America's Tribal Warfare Part 1

OK Bloggers Rise and Shine...............It's Groundhog Day

Today's post...and the next few (I hope) have been in my head for months.  The impetus to get started was of all things...Bill Murray's Super Bowl Commercial (I had flagged before the game to several of you thanks to blog follower  James'  "Alert").  It would appear that  it was a game day "favorite" based on both Local (Denver) and National News Organizations (i.e. USA Today) polls.

 Bill Murray's Jeep Commercial was a wonderful parody of a great movie.  In my mind Groundhog day rates up there with cinema's best..  In year's past I have commented on it many times, to both family and friends and even have made a passing reference in a blog post or two..  As always my faithful and Obedient Companion and I watched it again this year  on Groundhog day-  right after the Superbowl.

During this year's viewing I was hit by a different theme, one I guess I never thought about before in watching "Phil and Rita" , but something I have thought of broaching for some time and from other "angles". So today's Observation will begin an attempt at hitting some long held thoughts (and maybe some dialog?) on very current issues, as mentioned in this post's title.

Every time I have watched Groundhog Day it always has been first and foremost an allegory about seeking true meaning in life.  The essence of the story is about how we as humans invariably look to first find "satisfaction"  through selfish hedonism, greed and even gluttony only to find that they all fail to provide any real meaning to our "self".  The protagonist, Bill Murray (Phil), final finds his true meaning  ONLY after  he finds it can only come in a community of others, and more importantly is actualized by both giving of yourself to those others and by accepting them for who they are.

This year, however, a "fresh" note struck me as we watched it. It was how Murray's character (at least initially) is an "elitist" weatherman who knows it "all".  At one point, in his hubris he even claims "I make the "weather" to a policeman ordering him to turn back to Punxsutawney.  All the while he freely shares with his co-workers his disparaging thoughts about the people of Punxsutawney, stating clearly  that through their behavior (right down to their love of Blood Sausage) they were nothing but "Hicks Rita".  As I watched them initially drive into "Punxsutawney" (actually it was filmed in a  town in Indiana) it reminded me so much of driving into Northampton PA to visit with  "my faithful and obedient" companions  sister and her family.  Through the years I have come to know
 and like  this place very much. It is my vision of "America" complete with flags flying on mainstreet,  friendly people in restaurants gas stations and and ice cream parlors and even a local Hungarian Club. Funny enough because , I went to college in Northampton County as well, but really  never thought about anything but the Bars in those days! 

As I thought of this (boy did my mind wander this year) I recollected something else about Northampton County Pa. for it clicked at that moment back to a book I read  after the 2016 election (I have mentioned it before in a post) "The Great Divide".  You may recall I mentioned how it documented-through interviews with residents of "flipped counties"- how Donald Trump won in 2106.  Northampton County Pa was a county prominently  discussed in the book because it went for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then for Trump in 2016.  Why?  well might I suggest you read the book.  But here is a hint, it was sure not because they were Nazi/ racist/ white / supremacists.  In fact many of the voters interviewed wondered how they could be termed "racist" after voting for an African American for President in this case twice (Northampton voted for Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012).

 Northampton County is a place with an interesting mix- kind of a microcosm of our country, it has commuters to New York and North Jersey, and residents whose families have been there for generations.  Many of them hunt and most days from my sister in laws house you can hear the local gun range down the road.  Many attend Lutheran or UCC churches both of which espouse very liberal social justice views....   Funny I then thought of President Obama's comment about "Bitter Clingers" to their "Guns and Religion"  ( he too was a UCC member) and I wonder if any of that that played out in 2016 along with Hillary's "deplorable" comments.

Now before you all  jump to conclusions on how I seem to  "Observe" all this from a "one-sided" perspective-I also  understand that one cannot ignore  accepting those different than us in our community, and giving up  of oneself for others-goes both ways.  Entrenched attitudes that cling to views that deny basic humanity to others in our society are also contributors to our great divide.  I have no doubt that many  race baiters likely voted for this President. But  I do not believe for a minute this was why Northampton County....and hundreds of others flipped to Donald Trump in 2016.  See my note at end from Wikipedia on Politics in Northampton County.

Bottom line the "Elites" (you will see who I mean by that in a moment) rejected any idea that this was possible without either nefarious intruders in the process or because of racist or sexist intent by huge numbers of their fellow Americans.  In a nutshell they were "Hicks Rita".

