We are not dealing with sane people anymore.
It's really bad all over the place. You have the stunt Laura Loomer pulled at Nancy Pelosi's house a few months ago as well.
Not sure when it started, but the whole harass politicos at their home and/or randomly accost them is a tragedy waiting to happen. It would be different if they showed up because they wanted to have a civil conversation. It's never that. Regardless of which side it comes from.
I was on Twitter earlier looking at the the reaction to Joaquin Castro's publishing of random Trump donors from El Paso. The tension level on both sides is increasing rapidly. It's long a ways to the 2020 election.
What really bothers me is that the Christchurch shooter wanted this. He wanted to incite more mass shootings, and hoped that those shootings would serve as a wedge issue to increase left/right tensions. Well, it's working. And that's the last thing we need right now. We're totally losing our identities as Americans, and instead focusing solely on our politics on a left/right level. There are very few posters in this thread who can claim to be innocent of that, and that absolutely includes me. I'm guilty.
Anyone remember some of the research released a few years ago about how often Democrats and Republicans talk to each other, or how often people from the left/right are friends? Those numbers have plummeted. I daresay this country has experienced this level of polarization in a long time. It's unsustainable. It will lead to extremely negative repercussions that make these mass shootings look small-scale.
We all need to do better -- myself included. The path we're on means there may not be a functioning America left for our kids and grandkids. And here's what's really scary. Not a single poster in this thread is anywhere near the extremes of either side. Please understand what I mean -- as heated as our debates sometimes get, every single poster in this thread is infinitely more reasonable and less partisan than your average partisan or true left/right "winger."
I'll give two examples. Matt from the pro-Trump side and me from the not-a-Trump-fan side. I promise everyone reading that Matt isn't in even NEAR the top half of the extreme when it comes to Pro-Trump viewpoints. And for me, I'm nowhere near the top half of the extreme anti-Trump/NeverTrump crowd. If you think I'm joking then you've never run into #Resist/#Resistance accounts on Twitter, or #MAGA/#QAnon people.
Let that sink in for a minute. When Matt and I get into it about Trump, we're having one of the more reasonable conversations that's out there. Matt can testify to this, I haven't spoken to him via PM in awhile. But, I'm absolutely confident he'll agree. Neither he nor I represent anywhere CLOSE to the average polarization you'll find today in our country. Matt and I could pop over the shooting range tomorrow, and I guarantee you we'd get along like we we're best friends. He knows I've got no animosity towards him, and I believe he feels the same way about me.
Let's add in KoD for a second. He admits to being one of our resident liberals and a Bernie Sanders supporter, but he's probably in the top 10% least liberal Sanders supporters there are. ghost is a pragmatist and can argue either side of the argument. He's equally frustrated with both parties. Mike and Arcadia certainly aren't Trump fans, but they won't be invited to any meetings of the Democratic Party anytime soon. Same goes for Kory. gangstonc is obviously not a Trump fan, but he's very open to different ideas and doesn't go for #Resistance style silliness.
Here's my point: this is a very fair-minded board, but we've got a wide array of viewpoints here. Take the furthest left of us and the furthest right, and we're really not that far apart. We could all get together tomorrow, and I bet you everyone would have a wonderful time. That's not how our country is today. At all. And think of how heated or tense it gets here sometimes. We're the reasonable ones, ya'll. That should terrify every single one of us.
This country is in serious trouble. In all my years on this earth, I've never felt such political tension or inability to agree. Our shared values have almost disappeared. Not even during the divisiveness of the Iraq War did tensions even approach the here and now.
Does anyone remember how united this country was after 9/11? That was less then 18 years ago. Does anyone think this country would be united after a 9/11 in today's climate? Zero chance. The focus would be on who's to blame, and partisan bickering. We've got to change that.