Well, where do we go from here?
Regardless of the outcome of the election on November 8, what on earth are we going to do about our national government?
What, in fact, are we going to do about this country?
Like many Americans, I live in and work in a bubble, among friends, co-workers, and neighbors who are pretty much like me. A blue-city, blue-state bubble, in my case, dominated by Hillary Clinton supporters.
And a fair number of my friends have related the same experience recently: discovering that someone they thought they knew well – someone with whom they thought they had a lot in common – is a Trump supporter. “I just don’t understand them,” my friends say.
Me, either. And I’d bet that Trump supporters don’t understand me.
We are a severely divided country. The division cuts predominantly along education, class, and geographic lines, sure, but it’s evident everywhere. And it’ll prevent us from working together to solve very serious problems – locally and nationally. It’ll take working together to overcome the economic inequality that is wasting our human and financial resources. We’ll have to work together to address the climate changes that threaten the planet. We’ll have to work together if we’re to serve as partners in a world challenged by war and poverty.
And as scary as the prospect of a Trump presidency is, a Clinton presidency won’t heal those divisions. They’ll continue to be acted out in national politics.
If we had any doubt about that, it was washed away last week when John McCain announced that if Hillary Clinton is elected, Republicans won’t vote on anyone she nominates for the Supreme Court.
Anyone.
For at least four years.
Clinton supporters may find hope in polls showing that Democrats might take control of the Senate. But a few-vote majority won’t be enough to keep Republicans from filibustering Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees. Under Senate rules, Supreme Court nominations require 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. I haven’t seen any polls suggesting a Democratic Senate win that large. And the Washington Post noted on Sunday that a Democratic majority would likely last only two years. In 2018, 25 Democratic senators’ seats will be up for election, compared to only 8 Republicans’ – and the Democrats will face an uphill battle in many of them.
“You see where this is all headed,” New York Magazine’s Ed Kilgore wrote the day after McCain’s pledge. “We are on the brink of a new era in which bipartisanship is functionally dead and divided partisan control of the federal government keeps anything significant from happening. That is significant not for the reasons we so often hear — the demise of those wonderful days when the good old boys of both parties got together over drinks and cut deals without regard to party or ideology — but because divided government is the rule more often than it is the exception in our system.”
The source of that division is not, as some people have suggested, simply a rigged political system. Yes, Republicans have capitalized on the division, gerrymandering election districts to get more influence than they would have otherwise. Democrats have gerrymandered, too. But the parties didn’t create the division. The division, among people who love their country and are concerned about its future, is real.
We can point fingers at politicians all we like, but that won’t solve the problem. This is a representative democracy. The politicians are people we elected. Money has an outsized influence, to be sure, but we are not sheep. Well-funded special interests can shape opinion, but they didn’t invent the fears and hopes and prejudices and preferences that divide us. They have merely played to them.
And unless average citizens like us find a way to understand each other, to work together despite our differences, we’ll continue to be the divided nation we are right now, in Congress and at home.
Is change possible? Given the mistrust and vitriol of the presidential campaign, that job looks formidable.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2016.
“Me, either. And Id bet that Trump supporters dont understand me.” Mary Anna writes.
You are correct , Mary Anna, because it’s hard to understand why someone would support a candidate who has proven, while in office, to be irresponsible with classified security information in emails; who lies to the USA about what really happened in Benghazi, where four Americans could have avoided being murdered, had she responded to their plea for better safety, prior to that terrorist attack.
It’s hard to understand why someone would support a candidate who accepts money for their foundation from countries that treat women badly and will kill gays and lesbians; especially since that candidate hypocritically professes equal rights in our country.
It’s hard to understand why someone would support a candidate who, while as secretary of state negotiated a terrible nuclear deal with Iran, allowing Iran to continue their nuclear arms program in a few years, lifting their trade sanctions that would allow money to flow to terrorist organizations and at the same time delivering 2 + billion dollars in exchange for some hostages.
I can go on but note that Trump has not been in office, nor has he done harm to our country. He offers ideas about border security, the economy, immigration reform, getting people back to work and shaking up Washington but you only see and hear what the biased mainstream media wants to report about him; that being his negative talk and ALLEGED actions .
Please try to understand that to many Americans, Donald Trump is both a risk and a hope for a better country.
Please try to understand that many Americans do not appreciate being called stupid or deplorable because they choose to support someone different from your choice.
If you want this country to remain divided, then continue to do what you do and vote accordingly; however, if you do not want this country to remain divided, then consider this first step:
Listen, without judgement, to those who have opposing views. Those views are personal to them, for what ever reason, just as your views are personal to yourself.
You do not have to agree with opposing views but we have to somehow work it out for the good of the country.
Hey, let’s have an election.
Earlier today Colin Powell announced he intends to vote for Hillary Clinton, like his old boss George H.W. Bush.
Does anybody really care or need to know who Powell or anybody else votes for?
Sure, name a celebrity who publicly announces that they are going to vote for this candidate or that candidate.
Is that supposed to say: “C’mon yall ignorant people, I’m hip, so you should do what I do; dang nabit! C’mon, follow me!
What a joke!
… and 150 Republican members of our national intelligence community have issued a statement that Trump is unfit to hold the office – let alone be near the nuclear codes. They’re voting for Clinton. Don, when you repeat vulgar Trump lies, as one small example, like “thousands of Muslims cheered the destruction of the World Trade Center” on 9/11, you’ve kind of, you know, forfeited the moral high ground.
