I fear this election is going to tear the country apart

[davidn3600]

I'm talking socially. How do you heal this? How do you come together after this? Even if you defeat Trump in November, is his supporters going to suddenly shrug their shoulders and start working with Hillary? Hell no.

This is a very bad environment. The hate and anger that exists out there is extreme. Any chance this country comes together and moves forward united I think is virtually non-existent.

[JFKDem62]

1. The GOP has torn this country apart for decades.

To further their own financial and political agenda.
It has been a social civil war, and Trump is using it to ride to power.
He is just bringing it out into the open and escalating it for his own purposes.

And to answer your question, the violence and upheaval of the 60's
moved society ahead, but a great deal of damage was done that has never really healed.

[bigwillq]

2. The two parties have torn this country apart already

This is just par for the course.

[uppityperson]

3. I see it that the divide is there and this is giving people more opportunity to be asses

This is a symptom, not the cause.

[Rex]

4. It will rip asunder the small, but very vocal and violent RWing gun hoarder groups.

There is a certain supposedly RWing white angry male type out there that has thousands of weapons and like Yellowstone Park - is overdue for eruption.

Thank 35 years of slow boil aggression on the REAGANS and the BUSHS for allowing themselves to lower all standards of the office.

[Kalidurga]

5. It is bringing my family together

Some lean right, but T-Rump scares the crap out of them.

[marions ghost]

12. Good to hear!

there have GOT to be some sane right-leaning folks out there.

I hope more of them make a clear break from Trump. He is really pathological.

[Skittles]

15. I would hope that Cruz does too

[Kalidurga]

16. Yikes!!!!

They don't lean that far to the crazy err right. They only lean slightly that way in a Libertarian sort of way.

[KentuckyWoman]

6. It only takes a small percentage of shitheads to screw it up for everyone.

That is just a basic truth I believe in every society that has ever been.

The far and away vast majority of people in this country just want to work together and live in peace and do their thing. You've got maybe 5% that took the bait and are seriously all in when it comes to fight their own neighbors instead of the elite that pit us against each other.

Then there's the inevitable push back. Rightly so. But the it looks like all of society is in a war.

What we do to stop it I don't know. Smarter minds than mine in history have failed to figure it out.

[BigDemVoter]

7. It's not as bad as it was 1968

and people were way pissed in 1972 as well. . . I don't know that we "got over it", but the media sure told us that we did. Maybe that's why people are so pissed off today. This is probably just the beginning.

[struggle4progress]

8. The country has been torn apart as long as I can remember

No society hangs together automatically: it takes work to keep it together

[LannyDeVaney]

9. I don't think it will tear the country apart ...

it will ultimately unite more of us.

Sure, his supporters aren't going to work with the Democratic President. However, Trump supporters are the MINORITY. The only people galvanized by Trumps' latest BS would vote for him no matter what. Do you think anything he is doing is *winning* new voters? Hell no.

And socially, I don't want to have ANYTHING to do with anybody supporting Trump as this point. Family included. Their group is threatening the future of my family.

I vote for common decency.

[oldandhappy]

10. When I was a kid we knew our neighbors

in many different ways. Kids were welcome in each house on the block. The neighbors were Methodists and milkman (ya, we had those) and the neighbor kids were yard workers and paperboys and second basemen on the local team. On the edges of what we knew about the neighbors were that they were R or D but never worth much conversation. All the moms wore aprons and all the dads were home for dinner.

I am sorry that is no longer true. None of it. Except I do know where my neighbors worship. The tearing apart has been growing for decades.

[romanic]

11. Two words.

Race war.

Honestly I could see it heading that way. I won't rootfor anyone, I just want the rest of us left alone if and when it happens.

[Doctor Jack]

13. Na, its just the death throes of the current republican party

If this was a 50/50 split, between these white supremacist Trump supporters and protesters like we saw in Chicago tonight, I would agree. However, Trump's fascist voters are 1/3 of the Republican party; a party that is less than 30% of the population. Trump is getting a lot of attention because he drive news ratings, anything scary does, but his support is very low. Instead, I think we are seeing the last of the racist branch of the republican party violently dying off. These people were in good company 10-15 years ago. But as these old racist fucks die of old age, they are getting desperate and violent. Soon, we will see a new Republican party. Reorganized with different philosophy, getting away from the Nixon/Reagan ideas of 40 + years ago. We will all survive this but this election and maybe the next 1 or 2 won't be pretty, but its all for the best.

[lovemydog]

14. It's definitely a very bad environment.

I was talking about it with a younger friend tonight. He has similar fears and feels things may come to a head at the republican convention.

There's a few things though that give me hope.

Virtually all Sanders and Clinton supporters are peace loving people.

We've had divisions in our country for years. I remember after the terrible invasion of Iraq someone saying they feared violence and that 'our country has never been more divided.' But I gently reminded them that the Civil War and late in the Vietnam era things were much more violent and much more divided.

Unlike those days, we now have the internet and cell phones. Cell phones are significant because any large scale brutality is immediately posted and shared. The internet is important because people love chilling and talking with friends (like we do here at DU) and watching netflix and all those things. I don't see a bunch of violent people taking to the streets and perpetuating violence without getting busted for it.

Unlike the old days, if there is white on black violence the police will protect the black people. Most significantly in major cities (like Cleveland, where the republican convention will be) where police forces are diverse.

Occupy Wall Street, the protests against the Iraq War were all peaceful.

The potentially explosive protests in Baltimore and Ferguson included virtually zero violence. People are much more educated today about starting crap with police.

People feared unrest in the Raleigh-Durham area after the verdict of the frat boys accused of raping a black woman. Nothing happened. There were meetings with black and white people and all different types of community leaders and police and elected officials involved. I think those kinds of things take place much more effectively now days.

Having said all this, I think we all benefit from talking with different types of people. That's one of the reasons it breaks my heart that there's so much 'tough talk' and nonsense on social media. We all benefit greatly by toning down our defensive and often straight up hostile and personalizing rhetoric. Here at DU I've been greatly disappointed by what I see as incredible insensitivity toward people of color and people from diverse backgrounds. I will continue speaking out about it as long as I'm still allowed here. I think it must end NOW and not continue being delayed 'until after the primaries.'

[bemildred]

17. Could be. nt

[B Calm]

18. It's been awhile, but I remember a time when they murdered the president.

[Vinca]

19. The country has been torn apart since election day 2008.

More people than we ever realized were beside themselves that we had elected a black president. The GOP has stoked the fire from day one and now it's in full bonfire mode. There are 2 possible outcomes: sanity prevails and everyone calms down (unlikely) or Trump is elected and the Republican Party is blown off the face of the earth. Maybe we have to go through some pain to get to the sanity. I don't know.