America: The Great Divide. Report in The UK Paper, The Guardian

[TayTay]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1778606,00.html

Across the Great Divide
The Guardian, May 19, 2006
Gary Younge

To the foreign ear, while the opinions of these two camps differ sharply, they share the same tone and tenor of debate. I have found liberals in America every bit as bombastic, preachy and doctrinaire as conservatives. Patriotism, meanwhile, infects the entire culture. Doves are just as anxious to display their flag-loving credentials as hawks. Many peace activists are happy to sport "Support the Troops" bumper stickers on their cars and anti-war demonstrators carry banners saying "Peace is Patriotic", "Love my country, fear my government" or "Peace is the American Way". And the left is every bit as capable as the right of infantilising the American public with the claim that they are being duped by extremists and are therefore incapable of discerning their own interests.

SNIP

Little more than a week after that, I watched the third presidential debate with about 40 students in Iowa City. The Republicans sat on one side and the Democrats on the other. Sometimes, the Republicans would cheer at a phrase or facial expression of one of the two candidates, and the Democrats would look bemused. A few minutes later, the Democrats would do the same, leaving the Republicans similarly confused.

They were not just watching the candidates on a split screen. They were viewing the entire event as though from a split screen, each side hermetically sealed from the other. That summed up my trip thus far. Back in New Hampshire, Rick Sapareto, a Republican, said he was backing Bush because, "I'm very concerned that my boys may end up fighting a war in 15 years because we failed to take action."

Lisa O'Neill, who lived just a few minutes away, was supporting Kerry for almost precisely the same reason. "I have an 11- and a 13-year-old who could be drafted if this carries on," she said. When I called them both the day after the first debate, each one thought their side had won.

That has seemed to be how just about every event from hurricane Katrina to the war has been consumed. "National unity was the initial response to the calamitous events of September 11 2001," argued the Pew Research Centre in a report, The 2004 Political Landscape: Evenly Divided and Increasingly Polarised. "But that spirit has dissolved amid rising political polarisation and anger. In fact, a year before the presidential election, American voters are once again seeing things largely through a partisan prism."

[whometense]

1. Very interesting article.

And yet another voice speaks out on the US media:

...Not long after I arrived in America, I realised that one political misconception, above all, had dominated. While I was well aware that there were many Americans who were opposed to the Bush agenda (my wife being one of them), I had no idea that their number amounted to a significant critical mass. This was not a ludicrous misreading of the situation. I arrived just a few months after the Republicans had cemented their control of both House and Senate. Bush's approval ratings were high and opposition to the war was soft compared with every other country in the world apart from Israel.

But as the war faltered and the economy stalled, opposition mounted. The growth and crystallisation of this opposition took place for the most part under the radar. The mainstream news media either underreported it, misreported it or derided it until the moment when it became impossible to ignore. But it was always there...

[ginnyinWI]

2. good article; thanks.

This problem is why responsible Dems should listen to more than just our side of the issues. It's why Ed Schultz had the NRA guy on his show yesterday. We can't just climb into our own leftwing echo chambers and refuse to come out; then we are just as bad as the wingnuts on the right.

This is related to the other thread, where we were talking about how some on the Left can't even understand where those on the Right are coming from, and how the Far Left, in turn, looks to the Right. We've got to be "bi-lingual" if we're going to be able to reach out.

[ProSense]

3. Interesting article!

To the foreign ear, while the opinions of these two camps differ sharply, they share the same tone and tenor of debate. I have found liberals in America every bit as bombastic, preachy and doctrinaire as conservatives. Patriotism, meanwhile, infects the entire culture. Doves are just as anxious to display their flag-loving credentials as hawks.

Truer the farther left and right one goes!

For all the truth and commonality there is still one big difference, the flag-loving hawks on the right have themselves morally bankrupt.

[paulk]

4. interesting...

The times I've been in Asia during the Bush years, especially to the Europeans I meet, I've tried to explain basically what this guy is saying - that America is polarized. That support for Bush is not overwelming, that the divide is black and white - almost as if the two sides are speaking a different language. There was a misconception among many that the country was united behind Bush and his war.

It's a hard thing to explain - this article does a good job of it.