Carl Bernstein: Our Country is in a 'Cold Civil War' in Great Danger of Being Ignited by Trump

[DonViejo]

by Tamar Auber | Mar 1st, 2019, 11:18 pm

During a conversation with Chris Cuomo on CNN Friday night, legendary journalist Carl Bernstein warned that the nation is in a “cold civil war” that President Donald Trump is in great danger of igniting.

“We are in a cold civil war in this country, and Trump has brought that cold civil war and every day brings it closer and closer to ignition,” Bernstein warned. “And that is the great danger because everything he does plays to this base that is his way of staying in office, if he can stay in office and be re-elected.”

He continued on: “It’s all about that base. It’s not about uniting the American people as most previous presidents have tried to put together some kind of coalition with people in the center. Trump has made no attempt to do that.”

Bernstein further noted that Trump has been “absolutely brilliant” in tapping into the fact “working people, middle-class people in this country have been screwed over for the last 30, 35 years.”

Moments before, Cuomo had suggested that Trump supporters have low expectations of politicians. Bernstein though, said, he did not think that was the case. Instead, he said “vicious politics” is at work.

“What they see in Trump, many people, is someone who feeds their often — their prejudices but also who feeds their desire to see the other side wiped out. We are really seeing a kind of vicious politics,” he explained.

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https://www.mediaite.com/tv/carl-bernstein-our-country-is-in-a-cold-civil-war-in-great-danger-of-being-ignited-by-trump/

[Girard442]

1. Bernstein is right: the plutonium that feeds this chain reaction is...

...is the absolutely shabby treatment of the middle class over the past few decades. It's tragically ironic that that energy is being turned against the very people being harmed to harm them even more.

[Blue_true]

6. Many of the people being harmed constantly vote to be harmed.

Honestly, we are better off without they, not be killing them, but by letting them have their own country while we have ours.

[yardwork]

10. Unfortunately we all occupy the same geographic space.

Pundits say it's rural v urban, or working class v white collar or south v north - but I don't think that any of those historical divisions really tell the story anymore.

Many of "Trump's base" are suburbanites, and well-off retired people living in gated communities and retirement homes. Most of them are white, but there are plenty of well-off immigrants in his base.

Trump has been brilliant at exploiting this group's fears and resentments.

[Blue_true]

16. We can easily adjust the geographic space.

We need to use political ideology as the deciding point, then pay for people to physically seperate themselves into their preferred country. Houses of equal value and maintenance can be traded, with people giving up a home to take over one that they traded for.

[yardwork]

18. Yeah....no.

[rownesheck]

12. I agree.

lots of people disagree, but i would love it if we split the country in two. People currently stuck in dumbfuckistan could be given money to cover moving expenses to normaltopia and vice versa. Then, i would totally support a wall between the countries. Once dumbfuckistan collapses under its own stupidity (which would take about 10 years), we would then absorb it back. The remaining dumbfuckers would not be allowed to hold any political office, nor have a say in running the country, until the stupid is bred out of them.

[Blue_true]

17. I would not want them back, Russia can have them.

I would want a permanent split, no talking about "heritage" to describe treason 152 years from now. I would not want people Liberal Land to have to ever again deal with regressive minds.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread DonViejo.

[elias7]

3. Problem with Cuomo and Ari Melber too is they don't acknowledge that viciousness

[Blue_true]

4. One way or another, Trump will be gone enough.

But his base will still be here. Yes, some would have died off, but they will leave behind their poisoned offspring.

You know, on Bernstein's point about working class and middleclass people being screwed over the last 30-35 years. Well, those same people proudly voted for Reagan, Bush I and Bush II, so they are victims of their own choosing.

I truly believe that we are better off splitting into two countries, with clearly defined borders. Some people think that would weaken both countries, I think not, one country would become much stronger and influential without the other weighing it down. Plus, both countries will start with around 170 million people, a pretty good sized country. Minor children taken to live with their parents would be granted ONE chance to change countries after they become adults and before the age of 30.

[yardwork]

11. Where are the boundaries of these countries?

[Blue_true]

15. Somewhere around where the Mississippi splits the country

north to south. The location would need to be tweaked to give a equal number of states. The territories, Alaska and Hawaaii would be problematic, both of the two outlaying states would end up in the same new country, some territories would get screwed because geographically they would end up in the red country.

Both countries would have an oceanic coast, one the Atlantic, the other the Pacific.. Each would also have a piece of the GulfCoast. One would have most of the Great Lakes while the other would have all of the country's true mountains.

Such a plan may sound crazy to you, but if we stay on the path that we are headed on, there likely will be significant bloodshed one day in the future.

[Demonaut]

5. I thought this months ago..what is their end goal? a conservative white dominated America.

[Blue_true]

7. People that want that don't realize the amount of killing that would need to happen to get that.

Maybe some are ok with that, most human beings are not.

I don't want conservatives dead, I just want to not be around them, not have them having any part in the decisionmaking for the country that I live in. I am perfectly ok with them having their own country to set up their nirvana, while I live in a country that reflects the other America.

[Demonaut]

8. I don't know that mass killing will be involved, not a US Rwanda genocide

but something less violent

[Blue_true]

9. Exactly how do you suppress people's freedom without violence?

A White man dominated America means that POC and independent White women would acquiesce to that state, I just don't see that happening without extreme violence.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. Bernstein nailed it!

I replied with skepticism to an earlier thread featuring video of Cuomo's hypothesis, but I wasn't as succinct and eloquent as Bernstein.

Edit:

There's been YEARS of unchecked scapegoating of "liberals" while the middle-class was in decline. That should be mentioned as well. When two of my former employers left the USA years ago, it would've been easy to get seduced by the likes of Limbaugh if I was a less-informed person.

There was also YEARS of anti-Jewish propaganda in Germany long before Hitler was in power. It didn't just "spring up" from Hitler!

I strongly doubt that we're close to "war", though, except for some horrible mass shootings from the most extreme of the hateful brainwashed.

[Buckeyeblue]

14. A cold civil war succinctly sums up our current situation

45 tapped into that in a very direct way. Previously, Republican presidential candidates were very subtle about their "southern" strategy. Not 45. He doesn't have the grace required to be subtle.

I don't think his supporters think in terms of the economic hit that middle America has taken over the last 30-35 years. I think they see it more in terms of the culture of white privilege being weakened. The culmination of this was the election and re-election of Barack Obama. But I would say other things are feeding into it as well, such as the ever increasing popularity and influence of African-American athletes and entertainers. Throw in the mass support behind gay rights, and you have this section of under-educated white America saying, what about me?

His supporters fall back on their Christian idealism. But they have redefined Christianity so that all of their bigotry fits nicely with the word of god. Which is why they aren't morally offended by 45's crimes. They can make anything that suits them fit.

The irony is that he has done nothing in the way of policy that has helped his base. He is reaping the benefits of Obama's economy, despite everything he has done to try and ruin it. But has long as he continues to be rude to those that his base doesn't like, they'll think he is doing something for them and they will continue to vote for him.

This is the new normal.

[Initech]

19. I've been saying this for years now.

Trump's supporters are dangerous and psychopathic, and he keeps egging them on.

[dalton99a]

20. People will be killed

and he will blame the victims

[Initech]

21. People have already been killed.

And conservatives did blame the victims. Ask Heather Hayer or any of the parents of the Sandy Hook victims. I could go on and on.

[Paladin]

22. I believe Bernstein is unfortunately accurate.

Nothing as twisted and hateful as trump and his legions of violence-loving supporters has much of a chance of ending well.