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Opinion: What Are The Chances That America’s Disunion Turns Into Civil War?
Market Watch ^ | 11-8-2018 | Ian Morris

Posted on 11/08/2018 8:39:26 PM PST by blam

Strong rhetoric and violence on both sides of the political spectrum are reaching a fever pitch

Is the United States on the brink of a new civil war?

According to Newsweek magazine’s polling, a third of all Americans think such a conflict could break out within the next five years, with 10% thinking it “very likely to happen.” Plenty of experts agree. Back in March, State Department official Keith Mines told Foreign Policy magazine: “It is like 1859, everyone is mad about something and everyone has a gun.” He rated the odds of a second American Civil War breaking out within the next 10-15 years at 60%.

October’s awful events — pipe bombs sent to leading Democratic politicians and supporters, the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh — have only amplified these fears. “We are now nearing a point comparable to 1860,” my Stanford University colleague Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote in the National Review.

The historian Niall Ferguson, another Stanford colleague, suggested in The Sunday Times of London that if someone were to design a “Civil War Clock” comparable to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock,” the designer would probably now be announcing that it is “two minutes to Fort Sumter.”

Ferguson himself is more upbeat, thinking that “the time on the civil war Doomsday Clock looks more like 11.08 than 11.58.” It seems to me, though, that all these speculations are deeply misleading — so much so, in fact, that the main thing they illustrate is how not to use the past to understand the present.

Similarities, differences and broad patterns

There are certainly some striking similarities between the American political scene in the late 2010s and that of the late 1850s. Both periods saw extreme polarization over issues of intense economic and emotional importance.

(snip)

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: civilwar; cwii; cwiiping; left; obamalegacy; right; violence; war
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To: Chickensoup

No, no, no. If we WANT to do this peacefully then ENTIRE states need to from new republics. Sorry, after that happens if you want to still want to start an internal conflict inside your new republic then have at it.


161 posted on 11/09/2018 5:15:30 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Benjamin Franklin called it in 1787. “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Our Leftist fellow citizens want safety, while want liberty.


162 posted on 11/09/2018 5:20:32 AM PST by Alas Babylon! (Vote GOP this November. Take two friends to vote with you!)
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To: lightman

I think it was back during the Clinton Impeachment. That was when the partisan divide started. Each side supports their guy regardless of what they do.

Trump just made Politicians obsolete and this rage level of decorum will continue long after his Presidency is over. It is now the new norm. The demonized W. Bush too. Expect more of the same only at an “11” level


163 posted on 11/09/2018 5:21:05 AM PST by Jimmy The Snake
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To: Valk Rider

But I will die trying


164 posted on 11/09/2018 5:22:02 AM PST by Jimmy The Snake
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To: Jimmy The Snake

The partisan divide started with the Vietnam Nam war when radical leftists first tasted power in large numbers which eventually led to Nixon resigning.


165 posted on 11/09/2018 5:42:40 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Windflier

Easy win. Libs wake up each day and can’t decide which bathroom to use.


166 posted on 11/09/2018 5:47:22 AM PST by freebird5850 (Trust Republicans Under My Presindency)
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To: Pelham

The separation now is between urban centers and the rest of the country. Kick the large metro areas out and make them independent city-states. They can fashion their socialist utopias any way they want.


167 posted on 11/09/2018 6:07:35 AM PST by Pining_4_TX (..Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you.. Joshua 1:9)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

agreed


168 posted on 11/09/2018 6:20:15 AM PST by Jimmy The Snake
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To: Windflier

“A lot of liberals wear crosses, too.”

That’s the ultimate irony, isn’t it?

My BIL & SIL are heavy church-goers, the BIL’s father is a preacher. The BIL can produce a long-winded, heartfelt prayer on a moment’s notice. ALL liberal zombies...supportive of all things Left-wing. The SIL has already had one baby ripped from her womb by scalpel/vacuum. The BIL, was caught with his pants down, diddling the female help. I could go on, but won’t. I avoid them at all costs.

They just don’t see the connection.


169 posted on 11/09/2018 6:26:57 AM PST by moovova
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To: Salvavida

Never in history have a people remained free once they have been disarmed. Never.


170 posted on 11/09/2018 6:56:46 AM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: Windflier

“Gonna have to figure out identifying insignia or uniforms.”

Wearing a MAGA hat with a Chi fil a sandwich in the ammo box.


171 posted on 11/09/2018 6:58:32 AM PST by sergeantdave (Teach a man to fish and he'll steal your gear and sell it)
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To: Pelham

“Low. The Civil War was a war for independence, a war between the states. There’s no geographic separation today.”

That’s why 1861-1865 was NOT a true civil war. It was a secession, and a fight between two separate nations that had once been united. Rawanda, however, was a true civil war. And that is where we are headed, I’m afraid.


172 posted on 11/09/2018 7:01:11 AM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: blam

We are living an inversion of Clausewitz’ axiom.

“Politics is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of war by different means.”

The political environment is being shaped to drive the cattle into the pen. There is a War currently being executed against the traditional “American”. That American is doing nothing in response other than voting and hoping the levers of power will defend them. That is not going to be enough.

In order for America as it was established to continue, we must organize ourselves for violence. The Left has their terrorist wing up and running. We must answer with our own shock troops. We currently have the time, we simply don’t have the will.


173 posted on 11/09/2018 7:05:13 AM PST by The Toll
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To: Valk Rider

May your chains of bondage not weigh too heavily upon you.


174 posted on 11/09/2018 7:06:06 AM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: Truthoverpower

“This is what the media and left want Division and rancor.
Don’t fall for it. Be nice.”

Kind of like the Jews in Germany in the late 1930s.


175 posted on 11/09/2018 7:07:50 AM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: neverevergiveup

“Unfortunately, it seems inevitable.”

I’m afraid you are right.


176 posted on 11/09/2018 7:09:07 AM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: blam

Dogs were God’s finest creation. That’s why they are called dogs (based on “God” spelled backwards). :)


177 posted on 11/09/2018 7:13:38 AM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: Pecos

“I don’t want a civil war and I’ll not fire the first shot, but I may fire the last shot.”

You and me both.


178 posted on 11/09/2018 7:26:36 AM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: Psalm 144

Agreed, open Civil War is a non starter... You may have your harper’s ferry type of situation here and there, but flat out open conflict on a large scale? Not going to happen, at least anytime soon.


179 posted on 11/09/2018 7:28:00 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: TADSLOS; Absolutely Nobama; afnamvet; AK2KX; Ancesthntr; An Old Man; APatientMan; ...
CWII Ping with a Hat Tip to TADSLOS.


180 posted on 11/09/2018 7:30:24 AM PST by Jack Black
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