Why is democracy so difficult and politics so volatile?

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bobcat

bobcat

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Maybe it's just our nature to be tribalistic. I mean we are individuals at heart, but we also have a tendency to unite for power.
We may choose sides in sports, music, and food, but there seems to be nothing that rises to the divisive level that politics does.
In general, we like the idea of democracy or a democratic republic, but if it doesn't play out in our favor, it can feel ruinous.

Political ideologies have pitted individuals against each other to the point of killing and murder, and who can forget the civil war where over 600,000 were killed in their disagreements. It pits family members against each other, ignites fiery debate, name calling, and in some cases, all out hatred.

Just the mention of what party you align with can drive a wedge between people like nothing else. It seems to be a passion infused topic that gets everyone's hackles up. In many cases, it doesn't matter how much we have in common if we are on opposing sides politically. It even has the potential to divide a country. That is very troubling.
 

I think it's just more of what we also see in the current thread here about retirement funding.

What's notable to me is that the upcoming U.S. elections don't seem to be about the Parties at all. Indeed many of the biggest names in Party A have crossed the aisle to endorse candidates of Party B. People (including voters) who have been marginalized by Party B have also crossed the other way to Party A.

This might seem strange if you haven't paid attention enough to note that Parties are currently in realignment regarding the interests and constituencies they represent. On many issues these Parties have traded positions in recent times!

Half the country is out of touch and may live to regret not keeping up once the exploding cigar blackens their own faces.

It isn't even unique to the U.S. The only real difference is the prominence of the two Party system here backed up by State laws providing privileges and benefits to only the two major Parties.
 

bobcat said:
Maybe it's just our nature to be tribalistic. I mean we are individuals at heart, but we also have a tendency to unite for power.
We may choose sides in sports, music, and food, but there seems to be nothing that rises to the divisive level that politics does.
In general, we like the idea of democracy or a democratic republic, but if it doesn't play out in our favor, it can feel ruinous.

Political ideologies have pitted individuals against each other to the point of killing and murder, and who can forget the civil war where over 600,000 were killed in their disagreements. It pits family members against each other, ignites fiery debate, name calling, and in some cases, all out hatred.

Just the mention of what party you align with can drive a wedge between people like nothing else. It seems to be a passion infused topic that gets everyone's hackles up. In many cases, it doesn't matter how much we have in common if we are on opposing sides politically. It even has the potential to divide a country. That is very troubling.
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Yes but this country has skillfully and willfully been divided on purpose. We used to have enough core values in common to allow for respectful disagreement but that is extremely rare now. Putin must be very happy to see us being split the way the old USSR had been. Some are happy to do his work for him.
 
I always wondered exactly when was this great period in history when we were all together, there was no dissent, there were no "factions"? Yeah, On Dec.7,1941, Pearl Harbor, the US was 96% for WWII. Two years later, there were antiwar protests, antiwar riots, race riots, and strikes. You can't name a year when, everybody just went around and lovingly hugged each other.
 
He that dropped out and tuned in during the 1970s from mainstream society...

In our way overpopulated world across myriad nations, each with varying morals, ethics, laws, philosophies, levels of wealth, and religions, within dog eat dot wealth driven economic systems, it is bad enough. Add in impossible to fully regulate across political borders global telecom Internet where the evil and hateful can anonymously spill their bile, and those with agendas openly manipulate myriad ignorant, simple minds, the result is what we now have. Worst, the ominous dark cloud of total nuclear war destruction now threatens the existence of all life on the planet.
 
We are tribal. We always have been.


"Just the mention of what party you align with can drive a wedge between people like nothing else. It seems to be a passion infused topic that gets everyone's hackles up. In many cases, it doesn't matter how much we have in common if we are on opposing sides politically. It even has the potential to divide a country. That is very troubling."

People have always been divided when it comes to politics, and politicians know that. They've only recently been shamelessly using inflammatory "us and them" rhetoric designed to increase that divide. Making you feel like one of the "them" who is against "us", tends to make you want to be one of the "us", at least during an election year.

So, for politicians, this is purposeful. And it's very effective. But they need to stop. I'm sick of it. I'm embarrassed by it. It's shameful, it induces actual violence, and it makes us look stupid. But if we can't see through what politicians are doing, and we allow their words and their speeches to make us hateful and even violent toward each other, then I guess we are stupid.
 
