[ExI] Am I the only one freaked out by this?

[BillK]

On 25 January 2017 at 17:16, spike  wrote:
> In the US civil war of the 19th century, there was a major issue around
> which the people could choose sides: slavery.  One major party wanted to
> keep it, the other wanted it banned.  What do we have now analogous to that?
> Nothing.  Our current culture war has not even a single clear issue on which
> people split left and right.  Can you think of one?  Looking at how
> acrimonious was our last major election, can you see any major issue in
> which the candidates differed significantly?  Neither can I.  Is not this a
> paradox?  These two candidates were mostly on the same page as far as I
> could tell.
>
> The best I can do is free trade and open immigration, neither of which would
> form a logical basis for a civil war.  It strains the imagination to think
> anyone would be willing to take up arms against countrymen in order to allow
> unchecked immigration or buy foreign manufactured goods cheaply.  Anything
> else?
>

All this Shock! Horror! about the future Trump years is because we are
in the wrong bubble. If we were in the bubble of the half of the
population that supports Trump we would be cheering him on now as he
tries to provide some help to those struggling to pay their rent and
get food on the table. Half of the people are in dire straits after
all their jobs have disappeared overseas or are now done by robots.
Sure, Trump will make many mistakes and do dodgy deals, but so did
Bush and Obama. In the other bubble, in fly-over country, at least
they are no longer being ignored by Washington and treated as
worthless.

BillK