What can stop a diverse democracy from tearing itself apart?

[BidenPresident]

But what happens when concession feels like surrender, and when grace and restraint feel like wielding a plastic fork against a torch mob? What happens if you believe, as Vice President Mike Pence told the Republican National Convention in 2020, that “the choice in this election is whether America remains America”? And what happens when your version of America loses?

“The history of diverse societies is grim,” warns Yascha Mounk in the opening pages of “The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...-stop-diverse-democracy-tearing-itself-apart/

 

[BidenPresident]

In a classic study, Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler concluded that “highly fractionalized societies are no more prone to war than highly homogeneous ones. The danger of civil war arises when the society is polarized into two groups.”

 

[BidenPresident]

If the fragile pact of democracy is to continue in the United States, we must do more than simply chide the left and the right for being too race-obsessed and urge more mutual respect. Instead, we might want to look squarely at the political institutions that make mutual respect feel like surrender — namely our winner-take-all binary party system. In such a system, compromise and concession really do feel like surrender, because letting the other side win on anything means potentially letting them win on everything. And when every election is for everything, demagoguery and demonization are inevitable. But make politics less winner-take-all, and lower the stakes, and we all might be a little more open to hearing from people who are different from us — the foundational premise for a diverse democracy to succeed.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Yes.

By ending the obsession with race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and going to a model that teaches children about a shared national culture that is common and respects other cultures but is not a part of them. That is, we teach our children to be Americans and give them a respect for the rest of the world who aren't Americans.

 

[Code1211]

But what happens when concession feels like surrender, and when grace and restraint feel like wielding a plastic fork against a torch mob? What happens if you believe, as Vice President Mike Pence told the Republican National Convention in 2020, that “the choice in this election is whether America remains America”? And what happens when your version of America loses?

“The history of diverse societies is grim,” warns Yascha Mounk in the opening pages of “The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...-stop-diverse-democracy-tearing-itself-apart/

The problem with today's America is American Politics.

The uni-party is constructing false narratives regarding gender and equity and race and all of the other diversions and demanding that people line up on one side or the other of the false narrative diversions.

The question is NOT what side of the false narrative you favor. The question is whether or not the ideas of any narrative can be discussed freely by the people. By ALL of the people.

If you are on the side of freedom, you are on the side of what Mike Pence was referencing in his comment that you quoted.

If you are on the side of gate keepers denying access to the Marketplace of Ideas to anyone who holds an unpopular opinion, you are on the side of the people proposing to end the America that Mike Pence was referencing.

It's not the topic being discussed. It's the FREEDOM to discuss it. A popular saying used to be: "I disagree with what you say, but i will defend to the death your right to say it". Democrats in growing numbers now oppose the 'right to say it'.

A bad idea will be exposed when it is freely and fully discussed. So will a good idea. That was why the folks who were trying to control the narrative were so threatened by Trump in the past and by Musk now.

Those that seek to control, direct and dominate hate freedom. Those that cherish freedom need to be able to recognize those that seek to control, direct and dominate.

Freely and fully discussing ideas, like "border security" as opposed to "migration policy", reveal the liars as liars and allow the free and full review of what is actually happening and where and when.

 

[Lionfish]