2020 --> 1860
I remember when candidate Biden caught shit from some Dems (including his now-VP) because he'd been willing to compromise with segregationists back in the 1970s. Now Republicans won't even acknowledge he won. This sounds more like 1860 every day, except the parties have flipped.
The Constitution had been drafted to give the slave-owning South disproportionate power in Congress and the Electoral College. When the South nevertheless lost the 1860 election to Lincoln, they lost their shit. Very similar situation with Republicans today. They have disproportionate power under the Constitution, yet when they lose anyway, they can't handle it.
One big difference though, at least in 1860 the South didn't call into question the election result. They didn't claim that Lincoln had actually lost.
Today's Republicans may not have seceded from the Union (yet), but they've seceded from Reality.
In 1860 we may have argued over whether slavery should be extended or limited, but we didn't argue over whether slavery even existed. Today, Republicans deny that global warming is happening, they deny that COVID-19 is deadly, and they deny that Biden actually won.
For all of our technological advances since 1860, at least people back then had a better grip on reality. Today, Republicans have seceded from reality, and they use technology to hide from reality. Fox News reported that Biden won? Then they stop watching Fox News and switch to some other upstart channel that tells them Trump won.
Perhaps the most insidious result of the Internet is this "Choose Your Own Reality" behavior. The Left isn't immune to this behavior, but the Right seems more susceptible to it in the 21st Century, because the Right nurtures a radical individualism that rejects our human nature as social animals, that rejects our interdependence and our effects on each other's lives.
The federal government may have been more libertarian in its scope and policies back in 1860 (no Social Security, no Food Stamps, etc.) and more racist and sexist, but the people living in the United States back then were more communitarian -- "We the People", not "Me the Person".
Me the Person now uses the Internet to secede from reality, as the abandoned community falls apart.
The Constitution had been drafted to give the slave-owning South disproportionate power in Congress and the Electoral College. When the South nevertheless lost the 1860 election to Lincoln, they lost their shit. Very similar situation with Republicans today. They have disproportionate power under the Constitution, yet when they lose anyway, they can't handle it.
One big difference though, at least in 1860 the South didn't call into question the election result. They didn't claim that Lincoln had actually lost.
Today's Republicans may not have seceded from the Union (yet), but they've seceded from Reality.
In 1860 we may have argued over whether slavery should be extended or limited, but we didn't argue over whether slavery even existed. Today, Republicans deny that global warming is happening, they deny that COVID-19 is deadly, and they deny that Biden actually won.
For all of our technological advances since 1860, at least people back then had a better grip on reality. Today, Republicans have seceded from reality, and they use technology to hide from reality. Fox News reported that Biden won? Then they stop watching Fox News and switch to some other upstart channel that tells them Trump won.
Perhaps the most insidious result of the Internet is this "Choose Your Own Reality" behavior. The Left isn't immune to this behavior, but the Right seems more susceptible to it in the 21st Century, because the Right nurtures a radical individualism that rejects our human nature as social animals, that rejects our interdependence and our effects on each other's lives.
The federal government may have been more libertarian in its scope and policies back in 1860 (no Social Security, no Food Stamps, etc.) and more racist and sexist, but the people living in the United States back then were more communitarian -- "We the People", not "Me the Person".
Me the Person now uses the Internet to secede from reality, as the abandoned community falls apart.