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Long Before Trump, We Were a Divided People
Townhall.com ^ | February 11, 2020 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 02/11/2020 6:36:45 AM PST by Kaslin

In a way, Donald Trump might be called The Great Uniter.

Bear with me. No Republican president in the lifetime of this writer, not even Ronald Reagan, united the party as did Trump in the week of his acquittal in the Senate and State of the Union address.

According to the Gallup Poll, 94% of Republicans approve of his handling of his presidency, in his fourth year, despite the worst press any president has ever received and the sustained hostility of our cultural elites.

Only Bush I in the first months of the 1991 Gulf War and Bush II in the first months of the 2003 Iraq War registered support like this.

Only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, and only after having consulted God himself, joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and voted with Sen. Chuck Schumer's caucus to bring down the president.

When have Republicans ever exhibited the home-team enthusiasm they demonstrated during that State of the Union address and the post-acquittal gathering in the East Room? When have working- and middle-class voters shown such support for a Republican as they do for Trump at his mammoth rallies? Heading for November, this is a party united.

But not only is Trump the great uniter of the GOP. He is the great uniter of Democrats. Every Democrat but three in the House voted to impeach and remove him. Every Democrat in the Senate voted to convict and expel him from office and prevent his ever running again.

In Iowa and New Hampshire, evicting Trump from the Oval Office seemed the one issue that animated every candidate. Getting Trump out of the White House seems far more important to Democrats than getting U.S. troops out of the endless Middle East wars.

But while he has made more than a small contribution to our savage partisanship, is Trump really the cause of the uncivil war in America? Or is his presidency, like Gettysburg, simply the battlefield upon which America's cultural and political war is currently engaged?

Consider. Bernie Sanders' nationalization of health care and abolition of private health insurance for 150 million Americans is grounded in a socialism that has never been reconcilable with Trump's belief in the superiority of the private sector, a belief reflected in Trump's tax cuts for corporations and individuals and his deregulation policies.

Democrats' unanimous support for "reproductive rights" is in eternal conflict with the traditionalist belief in a God-given right to life, as well as with Trump's pledge to nominate justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade.

Still, the battles over the Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas predated by decades the battle over Brett Kavanaugh.

Immigration may determine the destiny of the West.

Yet, Democrats believe in tearing down Trump's wall, an end to deportations, extending welfare benefits to border-crossers and granting sanctuary from border security agents for criminals here illegally.

That Americans of European descent, 90% of the nation in 1960, close to 60% today, will, in 20 years, be less than half of the population, is for Democrats a cause of ceaseless celebration.

America, they contend, will be a far, far better place than we have ever known when a far smaller share of the population is white. The greater the racial, credal, cultural and ethnic diversity, the better the country.

Yet, Americans of European descent, headed for minority status, provide 85-90% of all Republican votes in presidential elections. What Democrats are cheering portends the demographic death of the GOP.

Republicans are a more nationalist and populist party than they were in the Bush presidencies. But the Democratic Party has become a politically correct institution where Joe Biden is forced to explain stands that he took when he was a moderate Democratic senator from Delaware.

His opposition to the forced busing of children from neighborhood schools into inner-city schools was attacked as racist. He had to apologize for his friendship with Southern senators like Jim Eastland and his role in the Clarence Thomas hearings. He has been made to confess for voting to authorize the 2003 war on Iraq.

Biden is far to the left of where he used to be as a senator. Apparently, he has not moved far enough.

Even James Carville is castigating his own party's candidates for talking about "reparations or any kind of goofy left-wing thing out there."

"It's like we're losing our damn minds," said Carville.

Is Trump responsible for what Carville himself sees as an irrationality and irresponsibility taking on epidemic proportions inside the Democratic Party?

Or has Trump's success maddened Democrats into manifesting who they are and what they believe, and what may yet prevent them from being taken seriously as a party that can lead the nation?

We were divided long before Trump got here, and we will remain so long after he departs.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: partisanship; presidenttrump
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1 posted on 02/11/2020 6:36:45 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

FraudCo gleefully spent 8 years doing all he could to set Americans against Americans.


2 posted on 02/11/2020 6:39:28 AM PST by treetopsandroofs
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To: Kaslin

There have always been two kinds of US citizens.

One considers government to be a necessary evil which should therefore have specified, limited power.

The other wants government to have unlimited power so it can be a pyramid scheme with them at the top.


3 posted on 02/11/2020 6:39:37 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Truth is hate to people who hate truth.)
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To: Kaslin

Simply put, there no longer exists a common consensus of values among the American people. Sanders has considerable support as do the other loony Democrats. They do not exist in a cultural, social, or political vacuum. America is a divided nation.


4 posted on 02/11/2020 6:41:38 AM PST by allendale (.)
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To: Kaslin

The United States should have been divided up into 6 or 8 confederacies of states.

There never would have been a War Between The States, World War One, World War Two, Korean War, or Vietnam War.

The states would’ve been truly free, independent, and non-belligerent in foreign affairs.

At least, that’s my humble opinion.


5 posted on 02/11/2020 6:42:15 AM PST by BrexitBen
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To: Kaslin

The Dems have turned their lust for power into a hate marathon. Disgusting.


6 posted on 02/11/2020 6:42:34 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin
It is insane not to consider the merits of a peaceful split up.

"The withdrawal of a State from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic. The government of the State remains unchanged as to all internal affairs. It is only its external or confederate relations that are altered. To term this action of a Sovereign a 'rebellion' is a gross abuse of language."

"Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the States are Sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again, when a better comprehension of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one from denying that each State is a Sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever."

"The contest is not over, the strife is not ended. It has only entered upon a new and enlarged arena." Jefferson Davis, address to the Mississippi legislature - 16 years after the wars end.

"The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form."

Quotes of President Jefferson Davis

7 posted on 02/11/2020 6:45:23 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: BrexitBen

If that would have happened if you want to know what US history would have looked like look at South America.

It’s also foolish to think the European colonial powers wouldn’t have been here making hay!


8 posted on 02/11/2020 6:45:32 AM PST by Reily
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To: BrexitBen

You are correct, sir.


9 posted on 02/11/2020 6:47:05 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Reily

Quit writing ridiculous Schiffian screen plays in your head.


10 posted on 02/11/2020 6:47:55 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Have ever actually read a book?
Let alone any history!


11 posted on 02/11/2020 6:51:53 AM PST by Reily
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To: Kaslin

The Democrat power structure may have discovered too late that a good many of their rank and file voters don’t agree with many of the far left policies the party now espouses and supports.


12 posted on 02/11/2020 6:53:43 AM PST by dowcaet
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To: Reily

So Bosnia is going to invade the 6 new countries of the former USA? Are you on drugs?


13 posted on 02/11/2020 6:54:20 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Reily

Yer wasting yer time.


14 posted on 02/11/2020 6:59:04 AM PST by Roccus (Prima di ogni altra cosa, siate armati!)
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To: Kaslin

You cant get any more divided than when one side calls all who disagree with them ‘evil’. THAT started over half a century ago. For all of that time the ones being called ‘evil’ have backed up. The backing up has gone as far as it can. The division that has been there all the while is now starkly visible. The Left are intolorant and convinced of their goodness and correctness. So...War it is...


15 posted on 02/11/2020 7:00:28 AM PST by TalBlack (Damn right I'll "do something" you fat, balding son of a bitc)
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To: central_va

You don’t need to physically invade to control/manipulate.

My response were for the early history of the country. I assume you deny that European colonial powers existed then?


16 posted on 02/11/2020 7:01:08 AM PST by Reily
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To: dowcaet

Which is why they celebrate this, and keep pushing for them all to come and be made legal. The majority of new immigrants vote for Socialism.

That Americans of European descent, 90% of the nation in 1960, close to 60% today, will, in 20 years, be less than half of the population, is for Democrats a cause of ceaseless celebration.


17 posted on 02/11/2020 7:03:27 AM PST by sheana
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To: Roccus

yeah I know!
I like to think I am talking to thoughtful people here.
Sometimes the wish takes takes the place of the realty.


18 posted on 02/11/2020 7:06:01 AM PST by Reily
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To: Kaslin

Donald Trump will win the 2020 election in a landslide. Of epic proportions.


19 posted on 02/11/2020 7:06:59 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Click my screen name for an analysis on how HIllary wins next November.)
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To: Kaslin

Once again Pat states the obvious as only he can.

L


20 posted on 02/11/2020 7:07:40 AM PST by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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