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TJ Wrote:This was on Charlie Rose. The Democratic party is out of touch with the common American. Maybe some will say we are just fine and all is well. The real problems run deep. Without better representation we will not proceed enough. Our opponents are at their worst daily. We have a long way to go.
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I would ask Charlie Rose to define the "common American". It's kind of like the Blind men and an elephant fable asking each blind man to define the elephant by touching one part of him. Each of us is somewhat unique, both genetically and by life's experiences. And we each look upon the world differently.
I would challenge Rose to come up with a list of things that are common to all Americans from our ethnicities to our race to our religious beliefs to our age and gender differences to our education to our social and political beliefs. We can herald our diversity as a strength, but it is also what divides us into tribes.
And let's face it, if there is one thing that we seem to have more in common is that we are low information voters driven more by our emotions. We live in our respective fantasy world bubbles or La La Lands when it comes to thinking critically about how our diversity can be a strength. We don't so much share each others values as we defend and protect our own tribal worldviews no matter how outside of the mainstream.
This is not new. Each generation of Americans has experienced divisive issues. I graduated from high school in 1964 and college in 1968 a very tumultuous period in America's past, much more so than the advent of the Trump era (although the book is still not closed on Trumpism).
I recently read an interesting article by Kurt Anderson in the Atlantic, How America Lost Its Mind.
It's a rather long article, and you don't have to read the entire long history of how our worldviews evolved from the 1960s to the Trump era, but I certainly can relate to it. If I were to try define the "common American" I would start by reading Anderson's article. He finishes with a discussion of Trumpism, which in itself means different things to different people.
To summarize, we believe what we want to believe. Fantasy Land, as he calls it, is becoming more and more the reality that is common to our thinking. It puts into perspective of how America lost its mind in electing Trump.