A House Divided

Is your house divided?

Does this illustrate the political divided between you and your significant others?

house divided.jpg

My wife sent the above image to me in a text asking, "Remind you of you and me?"

Well ... it certainly did ... and it certainly does.

Martha still fights back angry feelings when she remembers that I voted for Jill Stein in stead of for Hillary. She still believes that misguided voters like me elected Donald Trump.

She gets most of her news from the reading the New York Times. I get my news from Democracy Now and Letters & Politics & Michael Moore.

She's inspired by what David Brooks says about political civility and clings to the hope that there will be sufficient disgust with Trump to kick him out of office.

My observations that not every aspect of Biden is an improvement over The Donald and that national Democratic Party leaders since LBJ care only about collecting campaign contributions lead her to call for an abrupt end to the conversation.

What's it like in your house?

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mimi's picture

I am looking forward fro the 'third'. My house is not divided, it contains only myself. If at all, I am divided with the whole world.

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10 users have voted.

I said I favored raising the min. wage. The son and his s.o. argued against it. Surprised me. One inlaw who is from Russia is apolitical but believes in personal kindness solving problems. On the riot part of the peaceful marches? Shoot at least three rioters and it will stop. I figure as she lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union and has seen what it means for a society to collapse. Maybe sees the same. But I am the most leftie but things are sometimes surprising.

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11 users have voted.

diversity of tactics. We all have to admit that our tactics have not given us the results we want. Whether it be revolutionary or incremental. Peaceful protest with a permit or angry caucus crowd lobbing tear gas back at the authoritarians.
But while I try respect the diversity I always push for big bold and even revolutionary change.
In my household we can generally be harmonious about that. Very tough on old friendships though.

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12 users have voted.
travelerxxx's picture

Back in the day, I learned that in US Civil War times families were often of split sympathies between the Union and Confederacy. These divisions were serious and deadly. Supposedly, it was brother against brother, sister against sister, uncle against niece, etc. It was bewildering to me how this was even possible and I pretty much discounted it.

Not only am I am no longer bewildered, but I see it almost daily with friends, families, and neighbors. Is it to the point where those would take up arms against each other? Two years ago I would have said, "No." Today, I would change the odds from zero to around 50%. I consider those on the political right to be the more dangerous faction, but only due to the fact that the left is not armed. The level of animosity seems to be at a boil-over point among many, and it seems family ties are not strong enough to sway the tide of hate.

As an example with neighbors, were I to put a Biden sign in my yard (not that I would), I would expect property damage within 48 hours. Those placing a Trump sign on their property might expect the same. Bumper stickers? – a guaranteed method to bring business to the local paint shop.

Perhaps this is not what others are seeing, but it's certainly happening here, just north of Houston. I see it with family spread out across the nation, to the point where I can barely make a phone call to my own parents, and cannot to my younger brother.

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Lily O Lady's picture

OMG! Trump! Augh, Russians! side of things. It is a reflexive, emotional response. He rants and raves whenever Trump appears on TV.

I am disheartened by the political process. Bernie feels that he is making inroads into the Democrat[ick!] Party, but I worry that it is making inroads into him. My state, much to my surprise, has been declared a swing state. I voted for Jill Stein in 2016 hoping that my vote and that of other angry Berniecrats would send a message to the DNC.

But in the political world messages only flow one way, from the top down. Our dog-faced pony wrangling Democrat nominee Joe Biden, in spite of his limited public contact, has managed more gaffes offending the minorities his party claims to represent. Yet my dear husband and many others insist that he is so much better than Trump. Likely party operatives hope he will offer the kind of facade behind which TPTB can wheel and deal. We are supposed to vote for our own fleecing and shut up about it.

It reminds me of the old bully “joke”, “Why are you hitting yourself?” while pummeling you with your own fist. If I vote for Biden, will my neighbor up the street with the Trump flag shoot me? Will my cheating Governor and his Secretary of State allow an honest vote count. His own election when he was Secretary of State was controversial.

Or will Biden actually win and then go on to ignore and insult progressives and minorities? I’m pretty busy arguing with myself so I don’t have as much time to argue with my spouse.

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11 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

Or will Biden actually win and then go on to ignore and insult progressives and minorities?

Look at who he has advising him right now and then look at who he is putting in his cabinet. This tells me everything I need to know about Joe.

I just had a Twitter spat who said it’s more important to get Trump out then it is pushing Biden left. I told him that we’ve been told that for decades and that is why nothing ever changes for us. Incremental change doesn’t do much good when the other party keeps taking away whatever crumbs we get. The only thing that will turn the country around is Revolution. Occupy everything, but peacefully. I’d love to see hundreds of thousands of people silently marching through the streets.

