution in December of 1776.
Abraham Lincoln echoed that sentiment in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 : "Four score 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."

This republic is as torn apart today as it was in both of those conflicts and is in as much jeopardy of dissolution as it was in either that depressing winter two-hundred and forty-six years ago or in the midst of our own Civil War. While the divisiveness we see today is not yet broken out into armed conflict, it is not far from it.
We have armed groups protesting the policies of some of our political parties, and we have equally fervent believers resisting them, although unarmed. We have just had an election that has tested the limits and norms of our two-hundred-forty-six year history. We have just had a presidency that has done the same for the office.
The divisions that have become evident in the last four years are not new. They have existed since time immemorial.
The cave-dwelling tribes fought with each other with the same level of violence that we have seen on our streets albeit without the death and destruction levels seen then.
The disagreements between Catholic and Protestant factions in Great Britain still rumble in Northern Ireland.
Racial divides not only seem evident here in our own country, but manifest themselves in the intense animosity that is evident in Europe with the migration of Moslem immigrants to the north … mimicing the onslaught of refugees piling up against our own southern border.
We live under a Declaration of Independence that proclaims "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, ..." The Constitution begins with "We the people ..." This does not mean just "some of the people" or that "some men are created equal", even though women and slaves at the time would disagree.
The Constitution has evolved through amendments and time to include all of the people living within the United States that are defined not only as citizens but as members of our society. The one thing dividing citizens and non-citizens within our boundaries is the right to vote. Otherwise our system of government extends all the rights and privileges of this nation to all its inhabitants … or at least that is the intent.
There are those on the Progressive side of things that would give unearned money and status to many lower-class inhabitants of our society. There are those on the Conservative side that would like to make us into the society of the founders time, where white males ruled the roost. There are some who would like a pseudo-theocracy, while others prefer no theocratic preference at all. There are those who would advocate for an oligarchy, where the very rich dictate what the rest of the citizenry will do and earn, while there are others that equally voice the opinion that a communistic society is the way to govern effectively.
All of these viewpoints have their proponents, some more loudly than others. In our own (so far non-violent) civil war, we are testing the bounds of civility and the ability of government to maintain our society. The words from the far right of the political spectrum have turned in many cases ugly and demeaning to their opponents. The far left has stridently refuted those sentiments and both sides have argued in the streets.
There will always be disagreements between social, cultural, ethnic and moral segments of our society. Many of the divides that have opened up have (until now) been papered over by either social agreements or legal suppressions. Those were the result of compromises (for the most part)that both sides of the argument agreed to or were forced to accept. It would appear that those compromises are no longer being accepted by large swaths of our society.
Compromise and tolerance for other viewpoints has been the glue that has held our country together for the entire time that it has been extant. Compromise and tolerance is the only way that it will continue to bind our society together.
Barry Goldwater put it this way: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue". Extending this to our current internal conflict, I would propose that "while extremism is useful for maintaining liberty, to use it to suppress other points of view without compromise is no virtue."
We must learn to compromise and learn to tolerate other ideas, ethnicities, religions, and lifestyles. So long as they do not directly affect our personal lives, they have an equal right to their own lives and thoughts. It is this intolerance of others that has brought us to this precipice, and only adopting a less extremist view of our own preferences and lifestyles will pull us back from the edge.
It is our choice to either be lemmings driving our society over the edge of the cliff, or pulling back from this divisive situation, and reform a more tolerant and accepting society.
"THESE are the times that try men's souls.&qu... (show quote)


You have an interesting overall post of the difference if you only didn't pepper it with insulting anti right shots here and there.

Like saying, "There are those on the Conservative side that would like to make us into the society of the founders time, where white males ruled the roost." Which is total Bull shitte.

Another stupid comment, "We have armed groups protesting the policies of some of our political parties, and we have equally fervent believers resisting them, although unarmed." The armed groups only came out as a wall against the total intolerance of the unarmed leftist mobs and their destruction of property and lives and support from leftist governments. Justifiable.

So, I grade it as no more then a C. But your intent is noted and so is your leftist bias.

Reply
Nov 21, 2020 21:13:22   #
ImLogicallyRight
 
byronglimish wrote:
Two angry males.


That is so true.