I am optimistic about a Clinton presidency. But I would emphasize the important of her becoming a HEROINE, as the first woman president. I believe that this feat will go down in history as more than a footnote, as a TIPPING POINT!
Mary Towler, can you imagine the economic impact of women’s rights? Can you conceive of the idea that as women (and men) are encouraged to rise up in the workforce, the economy may just rise significantly, for years to come?
I see the economy climbing, within months, up and up!
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I would appreciate your comments:
One step for a (W)oman. One giant leap for (H)umankind?
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http://www.SavingSchools,org
Troll, Colin Powell and George Bush invaded Iraq based upon faulty intelligence and
then made the massive mistake to disband the Iraqi Army. This fueled the Sunni resistance that destabilized the country and resulted in the Iranian control that exists today. I’m surprised that you value their opinion as much as you appear to.
As far as the Intelligence community, Trump, by criticizing the war alienated all those who supported it.
Mary Anna I agree with you on the need to bring the country together. We need to learn to exchange ideas without the name calling, labeling , and anger that is so often expressed.
Mary Anna, why can’t you just see. America is not buying your leftist, liberal drivel.
Please, stop blaming this “divided America” on the right. Every time Obama opens his mouth , it’s to blame someone else.
Leave it to a right-wing troll who blames President Obama for the racist graffiti found at The Corner Store, to claim who America will vote for president. Leave it to a right-winger who excuses Trump’s bigotry towards Muslims, Blacks and Mexicans to pretend George W. Bush is the same man as George H.W. Bush. Leave it to a Trump supporter and a bigot towards American Muslims to claim our country’s first African American Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a mere “celebrity.”
Troll I did misread your Bush reference and you did in fact refer to the father.
That does not change my point because all the Bush family is united in their failure to endorse the Republican Nominee who had publicly criticized them for the war.
You are very quick to assume a mistake was something intentional and to throw a label on to someone who has a different opinion
Here I fixed it for you…
“And as scary as the prospect of a Trump presidency is, a Clinton presidency” is even scarier. If HRC is elected, our only hope is that the republicans can hold the house and senate and nullify HRC’s catastrophic policies. And no I won’t be voting for Trump either.
Point taken on Powell, a loyal soldier given the shiv by the family he served so ably. Too bad he sold his soul to Dubya on Iraq. I think he knows it. No, Fgf, the Bush family’s objections to Trump are the Bush family views the presidency as their own personal club. Trump beating up on “Low Energy” Jeb! certainly didn’t endear the Donald. Can you imagine what Barbara must have said?
But I’m sure you’ll agree that the left, right and center all united in agreeing in Trump’s calling out Jeb’s utter nonsense about his brother “keeping us safe.” Um, no. Dubya actually was president on 9/11/01. While it can be argued that real effort may not have stopped 9/11, what Trump exposed – and the whole world knows this – that Dubya and his neo-con manipulators did nothing – zero – in any effort to prevent 9/11. All warnings were ignored. The Bushs probably objected to this being pointed out. It was about time.
America’s military and intelligence community – left, right and center, all – loathes Trump with the prospect of being ordered to break laws, like killing suspected terrorists’ families, bringing back torture, things of this sort.
BTW, don’t make ridiculous apologies for Trump’s racism and bigotry and then complain about who is throwing labels.
It takes more than one person to heal such a divide. Many Americans will need to have the courage and strength to lead in the kind of dialogue and compromise this takes – on both sides, whether blue or red. But what is more, we all need to be more socially and politically active every week, every month and especially on years when we are not in Presidential election mode. We need to do away with this toxic 2 party system. We need campaign reform. And we need to put checks in place that will fill our Judicial vacancies quickly. Those vacancies are a threat to keeping our Constitution alive!
I think it is pretty scary when the editor of the supposed “alternative” newsweekly says “I live in and work in a bubble, among friends, co-workers, and neighbors who are pretty much like me. A blue-city, blue-state, bubble, in my case dominated by Hillary Clinton Supporters.” This is not just descriptive but a subjective perception of where she lives and the mainstream corporate political spectrum she entertains and endorses. WOW! I think the younger generation is saying to their democrat Hillary supporting elders “I just don’t understand them,” as much as they are saying that about the few Trump supporters we know. As the saying goes, you can’t often teach an old dog new tricks. I don’t see the elder generation ever understanding in their lifetime the thoughts or desires or urgency for a truly different political choice (which was represented by Bernie). So the lament that “unless average citizens like us find a way to understand each other…” is patronizing to us when if you did care or if you tried to understand you would have supported our efforts behind Bernie and/or third party candidates. But you don’t and never will. We just have to wait until enough of you guys die off and register more of our young people to vote and get into movement building. That is the way the country will move forward, not by trying to communicate with your old liberal’s expired leadership and wisdom.
As a Clinton supporter, I beg to disagree with these arguments. We need to disagree in order to make BETTER DECISIONS. And I would suggest that Donald J. Trump has contributed greatly to this need.
As a country, we have to start listening to one another to the max. The problems we face are too complicated for business as usual in Washington and around the nation.
As John Kennedy said in his inaugural address: ” Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” 1961
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I say to Donald Trump, thank you for forcing the American people to think differently. I say to Hillary Clinton, thank you for running again to become our first woman president.