A few cities have seen looting and property damages under the cover of BLM. Chicago’s rich district saw lots of breaking, entering and looting last night. I don’t think it’s just spur of the moment "let’s go loot a few stores." Is there someone behind them and pushing for them? Yeah I know. I too hate being this cynical.

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Cassiodorus's picture

on what to say to the TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) people. I still don't understand why such people think that getting rid of Donald Trump is a task they can accomplish by their efforts in electing Joe Biden. A lot of these people are concentrated in California, a Biden safe state. What's the point of worrying about the outcome if you're not going to move to a swing state? Maybe they will feel vindicated if Biden wins, but really the primary agency at work will be Trump's self-destructive behavior patterns and the likelihood that voters in swing states will notice them. Do the TDS people not think there's a point to Joe Biden's behavior in hiding in a basement? On the other hand, if Biden loses, it will be his fault and his alone, and neither theirs nor ours. It really will, and no lecture about personal responsibility will change that fact.

The whole thing is really out of our hands. If we are not going to seriously challenge the mass media, the parties, or the candidates, then it will not be us who determines the outcome of their election drama. And the whole idea that "it's who you vote for" matters is seriously overrated. The election will be decided by a handful of people in swing states, unless it's not close, in which case the contest aspect of it won't be important at all. Only the swing states matter, and they only matter if the election is close. If Texas becomes a swing state, for instance, Biden is going to win anyway.

The idea of being a revolutionary, then, is to suggest that maybe things would be better if national politics weren't totally out of our hands.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus

The election will be decided by a handful of people in swing states, unless it's not close, in which case the contest aspect of it won't be important at all.

That's what *would* be true, if the whole thing weren't rigged six ways from Sunday.
And it would be bad enough--"a handful of voters in swing states elected the government" doesn't constitute a democracy nor even a republic.

But it would be preferable to "OK, you handful of voters in the swing states, trek out to the polls so that you can apply a veneer of credibility to our corrupt dog-and-pony show. And be sure to tune in for our racist psychopath vs racist dementia victim sweepstakes!"

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5 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus

The idea of being a revolutionary, then, is to suggest that maybe things would be better if national politics weren't totally out of our hands.

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4 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

This place is an obvious exception, heh.

My SO is an immigrant and she comes from somewhere that different political factions literally blow each other up. Her take on US politics is always interesting and valued. She claims not to understand US politics, but I think she does more than most people I know. However, I worry that my cynicism has rubbed off on her. In 2016, we had many a disagreements on lesser evil voting, but I've noticed now that Trump is bad is just accepted as a given and she saves her ire for the Dems mostly.

There's still some tribalism around me in my other relations. While I'm not seeing anyone actively supporting Biden, I do see a lot of orange man bad, RUSSIA!, etc. It seems even that is cooling a bit. I stay off social media for the most part, so I guess my interactions are mostly face to face, which is a different beast. It probably also helps that most of the people I know, I met through the punk rock scene and we grew up on Chomsky and Jello Biafra lectures.

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9 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

just curious.

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2 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

are on the other side of this particular divide. As was my former therapist. My boyfriend sees much more of the same things I do than either my mom or my therapist; he's just so horrified by the reactionary Trump bullshit (which does exist) and the rampant incompetence of Trump's COVID "response" that he thinks we have to support the neoliberal/neoconservative establishment. Not sure he believes the incrementalism argument--I haven't specifically asked him about that.

What drives me crazy is that the entire incrementalism argument ignores the fact that every politician that's argued for Democratic incrementalism over the past thirty years has incrementally moved us to the right. Apparently, that data is irrelevant, because we keep acting like we're being presented with a choice between inching in the right direction pragmatically, refraining from challenging the political status quo in any of its aspects, compromising with right-wing people to get a little of what we want in hopes of getting more later--or else making radical demands. But that isn't the choice we're presented with. In fact, we aren't really being presented with a choice at all. But if we were, it would be a choice between bolting to the extreme right while spewing bigoted vitriol, and walking briskly to the extreme right while (mostly) restraining ourselves from spewing bigoted vitriol. Oh yeah--also, we sometimes hire black people, latino people, white women, and LGBTQ people of all genders and races, and use them as the faces of "our" party, whereas the "other side" hires mostly white people, especially old men.

That said, our candidate this time is an old white man, just like theirs is, and the last time it was an old white woman with lots of money. But we still hire and promote more minority people in politics and media than the "other side" does, so I guess that is a difference, especially if you're a minority person who wants a job in politics or the media. If, however, you're Black and have no money and go to a "D" school, you may feel free to die at any time; it won't disturb the Democratic power structure in the least.

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5 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver