Reply #10: it's a long civil war with minimal violence [View All]

[Lexingtonian]

that we've been having, and everyone's exhausted but still adamant (in a fashion, at least).

We've used and eliminated all the 'reasonable', compromise-based, solutions and blocs of people and 'moderate' politicians, between us. Because the argument about citizenship and equality of it is that serious.

In 2002 we started the final confrontation, hardline R's and hardline (liberal) D's were the only viable political blocs left after that election. One or the other bloc/force had to crack and fail. The R's took/got given all the power; they thought it was an entitlement and final victory. The People considered it essentially a test, though- an ability for them to prove themselves and their claims since Nixon's days. (D's got given a different kind of test by The People, then, and something different to prove.)

But individual people suffer it all. It's a very large scale war of nerves, and people lose by losing control and sense, i.e. sanity. On our side there's breakdown into hysteria (Karl Rove is a genius and we'll never beat him, Howard Dean is a Deity Who Will Save Us, it was LIHOP, etc). On their side it's the manic-psychotic break into raving lunacy (shoot the liberals, nuke the Iraqis, black helicopters and the ZOG, Bush is God's Elect, etc), and then the plummet into depression. DU and FR are rather extreme illustrations of these breakdowns at times (and they are why a lot of posters get banned or leave them after a time, on both sites).

The People reached a quiet conclusion about the domestic conflict and the Parties this spring. One side is finished, and it's the Republicans. We're seeing the West, Upper Midwest, Midwest, and Northeast (plus some of Florida) vote half the verdict this year. But they don't want to make it too easy for Democrats- there must be proof rendered of ability and willingness and sense of measure. So it will be a decisive result on November 7, but Republicans will be given enough and Democrats held in suspicion until they demonstrate their ability to serve the common good comprehensively, in actions.

The second part of the verdict is going to be the elections in 2008. If Democrats fail themselves and their constituents, there will be backlash and Republican revival (how ever brief). If Democrats prove themselves in power, the Southeast and Southwest will (I predict) eliminate all their dead-ender hardline Republicans as useless and obsolete.