Posted on 11/18/2019 4:47:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Next to a nuclear strike, foreign invasion, or global pandemic, it’s hard to imagine something as bone-chillingly terrifying as a second hot Civil War. The first one was bad enough, what with the endless carnage and the deaths of over 620,000 soldiers in a time when the U.S. was sparsely populated and wartime technology was in its relative infancy, at least compared to today. Even if the military withheld its most destructive weapons, a modern hot civil war would be disastrous on a scale that’s barely imaginable.
It’s a prospect no sane person wants, even on the fringes of the right or the left. Yet, in today’s polarized age, most people now genuinely believe civil war to be a very real possibility. An October Georgetown Institute poll found that the average American believes we are “two-thirds of the way to the edge of a civil war,” while a solid majority believes that “political, racial, and class divisions are getting worse.”
From where I’m sitting, it sure seems that way, and it’s a topic that’s getting an increasing amount of coverage in the media from both conservative and liberal perspectives.
The Atlantic devoted its entire December issue to the topic of “How To Stop A Civil War.” Interestingly, it includes an article relating how marriage counseling techniques can help bring some sense of mutual understanding to people on both sides of the political spectrum. Because in truth, the kind of ‘contempt’ that research says ends marriages for good, the kind that left and right clearly have for each other these days, could very well end our nation.
In an article for The American Conservative titled, “Civil War Begins When The Constitutional Order Breaks Down,” Michael Vlahos writes of a “daily torrent of unfiltered evidence” that suggests that “our constitutional order is fissuring before our eyes.”
Leftist author Joseph Natoli, writing for CounterPunch about the “Looming Shadow of Civil War,” sardonically but accurately described how conservatives see the ideological opposition: “Liberals retain the old tax and spend/baby killing on demand profile, taking from working Americans and giving to lazy shirkers and on the way killing babies. The profile grows darker: gay marriage, gender choice, LGBTQ rights, amnesty to illegal aliens, open borders, confiscation of guns, cars, cattle, Jesus, Robert E. Lee and white privilege. The ‘extreme Left’ and Progressives have a thinner profile: Communists.”
The left, then, according to Natoli, sees Trump supporters as being motivated by “ignorance and stupidity at the top of the list, followed by racist, bigoted, misogynist and homophobic. In brief, if you voted for Trump, you were a troglodyte with a gun.”
Now, which of those characterizations appears more accurate and which are just a personal attack? Does the left not favor abortion, tax and spend, gun confiscation, and open borders? Don’t they, for example, incessantly yammer on about the ridiculous, nonexistent concept of “white privilege?" The only thing slightly offensive to some might be the “Communist” label, but many on the more extreme left likely only publicly eschew that label for fear of turning people off.
Trump supporters, of course, don’t cotton to the idea of being labeled as “racist, bigoted, misogynist and homophobic,” not to mention "ignorant" and "stupid," by condescending, virtue signaling leftists full of their own self-defined "morality." Yet, at least for now, we are all in the same boat, as HBO host Bill Maher pointed out in a somewhat-joking, mostly-serious “Real Time with Bill Maher” segment on Friday night. To Maher, the “single shining truth about democracy” is “sharing the country with assholes you can’t stand” in the same way families don’t typically choose their Thanksgiving dinner guests. (Sure, we all know who he’s talking about when it comes to “assholes,” but that doesn’t negate the overall point).
“You don’t get to choose the guests, because those freaks are your family,” Maher joked. “Think about that the next time you think you can own someone politically. Think about how you can see politics so differently from people who share your very blood.” The HBO host lamented the desire, on both sides, to “own” the opposition - a tactic that never actually changes minds - before grimly observing that, while a second civil war may sound “impossible,” it is actually “is not.”
Then the comedian, like Natoli, juxtaposed how both sides see each other: “We all talk about Trump as an existential threat, but his side sees Democratic control of government the exact same way. And when both sides believe the other guy taking over means the end of the world, yes, you can have a civil war.”
“We are going to have to learn to live with each other or there will be blood,” Maher soberingly concluded.
“We are going to have to learn to live with each other or there will be blood,” Maher soberingly concluded.
Is he right? It’s a bit lengthy, but I highly recommend read this article titled “How America Ends.” In it, Atlantic senior editor Yoni Appelbaum acknowledges both the demographic plight faced by the political majority in America – something “no rich and stable democracy has ever experienced” – along with the fact that democracy is imperiled when one or the other side feels hopeless at the prospects for future electoral victory. A 2020 Trump defeat, writes Appelbaum, would “only deepen the despair that fueled his rise, confirming his supporters’ fear that the demographic tide has turned against them.”
“When a group that has traditionally exercised power comes to believe that its eclipse is inevitable, and that the destruction of all it holds dear will follow, it will fight to preserve what it has—whatever the cost,” he continued. Appelbaum’s ‘solution,’ as it were, is for the rise of a center-right party that embraces immigrants and minorities in the same way the Democratic Party expanded its tent in the 30’s.
