That gap is going to keep widening. IMO we’re in for 20-30 yrs of economic stagnation at best and depression at worst. The whole world has massive debt loads to work off. The liberals and conservatives will have widely different views on what to do about that.
Scott,
Life is much more complex now than it was just 2 or 3 decades ago.
Technology has allowed for information to come at us as a torrent causing an information overload. I fear that too many people are too busy keeping their heads above water and have “subcontracted” critical thinking to others.
And this is what endangers our country/society.
That is my concern.
Mike
Mike, I think we have exactly the same concern. The problem today is there are few sources focusing on facts and its very hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Like most things in history there is also nothing particularly new about this, there have been several periods of inflamed opinion in the US. This one also won’t last forever, I just hope I’m alive to see its decline 
1 Like
Steven,
How do we explain to the receivers that nothing is free and that you just wind up paying in the currency called miserable dependency.
Mike
Mike I hear you loud and clear. Handouts are like drugs. The high is tempting but they have serious and debilitating side effects.
1 Like
Both sides like to spend our money, just in different ways. Sad to say the negotiators, the guys in the middle are destroyed now by both sides. Say something your side doesn’t like and your destroyed 24 hours a day on multiple media, Internet ect. The Tip O’neills Ronald Reagans meeting in the middle on things are gone sadly now we are stuck with bickering while Rome burns.
that graph is quite reminiscent of that trend between north and south all over again(as with lincoln’s time)
leads me to imagine-- it would probably be less contentious if the typically red states just secede(in governance, economics, congress, and presidency) from the typically blue states, and vice-versa. And instead of jockeying in hostility for positions between the blue and red, they should just engage in friendly competition in total separation, and see which government and governance would have a more progressive outcome in a few years.
hopefully, at some point, the states ‘left behind’ will concede defeat and let the better government/governance take over.
only problems, of course, are if the disparity becomes so great, that the more progressive states decide to make the secession permanent, and refuse to re-integrate the losers, or if it leads to the estranged circumstances similar to the tale of two korea’s
also quite curious if einstein, feynman, pauling, and all other nobel laureates and scientific luminaries were still alive today-- what would their political inclinations be? Would they identify with the mindset of frontrunners trump and carson? or hillary and sanders?
1 Like
Well for me, I don’t want compromise. I cannot compromise my basic principles and beliefs. Anybody who does no longer represents me. I plain do not understand the other side in any way or form and never will. I’m not seeking middle ground.
Principles are the yardstick by which we guide our own behavior. Compromise is the expression of grace we extend to the behavior of others.
3 Likes
Raf,
Do you mean the more “PROGRESSIVE” or the ones that made MORE PROGRESS. Please note that they may not necessarily be the same.
Mike
Joh,
Sometimes either philosophy may solve the problem and get us to the same or similar place, albeit via a different road.
The destination arrived at by compromise may not solve the original problem or even make it worse.
Unfortunately, and more devastating is that a road forged by compromising principals will take us to a place much worse than where either would have taken us on its own. That is because compromising our principals saps our energy and willpower when we start thinking “what difference does it make?”
Mike
forgot about that. Yes, ‘more progress’ was what i meant.
on the other hand, am almost certain the conservatives wouldn’t mind being deemed progressive-- literally, that is.
Yes, interesting how words are co-opted and their definitions mutated. Much like the general who said… " Hell, I am not retreating, I am just advancing in the opposite direction".
Mike
lol.
and another thing about the vague differences(similarities?) is that when we say conservative, we pertain to leaders of long ago, whose managerial policies were actually progressive/ liberal/outrageously unheard of-- at the time.
@ Jujubemulberry
We are living in the “what have you done (given to) for me lately” generation.
People can’t seem past the tip of their benefits nose.
Mike
The loudest and most persistent voices are generally those with the deepest pockets. These groups often are not environmental groups, but corporate lobby groups.
That’s why it is said that we have the best government money can buy. The environmental groups have no choice, but to operate as they do, otherwise we might as well dissolve the EPA. It is what it is and it’s not good at all.
Well, they have been doing that to the best of their abilities and I think doing a pretty good job. I’m guessing they must feel as though there may be no safe way to use it. I dunno.
I hope the six year old who drew the gun did so with a pencil or crayon and not from his waistband or jacket pocket.
So in short, you are making the case that special interest and lobby groups control America. Why choose just the EPA though…it’s that way across the board. The EPA is in place to protect the environment, that IS their function. They’ve lost way more than they’ve won, so the EPA haters should take some solace in that. Have no fear… corporate greed and their ever expanding governmental influence will assure victory in areas that matter most.
I agree with your position Mike, and agree with you on most points too, I think I just see it from a different vantage point.
"I hope the six year old who drew the gun did so with a pencil or crayon and not from his waistband or jacket pocket".
Today, either way he gets suspended. 
Mike
Can you guys please move these political conversations to PM’s. It would be much appreciated. Thanks!
I’m usually very political, but this conversation is going nowhere, it’s run it’s coarse. It really is unrelated at this point with anything to do with fruit or gardening. It should be removed, or at least locked.
Agreed, locked.
I personally don’t want to shut the window completely on political issues as they need to be aired somewhere these days. But its very hard to keep the discussion “cool” as everyone has a “hot” opinion on it.