I think historians will date the start of our second civil war to January 6th, 2021, but we're about to transition into a time where it can no longer be denied. We're a bit handicapped by our first civil war - there aren't going to be uniformed armies engaged in cavalry charges. We've got a weakened, discredited central power, multiple aggrieved ethno-sectarian groups that are so polarized they don't mix ... I fear the best outcome will be a preservation of democracy at a federal level, but places like Texas, the southeast, and the mountain west will form religious para-states.
I agree mostly. Certainly, January 6th is akin to firing on Fort Sumter. I don't see states becoming semi-autonomous though. Americans are getting fed up with the MAGA conspiracy theories just as we did at the end of the Yellow Journalism era.
Even the Texas Taliban led by Greg Abbott are becoming pariahs and businesses are now either leaving Texas or not coming in the first place. Like everything else MAGA, Abbott is no longer considered a conservative to a majority of Texans. He's considered MAGA which is by default, far-right extremism. The truth is, it is not only Texas that looks askance at these far-right conspiracy theorists... most red states are slowly waking up. It may take another couple years, certainly until after the mid-terms, but they are on a downhill slide without any way to get back up the slope.
There's a hard religiously motivated extremist core to that stuff - the Seven Mountains people. You get a pack of them and one sleazy billionaire, that's a recipe for trouble. And they're not connected to reality - if they make terrible policy, and get terrible results, it'll be because they haven't purged blacks/gays/immigrants, not due to their bad judgment.
I really hope I'm wrong on this, but all the weather vanes are turned the same direction ...
I think historians will date the start of our second civil war to January 6th, 2021, but we're about to transition into a time where it can no longer be denied. We're a bit handicapped by our first civil war - there aren't going to be uniformed armies engaged in cavalry charges. We've got a weakened, discredited central power, multiple aggrieved ethno-sectarian groups that are so polarized they don't mix ... I fear the best outcome will be a preservation of democracy at a federal level, but places like Texas, the southeast, and the mountain west will form religious para-states.
I agree mostly. Certainly, January 6th is akin to firing on Fort Sumter. I don't see states becoming semi-autonomous though. Americans are getting fed up with the MAGA conspiracy theories just as we did at the end of the Yellow Journalism era.
Even the Texas Taliban led by Greg Abbott are becoming pariahs and businesses are now either leaving Texas or not coming in the first place. Like everything else MAGA, Abbott is no longer considered a conservative to a majority of Texans. He's considered MAGA which is by default, far-right extremism. The truth is, it is not only Texas that looks askance at these far-right conspiracy theorists... most red states are slowly waking up. It may take another couple years, certainly until after the mid-terms, but they are on a downhill slide without any way to get back up the slope.
There's a hard religiously motivated extremist core to that stuff - the Seven Mountains people. You get a pack of them and one sleazy billionaire, that's a recipe for trouble. And they're not connected to reality - if they make terrible policy, and get terrible results, it'll be because they haven't purged blacks/gays/immigrants, not due to their bad judgment.
I really hope I'm wrong on this, but all the weather vanes are turned the same direction ...