General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Sitting in a restaurant today I realized how much trouble we are in for [View all]Selatius
(20,441 posts)The one thing you must admire about the right-wing in the United States is that once they have gained ground on a certain issue or topic, they do not willingly give it up unless there is the political equivalent of blood and teeth on the floor, and it takes a burly type of Democrat who isn't afraid to call a spade a spade to fight that kind of battle. The campaign money that makes Republicans strong in this manner acts like kryptonite to Democrats whenever they scratch around for donors to their campaigns. It's why powerful Democrats like Max Baucus moved away from ideas like the Public Option, for instance. He got a huge chunk of his campaign cash from pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, he and plenty of other Democrats in the Senate and House. It's why the idea of a Public Option was destroyed in the Senate.
It is true that an informed citizenry is a necessary prerequisite to have a functioning republic, but if the people are constantly misinformed or poorly informed about issues affecting them from news outlets owned by the 1%, I would submit that such a republic would not long endure before collapsing and being replaced by the "comfort" and "strength" of a dictatorship or oligarchy that has simple and easy answers to problems that a population can no longer answer because they've been so poisoned by erroneous propaganda. It's why plenty of working class people willingly vote for people like George W. Bush, repeatedly.
By no means am I saying a second civil war is imminent, but if we're talking about the next 100 years or a longer timeframe, I could easily see the United States torn apart by an armed, internal struggle over the future course of the nation.