Battleground: 7 in 10 say US ‘on the edge of civil war’

The Washington Examiner ^ | 10/23/2019 | Paul Bedard

[Crazieman]

Partisan political division and the resulting incivility has reached a low in America, with 67% believing that the nation is nearing civil war, according to a new national survey.

“The majority of Americans believe that we are two-thirds of the way to being on the edge of civil war. That to me is a very pessimistic place,” said Mo Elleithee, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.

And worse, he said in announcing the results of the Institute’s Battleground Poll civility survey, the political division is likely to make the upcoming 2020 presidential race the nastiest in modern history.

[shanover]

The original civil war solved very little and created more problems.

[MrEdd]

If they are there at all making snide comments they (like the picnickers at Bull Run) run every risk of becoming collateral damage, and it will be no loss.

[DoodleBob]

This is very poor reporting and shoddy poll design.

The relevant question reads:

And, thinking about the issue of political divisions as a whole, On a scale of 0 to 100, where “0” is there is no political division in the country and where “100” is political division on the edge of a civil war, where would you rank the level of political division in the country?

The median rank from this sample was "75," i.e. Half of the respondents gave a rank of 0-74, and the other half gave a rank of 75-100.

However, a rank is a subjective, ordinal number. Not every person's rank of 75 means the same thing. In fact, only 8.5% gave a rank of 100.

I don't doubt the divisiveness in many quarters. But this poll isn't worth the bandwidth required to download it . Move along.

[roadcat]

V For Vendetta: “Remember Remember The Fifth Of November”

Isn’t that Election Day 2019?

[The Toll]

80% of the American Left is stupid white chicks. Not a hard fight once you get the will.

[Jack Black]

People who have thought about it believe it would be more like the "Dirty War" in Argentina than a conventional "two armies on a battlefield" war like the first Civil War.

Here's a brief description of the Dirty War, from Wikipedia. Keep in mind that Wikipedia is heavily left-wing, so their interpretation of things might be backwards of how many of us see it. None the less, here it is:

The Dirty War (Spanish: Época del Proceso or Época de los desaparecidos) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina (Spanish: dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina) for the period of United States-backed state terrorism[1][2][3] in Argentina[4][5] from 1976 to 1983 as a part of Operation Condor, during which military and security forces and right-wing death squads in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA, or Triple A)[6] hunted down any political dissidents and anyone believed to be associated with socialism, left-wing Peronism or the Montoneros movement.[7][8][9][10]

About 30,000 people disappeared, of whom many were impossible to report formally due to the nature of state terrorism. The excuse for the Coup d'Etat was the armed actions of the Montoneros and the ERP, but the actual target of the Operation Condor were students, militants, trade unionists, writers, journalists, artists and any citizens suspected to be left-wing activists, including Peronist guerrillas.[11] The "disappeared" (victims kidnapped, tortured and murdered whose bodies were disappeared by the military government) included those thought to be politically or ideologically a threat to the junta even vaguely, or contrary to the neoliberal economic policies dictated by Operation Condor.[7][8][9] They were killed in an attempt by the junta to silence the social and political opposition.[12]

Many members of the junta are currently in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide.[13][14]

Basically the right was appalled by the election of far socialist candidate, and the military sided with them and overthrew the government.

It may go the other way here: the Left is on the verge of overthrowing the legally elected government here. Once they have done that then they will start their own version of ideological cleansing: things like rounding up AR-15 owners.

They already use the legal system to punish political opponents, look at the ridiculous prosecutions of Flynn, Papadopolous, Manafort and Roger Stone.

This extends into many city and state legal systems, too, and effects less famous people who interfere with leftist thuggery. As has been pointed out on this thread: two guys got five years for punching back against an antifa mob that *attacked them*. In the Charlottesville riot a young man was sentenced to life in prison for getting into a car accident, again after being attacked by a Leftist antifa mob.

As the brazenness of the Left grows there will eventually be a backlash. (Or, so the theory goes.)

Another great source for understanding what Civil War looks like now is to read some of the work of William S. Lind, who is the person most often associated as the father of the theory of Fourth Generation Warfare, which is what most people familiar with the term feel we are entering into already.

Finally, there is a large body of fiction about what a second civil war might be like. As always, fiction authors can explain things in ways that essayists often can not, and this is certainly true for the broad body of books that take CWII as a major plot element. A list and short synopsis of them can be found on my home page (along with some other things of interest to me).

Including a bit about the Civil War II ping list, which I help manage with a couple other fellows.

Civil War II Ping!

[Jack Black]

To: Crazieman The original civil war solved very little and created more problems.

True, but if you were a black slave it solved your biggest problem, for sure. So, "it depends on your role" whether that was "very little".

[OrangeHoof]

Fine by me. They can have the Northeast, the Pacific Coast and Illinois and we’ll just funnel all the illegal immigrants to them. The rest of us will build a new capital somewhere around Omaha, build a giant wall between us and them with very few gates and let the purge begin.

[Jack Black]

For anyone who isn't familiar with profiles, here is the link to mine. Jack Black's profile

It's amazing how many FReepers, even long-time members haven't bothered to create a profile. That's a shame, because a lot of the profiles that are out there are really creative and interesting.

[FreedomPoster]

Everybody else will watch and make snide comments... on the Internet.

FTFY

[SuperLuminal]

"What a stupid poll. We’ve been in a civil war for decades. "

Sort of like American Revolution which was already underway for many years before the shots were fired by patriots standing by Concord Bridge...

Also sort of like a disease that was hidden and growing for many years before it becomes diagnosed...

[Newtoidaho]

Majority of the country are several hundred pounds overweight due to sitting on the couch, eating and ordering online crap from Amazon all day. Suffice to say most of these people won’t be participants.

[The Great RJ]

Consider the melt down on the left when their impeachment gambit fails and Trump is re-elected. Many on the left would support a putsch or even a Bolshevik revolution. That is when a civil war will start in earnest.

[King Moonracer]

What is the easiest way to get to Ft. Sumpter?

[foreverfree]

Bump

[central_va]

The food and energy for blue areas comes from red areas.

I think it will be pretty easy for the red states import food from all over the world.

[Repeal 16-17]

We’ve been in a civil war for decades.

That's been a cold civil war, but within the next few years it will turn hot (i.e., Second Civil War).

[sport]

I will not submit. To either.

[central_va]

Not hardly. It will be a red states vs blue states with huge conventional armies.

[central_va]

The majority of Americans believe that we are two-thirds of the way to being on the edge of civil war

He says that like it is a bad thing.