The article truthfully lays out the landscape in a way that few liberal publications have acknowledged, but the ‘solution’ it offers is simply more of the same. Can America survive when its elites are, against the will of a majority of Americans, importing millions of immigrants from cultures that have little to nothing whatsoever in common with that of the current citizenry? To Maher’s analogy, we may not “choose” our family any more than we “choose” our country-mates, but imagine the tension at Thanksgiving if said “family” included different members every year brought in at random with absolutely nothing culturally in common with the original members. At what point does the concept of assimilation, something that predictably isn’t mentioned in the article but has always been the key to a stable country, become impossible? Still, just turn some into right-of-center conservatives, Appelbaum smugly advises, and all will be well.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for recruiting minorities of any stripe into the conservative tent. Hispanics and African Americans who are courageous enough to outwardly support President Trump, despite the pushback they get from their own communities, have my unending respect and gratitude. However, when has ANY conservative leaning party been able to recruit even Hispanics, the group with which they have arguably forged the greatest inroads, at a level that could equal electoral victory in a Hispanic-dominated state? Even George W. Bush, for all his pandering, only managed to win 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. Most political analysts concede that even Texas will go blue by 2024, if not sooner. What chance will Republicans have on a national scale then?
Thus, the apocalyptic concerns of Michael Anton mentioned in the Atlantic article, laid out in his seminal 2016 essay “The Flight 93 Election,” are even more concerning now than ever. And contrary to Appelbaum’s contention, it is in fact Trump and his supporters who are trying to save America from collapse by curbing immigration to manageable levels. Because as daunting as the prospect of a civil war may be, many conservatives would choose that and all that goes with it – if some form of extreme federalism or non-violent secession doesn’t work – any day of the week over the even more disturbing prospect of being dominated by the political left for the foreseeable future.
“It’s just that our Fort Sumter hasn’t happened yet”
Democrats are using lawfare effectively they have nearly overwhelmed societal systems with their acolytes. They prepared for a hot war though, you will remember the millions spent by federal agencies (like the EPA) on weapons and ammunition.
Before the civil war in 1860 democrats moved munitions from northern armories to the south in preparation. Jefferson Davis was the Secretary of War and this was accomplished with his authority. I suspect the big weapons purchases by most government agencies was for the same reasons.
The media is largely to blame. Their fake news/propaganda and outright hate for the country.
When the SHTF they will be one of the first to be annihilated. And rightly so.
It does not have to be a shooting war.
The peaceful dissolution of the former “United” States is completely possible.
Bottom Line....
Never pass up an opportunity to tell the Left exactly what you think:
“I do not want to be governed by people like you anymore.”
Who needs hostilities when you can get your way with a coup??
I could not agree any more.
Ours is a battle for the mind and soul of AMERICA. This is war and the righteous are AWOL.
People are not going to fight in a civil war. There is a certain group that wants a revolution, reminiscent of the French Revolution. There seems to be people who want gallows on capital hill—-with a long waiting line behind them.
I think it’s brewing, for sure. The issue is, other than The Proud Boys in Portland, there really hasn’t been much pushback from the “Right”.
The impeachment thing is already dying on the vine. They thought this thing would go on an on, head to the Senate where the President would be bogged down and nothing would happen until next fall. FAIL. An epic FAIL.
They’ve, both parties/MSM/Wall St/Chamber of Commerce, have been sabotaging him from the day he put his hand on the bible and he’s still making things happen. Imagine where we’d be if it weren’t for Ryan and McConnell and all the rest.
He’s about to drop a middle class tax cut on the country, the Fed lowered interests rates and if Congress could ever do it’s job, they just might acknowledge his success and decide to pass a budget to reduce the spending they always say they want to do. Nope. They can’t do that because he hasn’t appeased their corporate masters.
Leading up to next fall, things are going to get ugly. Soros and his friends are going to fund and wreak havoc. Don’t be surprised if voting precincts are destroyed, voters intimidated, and anything else the Left can conjure up. Ballot harvesting will reach an epic scale. Voter fraud will rule the day. And violence. Lots of violence.
Question will remain, what will folks in the Middle and on the Right do? If, by some chance, it turned ugly, the “Left” doesn’t stand a chance. ANTIFAs, John Brown Brigade would last about 5 minutes. The Redneck Revolution folks, who live in fantasy land, would probably last less than that.
At that point, it’d be better if the country just broke up into 3 parts. Give the Left their coastal kingdoms. Let everyone else have the rest. The problem with that, and the Left knows it, is all the food and oil is in the middle. Add to that, take out the cities in the “Blue” states and there’s a lot of “Red” in them.
The country is too divided. There is no way to recover, at this point. The Left cannot be convinced otherwise. Anyone that thinks otherwise, IMHO, is fooling themselves.
Conservatives think liberals are people with bad ideas.
Liberals think conservatives are bad people.
The latter belief is the one antithetical to coexistence and has only ever filled mass graves.
“The battle would be short unless the democrats brought in foreign fighters.”
Many of whom are already here and waiting for the signal.
Schiff et al should look to Turkey.
The coup was upended and all involved were captured and put in prison
It would be a Weimer Republic / Kansas Bushwacking type of NASTY instability war. The Eric Rudolfs of the World would make themselves known very quickly.
The Democrat Party has continued their Jihad on America ever since we took away their Slaves.
It will not be a civil war, it will be a revolution.
Presidential success is good but until the Progressives are wiped out, present good is inadequate in the long run
I think we are already in CW2, but in the early stage, the PsyOps stage. IMHO, it will be a while before it goes hot, but when it does it will go off in a flash. It will not be pretty.
We’re in it.
Civil War? This isn’t the 1860s. One side would have armor, artillery, an air force, a built-in logistics system; the other side would have semi-automatic hunting rifles.
I honestly believe the number of people who actually give enough of a damn about this country to fight a civil war over it is very small.
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