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The Country Is Dividing Itself

By July 7, 2022Commentary

I made semi-humorous comments about dividing up the US this weekend.  The reality is that this is occurring in every facet of our lives, from the micro to the state levels.  The population is segregating itself on the basis of politics.  I saw an ad recently for an anti-woke razor, presumably a reaction to Gillette’s pathetic endorsement of “toxic” masculinity and transgender bullshit.  There is and will be a huge market for the part of the population that does not want to support crazy ideologues in any manner.  I am a charter member of that group.  I won’t, for example, patronize any business in Minneapolis, because it is run by completely incompetent goofballs who have ruined the city and now whine about crime and other problems as though they aren’t their fault.

The division in the country was starkly illustrated in a recent poll.  It found that not only do people not trust the government or feel optimistic about our future, they viciously blame those who have a different political perspective than their own.  Around 75% of voters who identify with each major party think members of the other party are attempting to impose their beliefs on everyone, are generally untruthful and spread misinformation.  People act on these perceptions to, with a significant minority saying they actually drop friends or stop talking with some people because of politics.   (UC Poll)   Worse in my mind was a different poll which showed a significant number of people thought assassinating a political leader whose views you disagreed with was okay.  Democrats, especially young male Democrats, were especially likely to hold this view.  That is truly frightening and explains the existence of Antifa, which is the most ironically named organization anywhere, as it promotes nihilistic destruction of anyone who doesn’t agree with their bizarre ideology.

The split is seen in patronage of certain businesses, what media sources people rely on, the schools they sent their children to, where people will work and where they live.  It occurs at a community level and at a state level.  The results of the differing politics is easy to see if you are open-minded enough to look.  Cities run by progressives have become open sewers of public defecation, homelessness, crime which results in no arrests or prosecutions, rioting and public property destruction by mindless nihilists, decaying infrastructure, useless public education, fleeing businesses, rampant drug use and so on.  Progressive heavens indeed.  But this group is great on using euphemistic language, so maybe this is progress to them.  They certainly have created equity; everyone is suffering in the hellholes they run.  The same is true in many progressive run states–California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, Washington–you get the point.

On the other hand in the south and middle part of the country, the economy is booming, people are moving in to escape the progressive paradises, the populations are safe, education is strong and improving–in short, government is doing what it should, actually try to improve people’s quality of life.  The trend is inevitable–the progressive areas will get worse and worse because the ideology and policies suck, and the more conservative areas will get bigger and better because their policies actually help the population.  Florida versus California or Texas versus Illinois is no contest.

This voluntary segregation is not good, it exacerbates division and divisiveness and leads to constant national strife, because unfortunately there is only one national government.  Segregation does not promote tolerance and understanding.  But when incompetent ideology makes a good life untenable, people have no choice but to do everything they can to avoid it.  And the stark difference in these two approaches is a natural experiment that will demonstrate which is more conducive to real progress.  And it isn’t the supposed progressive one.

Join the discussion 4 Comments

  • Matt says:

    Over the past two years I’ve been increasingly perceiving that there is a tactical difference in the right and the left that correlates with the underlying ideologies. For the left, who want to control everything, or at least have things controlled ‘their way’, engagement in the political process is enthusiastic, if not aggressive and risk taking (legally speaking). People on the right who generally just ‘want to be left alone and leave you alone too’ find running for office and serving in public office profoundly unattractive, if not downright repulsive. Or maybe they are just too busy trying to live their own lives as best as they can, while the left is much more concerned about deciding how you ought to be living your life… either way, the implications are a bit scary to me. Right leaners can flee leftist hell holes, but by staying uninvolved in politics in their new territories, they might only be buying time. When some of the most detested people in life are Lawyer, Politicians, and “Public Servants”, who wants to encourage their kids to get into any of those fields?

  • dell says:

    The Report:
    https://uchicagopolitics.opalstacked.com/uploads/homepage/Polarization-Poll.pdf

    It’s too bad they didn’t ask some other non-political specific questions. The gun issue was purely political.

    Perhaps the biggest lie told for over 2 years is about Covid. And our rulers’ biased media.

    From the poll :
    About three-quarters (73 percent) of voters who identify themselves as Republican agree that
    “Democrats are generally bullies who want to impose their political beliefs on those who disagree.”
    An almost identical percentage of Democrats (74 percent) express that view of Republicans. A similarly
    lopsided majority of each party holds that members of the other are “generally untruthful and are
    pushing disinformation.”

    It’s the leftist and their media who have controlled the Covid narrative. Forced policies: “bullies” is a pleasant way to say eliminated what were thought to be Constitutionally protected rights. The National Guard are the the Governor’s SS Troops.

    No question on defunding police?

    Likewise the Ukraine. The nightly TV propaganda is startling. What would the poll have found?

  • JohnOh says:

    A big part of the problem relates to your previous post about education and the environment. Few people have the time or talent to go through actual data and get their own sense of what is real concerning climate or covid or any other issue. And thanks again for being one of the people that does. And the media both conservative and msm is populated by people with liberal arts educations (can’t do arithmetic) and in the msm dedicated to the narrative, so normal people seldom hear anything about research findings that may be opposed to the party line. This is especially true for climate issues as you point out in your previous post, but applies everywhere including covid. Most people will never hear real data about infection rates in children and will be uninformed about whether or not to vaccinate. And heaven forbid any one suggest that if you’re obese you need to lose some weight.
    And Matt is right about his observation about people on the right. My observation is that in politics, the conservatives usually get tired of campaigns and go do something constructive like start or join a private business. Liberals get stashed in the government as deputy something or under secretary of something until needed again, and often wind up in elected office having never been outside the government/NGO bubble. (Doesn’t always apply over the last decade or so as more republicans go to Washington and stay as lobbyists and join the slime, but the best and brightest don’t.)

  • South Carolina says:

    Gavin Newsom is doing his part to try and recruit Florida residents to move to California. His strategy is to gaslight them by talking about the freedoms in California.

    You would be crazy to move to California from Florida. Florida has no income tax, whereas California has a top bracket of around 13%. Also, gas prices are much higher in CA. In addition, California has been overrun by crime, drugs, homelessness, wildfires, etc. I don’t even think the most ardent leftwing ideologue would leave FL for CA.

    Democrats destroy everything they touch in their unquenchable quest for power and death.

    Life
    The Constitution
    Liberty
    Speech
    Economy
    Race Relations
    Gun Rights
    Cities
    States
    Schools
    Families
    Small Businesses
    Womanhood
    Entertainment
    Media
    Sports
    Building
    Monuments and Statues
    Religion
    Military
    Justice System
    Congress
    Presidency
    Transportation
    And more…

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