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There's a more promising poll taken yesterday, in which only 18% of Republicans supported the mob attack on the Capitol; 80% were opposed. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/most-americans-blame-trump-for-capitol-attack-but-are-split-on-his-removal

Of course the underlying problem is that 82% of Republicans believe that the election was stolen. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-most-feel-election-is-settled-but-trump-voters-disagree/

To me the current situation seems like a crisis brought on by a combination of Internet-fuelled misinformation and wishful thinking.

I think the people running the major platforms - Facebook, YouTube, Twitter - need to think pretty hard about how to combat misinformation. Besides kicking off bad-faith actors, maybe produce a short weekly video summarizing recent stories that got a lot of attention. Something short and entertaining enough that a lot of people will watch it, and that can provide a vehicle to re-establish consensus reality.

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Good point, but I think we as private citizens need to think pretty hard about how we choose to consume information and engage in discourse. No one makes us devolve our political conversations to tweets. We choose to do it and then clutch our pearls and demand that someone do something about how awful it all is.

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Wow - this article is my thoughts exactly. No off ramp, no redemption, no reconciliation, no democracy. This would apply of course to both the situation in the Capitol and Kenosha.

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"This is an existential crisis in American democracy. We at The Line have no illusions about the rot on the left, and the danger radical elements there also pose to the great experiment. The cultural left is in ascendance and holds many key institutions, and they are treating them roughly."

The left is not treating the institutions roughly; they are treating those who do not "belong" in those institutions roughly. I'm hearing a lot about the Republicans who think Trump's actions were supportable, but I don't see anyone interviewing these people, or indeed any of the rioters, to ask them why they think so. Why is that? Why is everyone speculating and not going to the source?

There's a huge gap between those who have benefitted from sweeping globalization and those who haven't, and it's the left's failure to recognize( let alone address), that gap that's the real, underlying problem. Ask leftists about it and they seem to permanently have their fingers in their ears singing "la-la-la" while the world burns down around them. They just don't want to know.

Biden is typical of the genre and, so far, is not doing well. His rhetoric is not designed to build bridges. Kamala Harris, as a prosecutor, has a history of taking no prisoners. I really doubt they will steer the country into smoother waters.

One bright spark was a (somewhat over-long) video made by Arnold Schwarzenegger. He provided a poignant and timely narrative about what happened in Austria in the 1930's when many were mislead by a toxic leader. It's too bad he can't be president, because he's the only one I see speaking directly to the disaffected.

I think you're way off base about Portland not having a patch on what happened on Capitol Hill. I agree that the Trump rioters committed the far worse transgression, but the cumulative effect of watching Portland and other U.S. cities burn all summer means that indifference to political violence is setting in. People are shrugging it off because, meh, it's becoming a norm. I don't like Trump, but in fairness to him, that indifference is not something that can be laid at his feet.

Clinton's phrase "a basket of deplorable" has a lot to do with the Capitol Hill riot, but I doubt that many are going to make the connection. So much easier to just keep scorning the riff-raff and feeling superior. We'll see where that leads.

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I am of similar mind and the fact alone that the Democrats would not admit that Trump won the 2016 election and came up with the Russian Collusion, which was pure conspiracy theory and made up by those leading the Democratic Party. They rode it all the way to rid the country of Trumpism through impeachment for a lie they themselves created. This is fact not fiction. There have been many contested elections in the US and as many Democrats have doubted the validity of the voting system themselves. So to suggest this is a one time issue is absurd and shows a lack of fact finding and real reporting. Many Americans have lost faith in their elections on both sides and perhaps looking into and investigating why they feel that way would be pertinent. Of course I realize today that reporting has taken on a whole new meaning and is strictly partisan participation on both sides, it does not address the problem nor will it. I think the American people have been done a disservice by the media and social media, it appears to be a game of misinformation at all levels. Pointing fingers and pushing blame seems the norm as does demonizing the other side. Its childish prattle and it is tearing the country apart. Perhaps instead of instigating more division producing a joint task force to look into the elections and the voting system would bring some clarity and give the voters in the USA more confidence in the electoral system. Of course that might mend some bridges so that can never happen.

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