a discussion of the causes of the divergence of American politics and culture

[Hamilton321]

So, this thread has had many posts since I created it last month. I've only read a few pages of it at the start and end but I like that there have been so many posts. I planned to write more posts earlier but lacked the time. I think the person who posted that I agree with most is Lexicus. There are definite concerning and undeniable trends and growing divisions in this country. I believe that many of the divisions in addition to being due to cultural and generational change as I talked about in the beginning of this thread are due to smaller divisions being blown up by economic and political forces. I agree with Lexicus that our country's policies are increasingly starting to line up with the fascist nations of the twenties, thirties and forties.

Also at the first page of the thread there was discussion of the Civil war. I would like to talk about some of the things that led up to the Civil war. The Civil War was the result of a long-term political power struggle between the north and the south, which broke into armed conflict because both sides had a new sense of urgency in the 1850s about the matter of slavery. The country also had a number of outward stresses in the 1840s and 1850s. Including the Mexican American war, westward expansion, the fact that there were no two term presidents from Jackson to Lincoln, a massive wave of immigration from Europe in the late 1840sn and early 1850s, and the war was finally made inevitable by John Brown's raid and bleeding Kansas which caused both sides to believe that peaceful resolution was impossible.

 

[Hamilton321]

I've read some more of the replies and I think most of the reasons have been covered, however I think one overlooked reason is differences in belief, history(by which I mean what people know and emphasize history and how history is interpreted) and geography. Belief wise the country is very divided compared to the time when everyone worshipped the same God and believed the same things about God, there is great religious difference both within and outside of Christianity now. My own denomination(Lutheran) is an excellent example of this. On one side are the ElCA and other liberal Lutheran churches and on the other side are the so called "orthodox Lutherans."

 

[Zkribbler]

... Belief wise the country is very divided compared to the time when everyone worshiped the same God and believed the same things about God, ...

That has never been the case.

For example, Maryland was founded as a refuge for persecuted Catholics.

Religious conflict was strong in ensuing years as the American Puritans, growing more numerous in Maryland and supported by Puritans in England, set out to revoke the religious freedoms guaranteed in the founding of the colony. In 1649, Maryland Governor William Stone responded by passing an act ensuring religious liberty and justice to all who believed in Jesus Christ. In 1654, however, the so-called Toleration Act was repealed after Puritans seized control of the colony, leading to a brief civil war that ended with Lord Baltimore losing control of propriety rights over Maryland in March 1655.

Rhode Island was founded by religious dissenters driven out of Massachusetts.

The pacifistic Quakers in Pennsylvania refused to take up arms,

 

[Gori the Grey]

And no matter how small the differences might seem, the tendency in religious adherents seems to be to magnify the significance of those differences as grounds for social differentiation.

To fight over a iota or which end of an egg to break.

We're divided because one of the (two) things humans do is divide themselves.

 

[Hamilton321]

That has never been the case.

Yes I do admit that America has never been quite as united belief wise as I suggested, sometimes I overemphasize things in my posts, I should have added something like americans believed similar things relative to now. Although now we have a lot of small religious divides, and now these are also caused by political policy differences and by stylistic differences and something I would like to add is that now we have divides even within denominations themselves over these things.