We are in an era of breakage but not endings of representative democracy in America. There are systemic weaknesses in the right wing that are not reversible, so no matter how strong the onslaught may seem it can't be sustained over the long haul. Consider the "3m's" of morbidity, mortality, and municipal zones. The right wing is sick, often from diseases of choice; The right wing is dominated by the old. Mortality will increasingly take a disproportionate toll on voters from the right. Finally, growth in America and worldwide is at the municipal level. From the big cities to the exurban areas, often across state lines, populations are growing in an atmosphere requiring coordination and collaboration at the expense of the right-wing entrenched, isolated rural areas. When we see articles about the migration of blue state voters to red states, more likely than not the are moving to the exurbs and suburbs of Atlanta, Dallas, and Charlotte. Finally, the right wing has a problem transforming "tyranny" into a "liberty" in which they can agree at the rank-and-file level. As mentioned in the above, the right has abandoned the attempt to understand nuance and complex societies. That's what we have and it's not going away. It also means give-and-take among the right is fragile to nonexistent, witness the description uses, "White, Christian, patriarchal"--three dynamics taking it on the chin on all fronts. This fragility is historic. The Civil War wasn't a war between two organized armies. The Union Army was organized and under a chain of command. Confederates often fought as militias, with home-made uniforms, if any. Meanwhile, Virginia mass-produced uniforms which it would not share with other states. Each Confederate state, and some localities, had its own currency. Southern state did not have uniform railroad gauges, requiring transfers of ordnance from one train to another by horse- or manpower. Other than some local risings, the fierce focus on individual liberty, however the right defines it, militates against subordinating narrow goals to a common cause. Thinking in terms of deep time, right-wing approaches to governance and society will become nonviable at some point for all but the diehards. A century from now the right may be a political anomaly. The question is, how much sooner will it begin a visible decline--50 years? 20 years? 10? Only time will tell, but as Seneca wrote, “the fates lead those who will those who won't they drag."
Further to my comment earlier about conflict resolution and dialogue, I googled “Swedish Study Circles.” I have read about how Sweden has promoted and provided a structure for their formation. This is a short introduction:
“Besides universities and colleges Sweden has an extensive adult education system, open for all citizens. It consist of two major parts. One part is formal adult education, which has existed since 1968. It covers basic education, upper secondary education and post-secondary education for adults.
The other part is non-formal adult education and has existed for more than a hundred years. It is called non-formal because it normally does not lead to any formal examination or degree. Instead it is based on the participants’ personal interests and needs to learn more and therefore includes all kinds of subjects. One of the aims is that it should increase tha participants’ opportunities to influence their own situation and to influence and alter their conditions in society.
The philosophy of the non-formal adult education assumes that all citizens have the right to participate in all aspects of a democratic society. That also means that each citizen has a responsibility for and an obligation towards the society. The activities should provide a comprehensive approach, stimulate curiosity, critical thinking and transformative learning – as well as being a part of lifelong learning.
A certain culture of dialogue has developed within non-formal adult education. This means tolerance towards different opinions and respect for arguments based on facts and for decisions taken. It also means free and open exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge between the participants.
Government-supported non-formal adult education is offered by folk high schools and study associations. While folk high schools mainly arrange full time courses, study associations arrange lectures, various cultural activities and – most important – study circles.”
"Would you feel comfortable making the argument for a “national divorce,” for letting red states secede, to people who live in those states and happen to not be straight white Christian men? To make the argument to millions of people who are opposed to the reactionary vision of “real America,” many of them belonging to communities that are most vulnerable to the rightwing crusade, that they should move – or be left behind to struggle, suffer, and endure on their own? "
A national divorce could not happen overnight. The federal government would need time to remove federal projects, army bases, etc from the red states. There could also be a federal program set up to subsidize people who would like to move out from the red states to the blue, but cannot afford to (and the red states could do the same). If the divorce takes place over a five year period (for example) that should provide adequate time for people from both sides to move to their preferred locations.
Of course, there is the inevitable issue of the new Red State country immediately making an alliance with Russia. But that's another story.
I suppose it’s useless, at this point, to wonder who is teaching the concepts of conflict resolution techniques, anger management and learning how to dialogue to get needs met. At a fundamental level, the teaching should begin with parent and child, move into the education system and have the media promote it regularly. Are we too far gone? The people who need it most are adult Congressional actors who should be exemplifying it as they model for us how to resolve conflict and solve policy problems at the national level.
I also want to thank you for “this somewhat unnerving [dismaying] essay😉, but ask who at your University is teaching these concepts to your students, readying them to use these techniques and models them for future generations? It seems to me we need to offer Anger Management 101 to each new incoming Congressperson. Learning how to communicate to get your needs met with dialogue should be promoted by Republicans as well as Democrats. Probably “pie in the sky.”
After reading this, which scared me to death, I plan to find groups I can support with my dollars who promote these ideas.
