It's done.
I don't like having to break up threads, but current events are driving discussions all over the place. I suspect that will be the case for the foreseeable future.
Also, the Current State of Things® is not just about capitol riots. This thread can morph into all the partizan, party-idiology, political BS it wants to. I won't split out any political wrangling. However, if it spins off into religion then it will get split into
this thread.
And leave the name-calling at the door, folks.
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Personally, I don't think of politics as a flat line, where there is a "left" and a "right" with some unseen utopia at the far side of one or the other "wing". I see politics as a circle with two points: At the top is "Freedom" and at the bottom is "Slavery". The political parties begin to drift away from each other at the top, where Freedom lives. As they drift, they descend the arcs of the circle toward the bottom. If either side drifts too far, then we arrive at Slavery. My experience within political debate has taught me an important thing: That once your ideology carries you too far in either direction, the momentum will naturally lead to the bottom of the circle.
Right now, both sides are swinging past the point of no return (which one might call the half-way point, or "Liberal" and "Conservative"). We are no longer cooperating—like two river-loggers trying to keep the log from spinning in either direction. And if we're not careful the two are headed for a final clash at the bottom—where the Marxists and Fascists live—and both sides will get dumped into the river.
It won't be good.
I've also learned that neither side believes it has drifted at all. Each believes it is at the top, and tries to spin the circle to prove this. The current state of American politics is riding a fine line between a possible recovery and absolute defeat. And if/when it falls, the United States of America will fall hard. Very hard.
And then we will know what it is like to truly be "poor".