Now to a second point from "Groundhog Day"  Much of our political malaise arises from our universal tendency as humans to seek impose our will and sense of "right" on our fellow humans.  Groundhog Day illustrates this perfectly.  After Murray's  attempts at pure hedonism fail to satisfy him,  he decides  to use his unique position of defying death as a means to impose his will on others-by any means possible. In Groundhog Day "Phil" secretly studies Rita  (likely over hundreds or maybe even  even thousands of "days") with the intent  to exploit her emotions and to bed her.  It is not enough for him to have  his "free will" but he must exert his will over others- one way or another. 

So if you cannot win your ideas at the ballot box there are many other ways of doing so in our modern state apparatus.  One can use Universal Public Education to stamp out incorrect thinking, or use the administrative state like Human Rights commissions  to dictate thought and speech and correct religious beliefs etc.  Either way large swatches of our country felt their way of life was falling apart.

Wow Jim aren't we a little paranoid?  Maybe but over the next few blog posts, using  mainly first hand incidents I will try to lay this out further.  Through this I ask all my reader not to necessarily think I am against "progress".  What I am against is unlegislated and underhanded pushing of rapid social change without open free and unfettered discussions. It is the lack of this that has much of the country in an ugly mood (in my opinion).

In Groundhog Day Phil finally learns that imposing his will in this way is doomed to eternal failure, Rita simply will not comply.  Would that we had thousands of days (or even years according to some commentators on Groundhog Day) to get life right!  Or some other way to bring along our fellow citizens to correct thoughts and deeds.

So to end this Observation: about the America's Tribal Warfare:

I believe that as a  country we find ourselves locked in a battle to impose our respective political groups "will" on the other using whatever means possible.  It is not a new battle in our country's history by any means.  But in my (admittedly as Haidt would say 'Biased") mind over the past 30-40 years we have had a monolithic take no prisoners, cultural, economic and cultural revolution which has blossomed on both coasts, and has shaped the thinking in our universities (and educators at all levels), our media, and our political parties. This has taken place in such a way that suddenly in the last decade or two  large parts of our country found themselves out of touch with many of these new "values" which seems to be never ending in there evolution. So in pushing back, of course we have conflict.

So why would anyone be surprised by either Trump and Bernie's appeal (from almost opposite sides) that has been a result of all this.

Bottom line these movements which  turned away from "normal" politics in 2016 were finally noticed by the "elites" i.e. those who have "run things" in most of  my lifetime.  From a pure "selfish" standpoint they ran them just fine.  I have my health and I have my comfortable retirement.  But maybe like Phil we need more than that.  Maybe the forces that want us to impose our will on others cannot but help kick in.  Weird, maybe that is even my motivation ..to make you all think like me.  Hmmmm possibly it would be nice if everyone thought like me well at least my kids!  That ain't happening!

Well like "Phil" maybe it is  my thoughts are selfish but heck it is my blog!

I will conclude this post with some snippets from a November Piece in National Review.  I believe they dovetail well with much of this piece.  Hopefully future blogs will a couple deal with specific issues and  maybe even a couple thoughts of how we can ever reach accommodation and not exert our will on others in a "free" society.

I do look forward to reactions and comments from anyone who wishes to add their voice.

Till next Time
I bid you
Adieu



Meanwhile: To National Review

(Note: Kevin Williamson is a National Review writer, a conservative, but with an unabashed  anti-imperial presidency bias.)

Here is a link but if you are paywalled I can send a PDF copy
Kevin Williamson Article Impeachment and the Broken Truce

First I will paraphrase/Summarize his commentary :

Williamson cites our current divide as somewhat similar with past divides in our country, particularly Urban/Rural (Elites and Hicks I would say!)  but with some new power dynamics in the Presidency.

 He outlines that since our founding we have always had a rural/cosmopolitan divide.  However, some very general values were shared.  In the the last few decades suddenly portions of our country started to reengineer some basic values, for example the definition of  who is Male/Female and it's meaning in  marriage, and yes abortion.   Add to that to many the economic system seemed stacked and "unfair". Unable to get the consensus needed  to redefine these issues via the constitutional process we went through court fiats to enforce the will of one segment of our population on the other.  Whenever congress got in the way we used Presidential fiats and administrative rulings to advance agenda's.  The Federal Government took over major parts of daily life i.e. healthcare, is one but one but even things like what could or would be taught in local schools etc, so we have an  administrative state  accountable virtually to itself and/ or the Executive Branch of our country.  While this has simmered for some time it erupted over the last 10 years or so.

