If there are indeed two different distinct ideologies at play in American Politics, the question of who is right and who is wrong would be interestingly difficult to answer in my opinion.
Is there a possibility that The United States is still engaged in an on-going tug of war between a “Yankee Elite” and an old-style Southern Dominionist-Oriented Aristocracy? Is the whole question of who and what controls America going to come down to tradition, wealth or wit based on a final victory by one of these historic ideological themes? Have we actually seen the rise of a truly Anti-Democratic strain of politics where the participants value acquisition of wealth for personal profit over any sense of a moral obligation to use their wealth to benefit the Society as a whole?
If that is the case, can someone tell me how that will reconcile with the oft-quoted brag that “America Is A Christian Nation?” So much for “Are We Our Brother’s (Or Sister’s) Keepers?” Either we are (As we have always traditionally been) or we are not (As some Righties seem to want us to become.)
Is this where some of the talk I have heard about “The lazy, shiftless Welfare Bums “Stealing” the hard-earned money of the “Honest” Taxpayers through Government “Give Away Programs” coming from? As I recall, America has always been a giving, caring and helping Community of citizens determined to welcome the huddled masses of the world regardless of socio-economic background or ethnicity or anything else for that matter and the whole American Scene was viewed around The World as Humanitarian.
Is that view of The United States about to dissolve in a cloud of pillaging the wealth of the country for personal gain or will some Heaven-Sent circumstance occur that will save the situation from itself?
There are some on today’s political scene who seem to me to be absolutely diametrically opposed to such generous notions and, unfortunately, most of these seem to espouse one form of Conservatism or another in what looks to me to be an ever-increasingly extreme manifestation of that ideology.
Are there some Democrats, Liberals and Progressives who have turned from Tradition in much the same way? I am sure there are and I guess we have applied the designation of “Blue Dogs” to a lot of these. That is my understanding of it anyway.
No matter the definition, I get the impression that we Americans are now engaged in some kind of titanic struggle between those who seem to have everything good Life has to offer and those who have not been so fortunate.
It appears to me that the wealthy are worried about hanging onto their riches and those who are less wealthy are interested in daily survival in an ever-increasingly hostile fiscal reality – - – recession, off shoring of jobs, excessive Government Spending, imminent imagined or real threats to social safety net programs and all kinds of other nightmarish things.
There are a lot of harsh words and even some threats flying all around the political theater these days – - – everything from “Austerity” to “Cut, slash and whack all benefits for anyone but the rich,” to some on the far Right Extreme Fringes who actually seem to be advocating some kind of new “Revolution” similar to the one experienced in the 1700s. It seems to me that all this kind of tension began to really impress upon the Public Awareness sometime around the elections of 2000 and it seems to have been going downhill ever since.
America has just come through an unfortunate period where the two ideologies have clashed big time and for the first time in a long time, we have had a Government that appears to be in a continued state of impasse with obstructionism ruling the procedural day in many cases if not most. Abraham Lincoln warned against the house divided against self and, in my view….here we are at that frightening and uncertain crossroads that he was so concerned about.
I have no idea where all this bickering and infighting between the political parties is going to end up but right now it looks like it might be developing into a “Win at all costs” and “Winner take all” philosophy that could cause America to become a nation of two classes of citizens – - – the very rich who control everything and call all the shots and the poor who will have no choice but to bend to their every whim in order to simply survive. I hope that my worst fears about the current situation here in The United States is wrong.
This is one time I would dearly love to be wrong.
For those who would like to learn a little more about the clashes of the ideologies in The U.S. today, I have placed the following link. Read More: http://www.alternet.org/story/156071/conservative_southern_values_revived%3A_how_a_brutal_strain_of_american_aristocrats_have_come_to_rule_america_?akid=8999.1079898.aZ6dQu&rd=1&t=2
Posted by John R. Liming as part of his continuing Diaries of Political Opinions.
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