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Why our heated political rhetoric will only get worse, not better
Fox News ^ | June 20, 2017 | John R Lott Jr

Posted on 06/20/2017 10:59:42 AM PDT by richardb72

Some hope that the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others last Wednesday will lead to more civility in politics. It’s clear that the attack was politically motivated — the Democratic shooter even carried a hit list of Republicans. The political viciousness has been everywhere.

While some will blame the violence on the grotesque picture of Kathy Griffin holding the President’s severed head or a play where the president is being stabbed to death, this Sunday Jill Abramson, the former chief editor of the New York Times, told CNN that it was “President Trump and the congressional leadership on the Republican side [who] are extremely divisive.”

But all these discussions miss something more fundamental that is driving all this, and, unfortunately, the viciousness isn’t likely to abate.

One reason that previous generations didn’t treat their presidents with similar levels of hated is because so much is at stake today. As government has grown, so too have the stakes. This simple point explains everything from increases in campaign spending to increasingly heated judicial confirmations. It explains why political discourse has grown generally more vicious.

Two baseball teams playing in the seventh game of the World Series are probably going to play a lot harder than two teams competing in August with no chance of making the playoffs. In the same way, as the size and scope of the federal government increases, interest groups will spend more on elections in an effort to influence the levers of government.

If federal spending still amounted to two percent to three percent of GDP — as it did a century ago — people likely wouldn’t care as passionately about election outcomes. . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; coup; cprc; democratmilitia; democrats; johnlott; lott; media; mediabias; msm; politicalviolence; violence
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1 posted on 06/20/2017 10:59:42 AM PDT by richardb72
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To: richardb72
Trump’s opponents may hate him, but they don’t realize that if he is successful in making long term cuts to government spending and regulations, he will help to assuage today's partisan rancor.

Oh, but there's the rub!

The political Conservatives would like government to be smaller and less important. As Lott indicates, smaller, weaker government would result in less rage and divineness as people fight over largesse (because there would be less to fight over).

But only one party wants government to be smaller and less important. This is basic Ying and Yang now. The partisan rancor isn't going away because the two parties now have fundamentally opposed views of what government should be doing (or not doing).

This is precisely why people talk about CWII. There seems no "conversational" solution to the impasse.

2 posted on 06/20/2017 11:09:43 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Islam: You have to just love a "religion" based on rape and sex slavery.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

>>There seems no “conversational” solution to the impasse.

Look how these young people are dealing with it:

[I Took a Gender Studies Course So You Don’t Have To]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlGSG0q-Fh4

Truth, Logic, Reason.... Science.

And in other news, some people are still eating steak even after Algore hung a potroast around his neck!


3 posted on 06/20/2017 11:25:57 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: richardb72

What we have is a lot of noise coming from a miniscule amount of people who yell into the pipes of the media.


4 posted on 06/20/2017 11:28:18 AM PDT by cymbeline
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To: richardb72

"EDUCATE THE COMMON PEOPLE"


--
Thomas Jefferson



5 posted on 06/20/2017 11:28:44 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: cymbeline

>>What we have is...

[The Architects of Western Decline: A Study on the Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxism]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTmNWY0ZPfM&t=18m

6 posted on 06/20/2017 11:30:08 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: richardb72

7 posted on 06/20/2017 11:52:52 AM PDT by doug from upland (Mayflower Hotel --- hotel of choice for Dem officials and their hookers)
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To: richardb72

Here’s ONE reason:
In the name of God and for the preservation of the American republic, WHEN will this gang of criminal cretins be dragged kicking and screaming before an IMPARTIAL and FAIR bar of justice??
My deepest fear is that they and their would be adversaries have so much ON ONE ANOTHER — that the CORRUPTION is so pervasive and deep — that nothing will be done and the former “shining city on a hill” and “the last best hope for mankind” will soon vanish below the scum of the fetid swamp that Washington has become!
God help us!
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/06/19/stunning-coverup-manuever-obama-nsc-move-all-intelligence-unmasking-material-to-obama-library-to-avoid-sunlight/


8 posted on 06/20/2017 12:13:19 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (America dodged a bullet. But remember that millions of morons are STILL OUT THERE!)
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To: richardb72

Of course it “will only get worse, not better”

Have we, as a nation, STARTING IN WASHINGTON DC, fallen on our faces and wept for forgiveness?

It must START AT THE TOP, as an example to the people.

Maybe you scoff, “What have we done?”

We’ve behaved like Stalin, by murdering our own people. But these millions of unborn children were fully innocent, and THEIR BLOOD IS ON THE HANDS OF THIS NATION, and we WILL pay for their murders.

May God spare us long enough to bring revival, drawing millions to the cross of Jesus Christ.


9 posted on 06/20/2017 12:20:01 PM PDT by InkStone (Omni Vivum Ex Surfboard)
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To: richardb72

At least Freepers will fight on.....can’t be said of the GOPe.


10 posted on 06/20/2017 12:20:34 PM PDT by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket.l)
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To: Dick Bachert

In a best case scenario, the next revolution will be a “French” style revolution, not an “American” style.

