NationStates Jolt Archive

Everywhere I look, it seems that the two parties can not seem to have any kind words for each other. On a program on C-span they had members of the different parties calling in and in every call the caller said something along the lines of "The problem with (insert opposing party here). We can't seem to come to any kind of agreement. Although Bush clearly won this election, the droves in which people came out to vote for and against him seemed remarkable.

Now perhaps it's because I am young and have not been through a lot of this country's political history, but I'm very cynical as to whether or not the two parties can come together again and we can really be one nation, indivisible.

Are the divisions to deep, or am I just completely wrong?

From a foreign perspective, I would say that it's because Bush is so far to the right, only governing for his conservative base, that he can't help but be a polarising figure.

Everywhere I look, it seems that the two parties can not seem to have any kind words for each other. On a program on C-span they had members of the different parties calling in and in every call the caller said something along the lines of "The problem with (insert opposing party here). We can't seem to come to any kind of agreement. Although Bush clearly won this election, the droves in which people came out to vote for and against him seemed remarkable.

Now perhaps it's because I am young and have not been through a lot of this country's political history, but I'm very cynical as to whether or not the two parties can come together again and we can really be one nation, indivisible.

Are the divisions to deep, or am I just completely wrong?
This sort of partisanship has been around for well over 200 years. If you go back to the Jefferson-Adams elections, you'll see attacks much more vicious than those that go on today. The parties have never really been 'together' except in extreme times - right after 9/11, World War II, etc.

Everywhere I look, it seems that the two parties can not seem to have any kind words for each other. On a program on C-span they had members of the different parties calling in and in every call the caller said something along the lines of "The problem with (insert opposing party here). We can't seem to come to any kind of agreement. Although Bush clearly won this election, the droves in which people came out to vote for and against him seemed remarkable.

Now perhaps it's because I am young and have not been through a lot of this country's political history, but I'm very cynical as to whether or not the two parties can come together again and we can really be one nation, indivisible.

Are the divisions to deep, or am I just completely wrong?
You're not completely wrong, although I think the case for the divisions is overstated.

There have always been deep divisions in the US, one of them resulted in one of the most destructive wars in history; several others threatened to divide the nation for many years.

The US people are drawn from every race and creed and nation from the entire earth, yet we all live and work under the same Constitution, the same laws, and the same flag. One of the primary reasons the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11 so badly miscalculated is their lack of an understanding of this.

Don't dispair. There are far more things about which we agree than there are about which we disagree.

This sort of partisanship has been around for well over 200 years. If you go back to the Jefferson-Adams elections, you'll see attacks much more vicious than those that go on today. The parties have never really been 'together' except in extreme times - right after 9/11, World War II, etc.

Yeah, I realize the parties have never been very lovey-dovey, but have people always been getting into fisticuffs over signs on lawns (the Kerry/Edwards and Bush/Cheney signs), or defacing property for the same reason?