I hate all of the division and identity politics. We were so united as a country just 20 years ago. W had the highest approval rating in history. I remember W's first pitch, speech to the joint session, the whole Freedom Fries thing, Toby Keith's Courtesy of the Red/White/Blue, and how much we all came together and loved each other. What happened? Americans are now more likely to identify themselves by the State they live in than their country. "I'm a Texan". "I'm a Californian". "I'm a New Yorker". "I'm Floridian". How did this happen?

Because the left has gone off the deep end, full on socialism leading to Marxism.

Social media.

Social media might be the biggest cancer of all. I want a study done by experts on the negative side effects of social media on people of all ages.

RGLAG85 said:

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Because the left has gone off the deep end, full on socialism leading to Marxism.

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More like the "Left" has convinced themselves that they are completely and totally right on every subject and that any different opinion from theirs is either Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Nazi, Stupid, etc. So anyone with the slightest difference of opinion is somehow Evil and needs to be punished, insulted or otherwise marginalized.

PCC_80 said:

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RGLAG85 said:

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Because the left has gone off the deep end, full on socialism leading to Marxism.

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More like the "Left" has convinced themselves that they are completely and totally right on every subject and that any different opinion from theirs is either Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Nazi, Stupid, etc. So anyone with the slightest difference of opinion is somehow Evil and needs to be punished, insulted or otherwise marginalized.

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The way the Left attacked the people of Uvalde County online after the election because they voted for Abbott by 22 points was disgusting. Democrats absolutely hate the 2nd amendment. They want to get rid of all guns.

Social media definitely is the "yellow journalism" of our time. It is really hard for folks to separate factual truth from objective sensationalism or exaggeration of facts.

I also think we have media personality shows that masquerade as venues for news; these are really horrible for getting actual facts that instead are an airing of grievances. This pertains to both sides of the political spectrum.

Lastly we consume sugar junkie type news; a headline or tweet that has no context or little explanation and is instead spewed to exacerbate those grievances.

For the vast majority of Americans there is little that separates us. We want to work in jobs that pay well, be healthy and safe, freedom to worship or not, think independently without government or corporate interference and raise kids in a good community with a great education to better themselves. I think this applies across the country .

Because the elite pander to the more ignorant half of America and have them believing division and die hard bull**** beliefs are a good thing. It doesn't help that all forms of media walk lockstep and spread this division as the majority truth. Keep your ****ing eye on the ball, this divisiveness is a distraction, the rug is being slowly pulled from beneath our feet.

The OP asks, "how did this happen?" This has always happened. Many times, throughout history.

It may be Juvenal, but the Latin phrase "panem et circenses", or "bread and circuses", quite aptly describes what we are witnessing: a population without principles, acting out of purely selfish reasons. All they (we!) really want is to be fed and to be entertained.

And the political class clings to their power and abhors any challenge, so they clamor with each other over who provides the best handouts and the craziest policies.

Joe Rogan described the cycle very well, I think. Hard times make hard men. Hard men make soft times. Soft times make soft men. Soft men make hard times. We're just in the back half of this particular cycle.

Hillary Clinton had the idea of taking her mentor, Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals into the Federal government.

Obama was raised as a communist. Both of these aholes began to increase the power of the Deep State and weaponize federal agencies against America, and also brought media much closer to being propaganda arms of the DNC.

And of course Soros was there to help fund and organize democratic/marxist organizations and fund the election of marxist DAs across the country.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was foreign involvement. Biden certainly went above and beyond to bring China in.

Everyone knows what the problem is. If you are a person with morals and understand our form of government is only meant for a moral people then you also know the solution.

Welcome from your slumber Buck Rogers.

Abroad I definitely say I'm from Texas. Someone gives me a hard time about something that happens in New York - I don't care. I just say, "not my part of the country so I don't care."

I like that about the US though. It helps to keep it more decentralized instead of power concentrated in DC.

Obama divided us. It really is that simple.

Stop watching the news and get entirely off social media for awhile (including this message board) and you'll likely feel a lot better and be just fine. Because a lot of the 'divided' feelings are simply fueled by those two things.

The malignant spread of sexual deviancy over the past 20 years has manifested into a literal rainbow of genetic morphism and mental illness which undermines the core values of God, country, the nuclear family and personal responsibility. This radical deviation from a 200 year path of greatest-nation building has spawned the growing ranks of the far left who daily tear away at the fabric of accountability, common sense and decency with boundless hypocrisy. The weak minded, the lawless and the depraved perpetuate a dystopian society, not in which all citizens exercise freedom of moral thought and action to pursue personal fulfillment, but rather one where all citizens fail and suffer equally under a contrived system of shared oppression they mistake as an economic promotion for the have-nots. They are less interested in the opportunity to achieve their own security and happiness and are more focused on destroying the framework of the very society which grants these freedoms of behavior and expression no matter how destructive or absurd. The ultimate and ironic conclusion of this myopic and naive fantasy is the antithetical exchange of liberty for tyranny. The contortion of Liberalism to Marxism, and the putrefying state of its actor-sponsors, is destroying the United States of America.

The last 20 or so years have been the ascendency of the identity focused left.

Going on 3 generations of overconsumption of academia; never ending college bubble; a total and complete monopoly of thought in university staff; the left has produced a critical mass of people who consider themselves totally normal but in fact have subsumed an ethos or archetype that only Herbert Marcuse could have invented.

The critical mass is now running the show in all facets of life in every "western" country.

This was no accident and was a deliberate and insanely disciplined move by the post modern left. The post modern left never gave up. They had a religious zeal that was unstoppable and succeeded where Marx could only have dreamed.

The above is why I'm skeptical in the extreme that a few W's in the electoral game will stem the tide. The root cause must be addressed, and it will take place on a time frame much longer than 2,4,6 year election cycles.

I think it goes back to Rush Limbaugh and the rise of political talk radio.

Social media has probably also had something to do with it.

aglaes said:

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I think it goes back to Rush Limbaugh and the rise of political talk radio.

Social media has probably also had something to do with it.

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Rush was around for decades before we ever got divided. It was Obama and his rhetoric in his second term. Then when Trump got elected the media doubled down. Now if the left doesn't like you, you're racist and to be destroyed. The left made it okay to attack people while they were eating with their family. Getting Trump out by any means necessary.

Unity is only found in a common enemy.

Billary, Obama, Biden, MSM, AOC/Squad, algore, Schumer, late night tv idiots, Oprah, Maxine, Pencil Neck, Pelosi, SJL, Beto, Michael Moore, Hollywood, etc. Pretty easy to see all the perps who have pushed/pulled/facilitated the great divide from the Left side over the last few decades. All the Woke stuff did not just magically appear one day, it took years of seedwork, planting, and nurturing.

There are folks that will go along with it and folks that won't. A national divorce is coming.

The Left absolutely started it.

They saw GWB's popularity and decided they had to win at all costs. A steady drumbeat of "literally Hitler" started.

Is being united a good thing? Look at what that unification accomplished in the early 2000s: boondoggle wars, blowing out the spending, the patriot act, the department of homeland security, etc.

We just had 70 senators come together to pass a $1.7 trillion spending bill.

Unification, per se, should not be an aspiration.

Also why should I want to unify with people who hate traditional morality and don't believe in objective truth?

We should be discussing divorce, not unification.

We are divided because we no longer have a unified purpose and identity. This is the danger of multiculturalism. It is literally destroying American culture.

When silencing your opposition became a thing - that is when.

Old Buffalo said:

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Social media.

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Most media including social media. Media took to siding with the left, in the '80s, and have morphed into the research and publicity arm of the DNC.

When you jettison Christianity and Judaism for wokeism and communism, what do you expect?

Pumpkinhead said:

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Stop watching the news and get entirely off social media for awhile (including this message board) and you'll likely feel a lot better and be just fine. Because a lot of the 'divided' feelings are simply fueled by those two things.

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Exactly. Get off the internet and go talk to your coworkers, neighbors, friends, etc. The extremes pushed by the media and on social media make things seem much more divided than they actually are.

Way too many people whom don't possess a functioning bull**** detector.

The Iraq war is the correct answer

Because there are a whole lot more stupid people than smart people in our country

aglaes said:

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I think it goes back to Rush Limbaugh and the rise of political talk radio.

Social media has probably also had something to do with it.

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Limbaugh reported, it he did not create it

Identity Politics pushed by the left.

To me it was when Obama started using executive orders. The President is not a king. Both sides disagreed but there was a set of rules set in the Constitution. Obama broke the rules with executive orders.