People are the problem with democracy.

It's become the cult of personality, where the personality is the least of things. Then there's the hate. It's not enough to simply disagree, now we're being told we must hate, mock, and demean our fellow citizens if they think differently.

Personal standards for political candidates are at an all time low. We expect nothing more than the constructed persona. From religious beliefs from people who clearly have none, to assumptions that if you've been in the military, you must be honest. We just expect too little.
 
I'm guessing that it may be a combination of things. There is a great deal of misinformation that gets circulated because it reinforces the previously held belief, even though fact checking is available. It should work where if the facts don't agree with the belief, that the belief would get updated, but apparently not.

It seems that political beliefs are an important part of our identity, and once it's formed, we hold onto it tightly. If we have to spin the facts, then we do. If it is questioned, then most go into a defensive mode, rather than listen and evaluate.

In other matters we can agree to disagree without much confrontation, but it seems political matters are more emotionally charged, even though they may not affect us directly. Maybe it is fear that is behind it all. I don't know.
 
Many people do not arrive at political beliefs on their own. They are molded by family, who seldom arrived at political beliefs on their own, and above all by politicians and talk radio hosts working to bend democracy to their own needs. Churches also play a role, but I think it's a minor one, although I'm not so sure about that.
 
I am fine with differing political beliefs, although truth seems to be a rather scare commodity. The thing that worries me most is that people are willing to let it divide families and a country. In sports, if you lose, at some point you have to accept it and better luck next time, but with politics, it can rise to the level of hatred and violence. If we vote, we should accept the results, and deal with it. Not all things in life turn out the way we wish.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I won’t ruin any friendships over politics.
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Neither will I. My friends and I respect each other, and we expect each other to independently form opinions, and we each have the freedom to alter them too.

Plus, in Canada as in other modern countries, being decent, honest, and respectful of others is important...
MarkD said:
We need better character in order to think better.
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fuzzybuddy said:
I always wondered exactly when was this great period in history when we were all together, there was no dissent, there were no "factions"? Yeah, On Dec.7,1941, Pearl Harbor, the US was 96% for WWII. Two years later, there were antiwar protests, antiwar riots, race riots, and strikes. You can't name a year when, everybody just went around and lovingly hugged each other.
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1967 and 1969. The summer of love and then Woodstock.

hippies 2.jpg

hippies peace s.jpg
 
67 and 69 came close, but there was a division between youth and the older generation. I'm not sure if it was a volatile as things are now, because I wasn't paying any attention to the older generation. I thought the country had finally found itself and was headed in a new direction, but I was wrong about that.
 
"Woodstock" is tightly wrapped in false mythology.

Village Idiot: Woodstock: Peace, love and rich college kids

I was amazed at how many kids could afford to pay for the tickets and then to find out they had cars, too! Why is everyone calling them hippies? They must be the richest hippies I ever heard of. While they were driving to rock festivals, I was taking the bus to work, a nice 45 minutes tacked onto the beginning and end of each day. And they had dope, lots of it. An ounce of marijuana cost $20 then — 20 bills I didn't have. Of course, I can't afford it now, either, at $500 an ounce.​
...​
So these kids had ticket money, car money, gas money, dope money and the first day of Woodstock was a Friday, which they were taking off. Somehow, that doesn't sound like a bunch of jobless, commune-living, unwashed, incense-burning hippies. It sounds like a bunch of college kids who have to go back to class in a few weeks looking for a party. And yes, it proved that there were more longhaired, bell-bottomed kids than any one realized, but even they didn't realize that until they all showed up.​
 
Maybe basically too many people feel their intelligence/ego is being disrespected/insulted, considered foolish or just plain stupid when their (I'm right, you're not) views/opinions are disagreed with by any other and their pride drives them to seek as much fault in those others' differing views/opinions as they can muster up. And so begins tit for tat.
 
Democracy is meant to be messy, volatile, and somewhat disruptive. It's the law of the many, over the protests of the few. In government, there is little one can do that doesn't take something from one group and give it to another. You don't expect people to be quiet and complacent about the process.
 

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