Reply
Nov 21, 2020 21:14:24   #
ImLogicallyRight
 
roy wrote:
Who told you anybody cheated,trump,trump,Did trump cheat in 2016? There has been no conformation of any cheating,after how many lawsuits is 20 or 30,lost count. And as far as I know trump started the cheating crap a long time ago,but you can keep on hollering it if it makes you happy but all it does is make you sound silly.


While we are talking about sounding silly, you are doing a hell of a job.

Reply
Nov 21, 2020 21:28:28   #
Sicilianthing
 
whitnebrat wrote:
"THESE are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine wrote this during the depths of the American Revolution in December of 1776.
Abraham Lincoln echoed that sentiment in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 : "Four score 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."

This republic is as torn apart today as it was in both of those conflicts and is in as much jeopardy of dissolution as it was in either that depressing winter two-hundred and forty-six years ago or in the midst of our own Civil War. While the divisiveness we see today is not yet broken out into armed conflict, it is not far from it.
We have armed groups protesting the policies of some of our political parties, and we have equally fervent believers resisting them, although unarmed. We have just had an election that has tested the limits and norms of our two-hundred-forty-six year history. We have just had a presidency that has done the same for the office.
The divisions that have become evident in the last four years are not new. They have existed since time immemorial.
The cave-dwelling tribes fought with each other with the same level of violence that we have seen on our streets albeit without the death and destruction levels seen then.
The disagreements between Catholic and Protestant factions in Great Britain still rumble in Northern Ireland.
Racial divides not only seem evident here in our own country, but manifest themselves in the intense animosity that is evident in Europe with the migration of Moslem immigrants to the north … mimicing the onslaught of refugees piling up against our own southern border.
We live under a Declaration of Independence that proclaims "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, ..." The Constitution begins with "We the people ..." This does not mean just "some of the people" or that "some men are created equal", even though women and slaves at the time would disagree.
The Constitution has evolved through amendments and time to include all of the people living within the United States that are defined not only as citizens but as members of our society. The one thing dividing citizens and non-citizens within our boundaries is the right to vote. Otherwise our system of government extends all the rights and privileges of this nation to all its inhabitants … or at least that is the intent.
There are those on the Progressive side of things that would give unearned money and status to many lower-class inhabitants of our society. There are those on the Conservative side that would like to make us into the society of the founders time, where white males ruled the roost. There are some who would like a pseudo-theocracy, while others prefer no theocratic preference at all. There are those who would advocate for an oligarchy, where the very rich dictate what the rest of the citizenry will do and earn, while there are others that equally voice the opinion that a communistic society is the way to govern effectively.
All of these viewpoints have their proponents, some more loudly than others. In our own (so far non-violent) civil war, we are testing the bounds of civility and the ability of government to maintain our society. The words from the far right of the political spectrum have turned in many cases ugly and demeaning to their opponents. The far left has stridently refuted those sentiments and both sides have argued in the streets.
There will always be disagreements between social, cultural, ethnic and moral segments of our society. Many of the divides that have opened up have (until now) been papered over by either social agreements or legal suppressions. Those were the result of compromises (for the most part)that both sides of the argument agreed to or were forced to accept. It would appear that those compromises are no longer being accepted by large swaths of our society.
Compromise and tolerance for other viewpoints has been the glue that has held our country together for the entire time that it has been extant. Compromise and tolerance is the only way that it will continue to bind our society together.
Barry Goldwater put it this way: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue". Extending this to our current internal conflict, I would propose that "while extremism is useful for maintaining liberty, to use it to suppress other points of view without compromise is no virtue."
We must learn to compromise and learn to tolerate other ideas, ethnicities, religions, and lifestyles. So long as they do not directly affect our personal lives, they have an equal right to their own lives and thoughts. It is this intolerance of others that has brought us to this precipice, and only adopting a less extremist view of our own preferences and lifestyles will pull us back from the edge.
It is our choice to either be lemmings driving our society over the edge of the cliff, or pulling back from this divisive situation, and reform a more tolerant and accepting society.
"THESE are the times that try men's souls.&qu... (show quote)


>>>

You can not compromise with masses who’ve been programmed, indoctrinated and actually brainwashed with an alter ideology than that described above!

Reply
 
 
Nov 21, 2020 21:54:26   #
Seth
 
ImLogicallyRight wrote:
Good point. To the feminists, real women have to be on the left, whether they bleed or stand to pee.


Just like Biden telling blacks they weren't black if they didn't vote for him.