We could set up safe places for these people to live. Provide them with food and water. Surround them with fences and guards to prevent pollution by woke ideas from outside. They could call them MAGAlands. We could call them prison camps. Last I looked there was a lot of empty land on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada.
"First of all, there is, in practical terms, simply no way for an amicable split between “red” and “blue” America that doesn’t involve disastrous political, economic, and social consequences."
Funny you should mention it. Steve Radlauer and I are publishing a novel, in weekly installments, set in the red-state Confederation of Conservative States of America twelve years after just such a divorce. It's called The Split. In it, a nice young lady finds herself pregnant and wants an abortion--which, of course, is grossly illegal in the CCSA. She falls in with an underground-railroad-type movement to transit through the CCSA to the blue-state U.S.A. En route they visit various "enclaves," including one dedicated to libertarianism, another to golf and Trump worship, another to Q/Anon-type conspiracies, etc.
It's suspenseful and funny. We think of it as Mad Max: Fury Road meets Gulliver's Travels.
It's being presented by Wonkette. It's free. Start here:
Another problem is that rural areas of “blue” states are often bright red. I live in upstate NY, and it’s pretty Trumpy up here. A civil war or divorce will start pitting rural vs urban areas of every blue state including CA and NY.
Yesterday’s (2/8) Dallas Morning News featured a story about Russian disinformation spreading in Texas, citing social media trolls and intentional exaggeration and rage farming. Cited story in Wired also.
There were people who loaded their neighbors onto cattle cars with a smile, knowing it meant their death. These people exist here and now, today. And we'd be fools if we make history teach us that lesson again, painfully.
Ever since I heard, “let them secede,” I thought of all the wonderful people I met from TX, MO, etc and thought, no, we can’t abandon them. They’re on the front lines and doing the best they can to take back their State governments. And the children, I think of the innocent children.
We all must work together and engage in our democracy.
Thank you so much for pointing out the moral disgrace of any suggestion that the blue states should secede from the red, and how that would amount to the abandonment of so many people who are, precisely, the targets of the radical right.
We are in an era of breakage but not endings of representative democracy in America. There are systemic weaknesses in the right wing that are not reversible, so no matter how strong the onslaught may seem it can't be sustained over the long haul. Consider the "3m's" of morbidity, mortality, and municipal zones. The right wing is sick, often from diseases of choice; The right wing is dominated by the old. Mortality will increasingly take a disproportionate toll on voters from the right. Finally, growth in America and worldwide is at the municipal level. From the big cities to the exurban areas, often across state lines, populations are growing in an atmosphere requiring coordination and collaboration at the expense of the right-wing entrenched, isolated rural areas. When we see articles about the migration of blue state voters to red states, more likely than not the are moving to the exurbs and suburbs of Atlanta, Dallas, and Charlotte. Finally, the right wing has a problem transforming "tyranny" into a "liberty" in which they can agree at the rank-and-file level. As mentioned in the above, the right has abandoned the attempt to understand nuance and complex societies. That's what we have and it's not going away. It also means give-and-take among the right is fragile to nonexistent, witness the description uses, "White, Christian, patriarchal"--three dynamics taking it on the chin on all fronts. This fragility is historic. The Civil War wasn't a war between two organized armies. The Union Army was organized and under a chain of command. Confederates often fought as militias, with home-made uniforms, if any. Meanwhile, Virginia mass-produced uniforms which it would not share with other states. Each Confederate state, and some localities, had its own currency. Southern state did not have uniform railroad gauges, requiring transfers of ordnance from one train to another by horse- or manpower. Other than some local risings, the fierce focus on individual liberty, however the right defines it, militates against subordinating narrow goals to a common cause. Thinking in terms of deep time, right-wing approaches to governance and society will become nonviable at some point for all but the diehards. A century from now the right may be a political anomaly. The question is, how much sooner will it begin a visible decline--50 years? 20 years? 10? Only time will tell, but as Seneca wrote, “the fates lead those who will those who won't they drag."
All this because we stopped teaching civics, and stopped the draft that forcibly mixed Americans from all backgrounds and regions.
Even better link to a university of Kansas community outreach to support building Swedish Study Circles:
https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/advocacy-research/study-circles/main
Link re Swedish Study Circles: http://webb.folkbildning.net/~tore.persson/tore-english-adult1#:~:text=In%20Sweden%20study%20circles%20are,of%20forming%20such%20popular%20organizations.
Further to my comment earlier about conflict resolution and dialogue, I googled “Swedish Study Circles.” I have read about how Sweden has promoted and provided a structure for their formation. This is a short introduction:
“Besides universities and colleges Sweden has an extensive adult education system, open for all citizens. It consist of two major parts. One part is formal adult education, which has existed since 1968. It covers basic education, upper secondary education and post-secondary education for adults.
