There’s an article in Politico by John F. Harris claiming that our new American civil war is based on nothing except two tribes of people deciding that they hate each other. He claims that all other major conflicts in US history were based on a substantive issue, but not this one. Clearly, this man has his head completely up his own ass.
There are many substantive issues that lie between Democratic voters and Republican voters. They include:
- Whether trans people should be treated with respect (Democrats) or imprisoned, institutionalized, or murdered (Republicans)
- Whether white supremacists should be respectfully countered (Democrats) or should be respected and empowered (Republicans)
- Whether women should have bodily autonomy, be allowed to vote, and be strongly encouraged to work outside the home (Democrats) or be forced to stay home and have babies (Republicans)
- Whether guns should be available only to the police (Democrats) or just laying all over the place like in a game of Fortnite (Republicans)
- Whether all religious beliefs should be respected (Democrats) or whether Christianity should be the only religious tradition allowed in the country (Republicans)
- Whether climate change is a significant problem requiring a small mount of effort (Democrats) or a hoax created by Satanists to force conservatives to be submissive (Republicans)
- Whether Democrats should be allowed to vote (Democrats) or prevented from voting (Republicans)
(Obviously, the left has its own perspective on many of these issues, and it often isn’t the same as the Democrat’s perspective.)
There are many others, but just look at that list! Does that look like nothing to you? What they hell is wrong with John F. Harris? I mean — obviously, his head is completely up his own ass, but why and how did this happen? I have no answers except that perhaps he’s so privileged that he just doesn’t think about other people, and his lack of time contemplating these issues have left him without adequate information to assess what is happening in the world. Then, though, we have to wonder how it is that he managed to get paid to write an opinion piece in Politico. Are you OK, Politico?
Every major conflict in US history has — at the onset — appeared to be about mere tribalism from the perspective of the privileged, complacent elite. These individuals see the way the world is and because it is so gosh darned comfortable for them, cannot imagine that anything else is possible much less necessary. If you look at the lead-up to the US Civil War, we had the slavers on one side, and the complacent north on the other side. It took abolitionists — many of whom are still called “crazy” to this day — agitating and making the situation untenable to force change to happen. Now, to be fair, it is true that most Republican voters don’t understand what is going on in the world, have the issue of interpersonal dominance as their only political motivation, and are actively hallucinating. That doesn’t change the concrete issues associated with their politics, and it isn’t any different from the pre-Civil-War era. There was probably a John F. Harris of that day, sitting in his office in New York City, pondering aloud about all this unnecessary animosity between north and south.
What an asshole.
Edit: OK, I see now that he is a founding editor of Politico. 🙄 This doesn’t change anything I said, but it does explain why we’re being subjected to this man’s musings.