More ominously  as the countries voters separated  into two worldviews with  so much power now the in the executive branch many hings we all once saw as something we can resolve locally etc became a huge stake nationally particularly based primarily on  who is President.   (as Obama said...I have a Pen and paper) This has gotten more and more emphasis and has culminated in Donald Trump.


The election of Trump had a virulent counter-reaction from the power elites in this country
To Finish let me provide some directly commentary  that I found to be a very insightful view, so  I choose not to "paraphrase".

Directly From National Review "Impeachment and the Broken Truce"
   
Who bet on Hillary in 2016:

Donations from people associated with Goldman Sachs to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign outnumbered those to Trump’s campaign 70 to 1. (Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona was a larger recipient of Goldman Sachs–affiliated money in 2016 than was Trump.) 

Among bankers at large, Clinton’s donations led Trump’s 7 to 1.

 Among people affiliated with Harvard, Mrs. Clinton’s edge was 200 to 1. 

Facebook money favored Clinton 100 to 1; 

Apple money favored her 135 to 1; 

Google favored her 76 to 1;

 Exxon Mobil favored her 4 to 1; 

Walmart favored her 3 to 1. 

Mrs. Clinton led Trump 4 to 1 among securities and investing donors, 

Mrs Clinton led 20 to 1 among lawyers and law firms, 

4 to 1 among those in the film and television business, 

3 to 1 among those in health care,

3 to 2 among real-estate people.

 Which is to say, Mrs. Clinton was by far the preferred candidate of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the Ivy League, Big Business, medical staff, lawyers, and real-estate developers, to say nothing of government workers and their. unions.

And even with all that support, and even as she ran up her totals in a handful of large and lopsidedly Democratic states, Donald Trump won a majority of the voters in a majority of the states.

Consider this from the point of view of New York City or Palo Alto. Mrs. Clinton’s cause was more popular than was Trump’s in 2016, even though the “national popular vote” is meaningless from a constitutional point of view. Mrs. Clinton’s cause was much, much more popular in the economically vibrant metros whose populations are more extensively educated and significantly more economically productive, contributing more to economic growth. A third of Mrs. Clinton’s voters were urban, but only 12 percent of Trump’s were. College-educated Americans, who compose about a third of the electorate, favored Mrs. Clinton by 21 points in 2016, whereas nongraduates favored Trump by 7 points. A Clinton voter of any race in 2016 was about 50 percent more likely to be a college graduate than was a Trump voter; a white Clinton voter in 2016 was about twice as likely to be a college graduate as a white Trump voter.

The question that has occasioned the impeachment of Donald Trump is not whether the president is legitimate but whether his tribe is legitimate. When the rival tribe is understood as being fundamentally illegitimate, then no government arising from that tribe can be understood as legitimate, either, and neither can the political processes that empower that tribe over its rivals.

So my Final "Observation" on today's thoughts:

In 2016  people from places like Punxsutawney voted and half the country saw them as hicks "duped" by the Russians, Facebook ads racism or their own ignorance.

Their response was  you have no right to run this country we "know what's best". This will not stand and have been saying it ever since.  Protests erupted day one regarding it's "legitimacy"

Little wonder why Bernie and Trump have rabid followers when you negate their legitimacy from day 1 is it any wonder why they dig in at anything?

It is interesting to see how the Democratic Elites handle Bernie...Michael Bloomberg anyone????

By the way Here was Williamson's closing:

The truce is broken, our politics has descended into restrained (for now) tribal warfare, and the presidency has been remade into a weapon of mass domination.

If you think this (impeachment)  is all about a telephone call to Kyiv, look again.


Frome Wikipedia Northampton County Pa

as of December 2019, there were 208,650 registered voters in Northampton County:^[13]

• Democratic: 95,501 (45.77%)
• Republican: 73,534 (35.24%)
• Other parties: 39,615 (18.98%)

In recent decades, Northampton has been identified as one of Pennsylvania's "swing counties," with statewide winners carrying it in most cases; since 1952, it has gone to the statewide winner in the presidential election.^[14] All five statewide winners carried it in November 2004 and all four statewide Democratic candidates carried it in November 2008, with District Attorney John Morganelli doing well there despite losing statewide to incumbent Attorney General Tom Corbett. The Democratic Party has been dominant most of the time in county-level politics in recent decades. In 2016, Donald Trump ended that streak when he became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Northampton County since 1988.