The other part is non-formal adult education and has existed for more than a hundred years. It is called non-formal because it normally does not lead to any formal examination or degree. Instead it is based on the participants’ personal interests and needs to learn more and therefore includes all kinds of subjects. One of the aims is that it should increase tha participants’ opportunities to influence their own situation and to influence and alter their conditions in society.
The philosophy of the non-formal adult education assumes that all citizens have the right to participate in all aspects of a democratic society. That also means that each citizen has a responsibility for and an obligation towards the society. The activities should provide a comprehensive approach, stimulate curiosity, critical thinking and transformative learning – as well as being a part of lifelong learning.
A certain culture of dialogue has developed within non-formal adult education. This means tolerance towards different opinions and respect for arguments based on facts and for decisions taken. It also means free and open exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge between the participants.
Government-supported non-formal adult education is offered by folk high schools and study associations. While folk high schools mainly arrange full time courses, study associations arrange lectures, various cultural activities and – most important – study circles.”
"Would you feel comfortable making the argument for a “national divorce,” for letting red states secede, to people who live in those states and happen to not be straight white Christian men? To make the argument to millions of people who are opposed to the reactionary vision of “real America,” many of them belonging to communities that are most vulnerable to the rightwing crusade, that they should move – or be left behind to struggle, suffer, and endure on their own? "
A national divorce could not happen overnight. The federal government would need time to remove federal projects, army bases, etc from the red states. There could also be a federal program set up to subsidize people who would like to move out from the red states to the blue, but cannot afford to (and the red states could do the same). If the divorce takes place over a five year period (for example) that should provide adequate time for people from both sides to move to their preferred locations.
Of course, there is the inevitable issue of the new Red State country immediately making an alliance with Russia. But that's another story.
I suppose it’s useless, at this point, to wonder who is teaching the concepts of conflict resolution techniques, anger management and learning how to dialogue to get needs met. At a fundamental level, the teaching should begin with parent and child, move into the education system and have the media promote it regularly. Are we too far gone? The people who need it most are adult Congressional actors who should be exemplifying it as they model for us how to resolve conflict and solve policy problems at the national level.
I also want to thank you for “this somewhat unnerving [dismaying] essay😉, but ask who at your University is teaching these concepts to your students, readying them to use these techniques and models them for future generations? It seems to me we need to offer Anger Management 101 to each new incoming Congressperson. Learning how to communicate to get your needs met with dialogue should be promoted by Republicans as well as Democrats. Probably “pie in the sky.”
After reading this, which scared me to death, I plan to find groups I can support with my dollars who promote these ideas.
We could set up safe places for these people to live. Provide them with food and water. Surround them with fences and guards to prevent pollution by woke ideas from outside. They could call them MAGAlands. We could call them prison camps. Last I looked there was a lot of empty land on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada.
I think that for many of these people, the goals are far worse. A growing number of them imagine our throats and start fingering their knives.
"First of all, there is, in practical terms, simply no way for an amicable split between “red” and “blue” America that doesn’t involve disastrous political, economic, and social consequences."
Funny you should mention it. Steve Radlauer and I are publishing a novel, in weekly installments, set in the red-state Confederation of Conservative States of America twelve years after just such a divorce. It's called The Split. In it, a nice young lady finds herself pregnant and wants an abortion--which, of course, is grossly illegal in the CCSA. She falls in with an underground-railroad-type movement to transit through the CCSA to the blue-state U.S.A. En route they visit various "enclaves," including one dedicated to libertarianism, another to golf and Trump worship, another to Q/Anon-type conspiracies, etc.
It's suspenseful and funny. We think of it as Mad Max: Fury Road meets Gulliver's Travels.
It's being presented by Wonkette. It's free. Start here:
https://thesplit.substack.com/p/the-split-part-one-chapter-one?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Another problem is that rural areas of “blue” states are often bright red. I live in upstate NY, and it’s pretty Trumpy up here. A civil war or divorce will start pitting rural vs urban areas of every blue state including CA and NY.
Yesterday’s (2/8) Dallas Morning News featured a story about Russian disinformation spreading in Texas, citing social media trolls and intentional exaggeration and rage farming. Cited story in Wired also.
There were people who loaded their neighbors onto cattle cars with a smile, knowing it meant their death. These people exist here and now, today. And we'd be fools if we make history teach us that lesson again, painfully.
Ever since I heard, “let them secede,” I thought of all the wonderful people I met from TX, MO, etc and thought, no, we can’t abandon them. They’re on the front lines and doing the best they can to take back their State governments. And the children, I think of the innocent children.
We all must work together and engage in our democracy.
Thank you so much for pointing out the moral disgrace of any suggestion that the blue states should secede from the red, and how that would amount to the abandonment of so many people who are, precisely, the targets of the radical right.
They're not fantasizing.
They are preparing for it to happen.
However, they will lose.