May God save anyone holding the office of dog catcher up to the top.( innocent or not)


11 posted on 06/20/2017 12:59:16 PM PDT by themidnightskulker (And then the thread dies... peacefully, in it's sleep....)
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To: richardb72

The author makes good sense.

There is a prediction I’m willing to make:

Within the next year, a shockingly violent incident will happen with an obvious right-winger as the culprit.

Doesn’t have to be a Trump supporter, although that would be a major bonus. But it does need to be a Republican.

Why will this happen?

Because the Left has (rhetorically) had its nose bloodied. All the violent rhetoric and actions in the news up to mid-2017 have ostentatiously come from them. They know this, they secretly enjoy this, but also are PR savvy. This is what Hillary and Company do for a living, remember. While you and I are at real jobs.

They know the media spotlight on their violence is putting Leftist supporters in an awkward spot on the cocktail-party circuit. They can’t defend the violent speech and actions of the left forever. Not if the incidents are all one-sided.

Since no one on the Right is acting as violently as they’d like, they will create the story they require.

There will conveniently be a horrific attack attributed to a person linked to the violent Right, and therefore cast as a representative of the entire Right. Of course it will be against either blacks, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, muslims, or women and children. They’re not very creative. That is because they have Hollywood on their side. (They truly believe that good images are better than good logic.)

This will probably happen prior to the 2018 mid-term elections, to strike while the iron is hot and to “not let a crisis go to waste.” And to keep non-violent voters from defecting from the Democrats, who are increasingly looking like amateurish anarchists.

It’s exactly what both the Hillary and the Obama factions, and the next flavor-of-the-month faction of the Democrat party needs, desperately. So it should happen. They all have a talent for making convenient things come about.

I’m posting now to get “Told you so” rights.


12 posted on 06/20/2017 1:01:09 PM PDT by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
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To: richardb72

The stick of dynamite that was lit by Saul Alinsky in 1972 is about to explode.


13 posted on 06/20/2017 1:04:23 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: richardb72

I think it’s much simpler than that. There are people who want to take over the world and hundreds of millions of useful idiots who think that is a great idea.


14 posted on 06/20/2017 2:07:17 PM PDT by subterfuge (Build the damn wall...)
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To: richardb72

Treat Democrats like pariahs. To really wrangle them always ask if they are armed before discussing politics with them. Treat them like they are mentally unstable.


15 posted on 06/20/2017 2:10:20 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: richardb72
Two baseball teams playing in the seventh game of the World Series are probably going to play a lot harder than two teams competing in August with no chance of making the playoffs

Too bad we don't have a team in that game.

16 posted on 06/20/2017 2:26:49 PM PDT by digger48
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To: Chad N. Freud

Sorry but this has already HAPPENED.


17 posted on 06/20/2017 3:12:07 PM PDT by hawg-farmer - FR..October 1998 (------>VMFA 235- '69-'72 KMCAS <------- "Death Angels")
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To: richardb72

The left and the media declared war on Trump, his supporters, and American representive democracy the day triump got elected. (yes many of them did before that, but they decided to go full retard the day trump won)


18 posted on 06/20/2017 3:28:21 PM PDT by Cubs Fan (Liberals are the most hateful, violent and intolerant people in America)
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To: Chad N. Freud

There will conveniently be a horrific attack attributed to a person linked to the violent Right, and therefore cast as a representative of the entire Right. Of course it will be against either blacks, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, muslims, or women and children. They’re not very creative. That is because they have Hollywood on their side. (They truly believe that good images are better than good logic.)


I think you will be proven wrong on this. The reason is that the left has not done this previously. They have not had to do so because they controlled the media. So they could take an event like the Kennedy assassination, committed by an obvious and self proclaimed Communist, and create a myth that it was caused by conservatives.

Another example is how they have successfully convinced most people that the NAZIs are on the right, when they were a basically middle of the road Leftist party of the day. They were national leftists; they were opposed by the international leftists, and after the national leftists were defeated in WWII, the left defined the defeated leftists as “the right”.

They have lost the ability to do that sort of framing and re-defining.

Will they resort to actually creating a provocation. I doubt it. There is much to lose, because they are likely to be found out. They no longer can be sure of cover from the government institutions. The media is not theirs to control anymore. There are millions of bloggers and citizen reporters, and potential leaks in their own ranks.

Wiki-leaks terrifies them.

It could happen. Lots can happen. But I think the odds are against it.


19 posted on 06/20/2017 6:51:07 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Chad N. Freud
There will conveniently be a horrific attack attributed to a person linked to the violent Right, and therefore cast as a representative of the entire Right

Yep. There are a million candidates on the internet. I would not underestimate the state and non-state actors who desperately want this to happen. The important thing to remember is that most nut jobs are self-created nut jobs and don't need any special handling. The average weapon is legally obtained and has a high capacity magazine, so those are not tells. But the target may be a tell. I would look for a mosque target or a Muslim meeting of some sort.

Also the tracks will have to be covered like Lanza shooting his mother four times in the head in her bed and then destroying his hard drive. I'm not saying Lanza was one, but it will look like that.

20 posted on 06/21/2017 6:17:15 AM PDT by palmer (turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure)
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