Reply
Nov 22, 2020 06:42:24   #
Dwbill Loc: Sunvalley,NV
 
byronglimish wrote:
Two angry males.


Discussing Looking People ,Look like Rats !!!!

Reply
Nov 22, 2020 08:25:45   #
F.D.R.
 
whitnebrat wrote:
"THESE are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine wrote this during the depths of the American Revolution in December of 1776.
Abraham Lincoln echoed that sentiment in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 : "Four score 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."

This republic is as torn apart today as it was in both of those conflicts and is in as much jeopardy of dissolution as it was in either that depressing winter two-hundred and forty-six years ago or in the midst of our own Civil War. While the divisiveness we see today is not yet broken out into armed conflict, it is not far from it.
We have armed groups protesting the policies of some of our political parties, and we have equally fervent believers resisting them, although unarmed. We have just had an election that has tested the limits and norms of our two-hundred-forty-six year history. We have just had a presidency that has done the same for the office.
The divisions that have become evident in the last four years are not new. They have existed since time immemorial.
The cave-dwelling tribes fought with each other with the same level of violence that we have seen on our streets albeit without the death and destruction levels seen then.
The disagreements between Catholic and Protestant factions in Great Britain still rumble in Northern Ireland.
Racial divides not only seem evident here in our own country, but manifest themselves in the intense animosity that is evident in Europe with the migration of Moslem immigrants to the north … mimicing the onslaught of refugees piling up against our own southern border.
We live under a Declaration of Independence that proclaims "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, ..." The Constitution begins with "We the people ..." This does not mean just "some of the people" or that "some men are created equal", even though women and slaves at the time would disagree.
The Constitution has evolved through amendments and time to include all of the people living within the United States that are defined not only as citizens but as members of our society. The one thing dividing citizens and non-citizens within our boundaries is the right to vote. Otherwise our system of government extends all the rights and privileges of this nation to all its inhabitants … or at least that is the intent.
There are those on the Progressive side of things that would give unearned money and status to many lower-class inhabitants of our society. There are those on the Conservative side that would like to make us into the society of the founders time, where white males ruled the roost. There are some who would like a pseudo-theocracy, while others prefer no theocratic preference at all. There are those who would advocate for an oligarchy, where the very rich dictate what the rest of the citizenry will do and earn, while there are others that equally voice the opinion that a communistic society is the way to govern effectively.
All of these viewpoints have their proponents, some more loudly than others. In our own (so far non-violent) civil war, we are testing the bounds of civility and the ability of government to maintain our society. The words from the far right of the political spectrum have turned in many cases ugly and demeaning to their opponents. The far left has stridently refuted those sentiments and both sides have argued in the streets.
There will always be disagreements between social, cultural, ethnic and moral segments of our society. Many of the divides that have opened up have (until now) been papered over by either social agreements or legal suppressions. Those were the result of compromises (for the most part)that both sides of the argument agreed to or were forced to accept. It would appear that those compromises are no longer being accepted by large swaths of our society.
Compromise and tolerance for other viewpoints has been the glue that has held our country together for the entire time that it has been extant. Compromise and tolerance is the only way that it will continue to bind our society together.
Barry Goldwater put it this way: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue". Extending this to our current internal conflict, I would propose that "while extremism is useful for maintaining liberty, to use it to suppress other points of view without compromise is no virtue."
We must learn to compromise and learn to tolerate other ideas, ethnicities, religions, and lifestyles. So long as they do not directly affect our personal lives, they have an equal right to their own lives and thoughts. It is this intolerance of others that has brought us to this precipice, and only adopting a less extremist view of our own preferences and lifestyles will pull us back from the edge.
It is our choice to either be lemmings driving our society over the edge of the cliff, or pulling back from this divisive situation, and reform a more tolerant and accepting society.
"THESE are the times that try men's souls.&qu... (show quote)


So what you're saying is that we should purge the country of 'Progressives'. I'll drink to that.

Reply
Nov 22, 2020 08:31:32   #
Dwbill Loc: Sunvalley,NV
 
F.D.R. wrote:
So what you're saying is that we should purge the country of 'Progressives'. I'll drink to that.


I don't drink but I'll SMOKE to that too .

Reply
Page 1 of 3 next> last>>
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.
Main
OnePoliticalPlaza.com - Forum
Copyright 2012-2024 IDF International Technologies, Inc.