One of the main reasons people stay split once they're split is that once trust is broken, it can be damned near impossible to repair.
And it doesn't work quite the way we think.
There's the whole Cheater / Abuser thing, and this is going to sound backwards, but here's the deal: If I believe you've done me a great wrong, it becomes very difficult for you to trust me - because in the back of your mind, you'll always worry that I'm just biding my time waiting for the perfect opportunity to exact my vengeance.
Even if I continually express my forgiveness, and you've shone me a sincere effort to atone, that doubt is always there.
Extrapolate that out and apply it broadly across a society, spanning a generation or two - or 20 - or 500.
Now add in the advantages that certain cynical manipulators can cash in on by pimping that mistrust and we've got "intractable problems" caused by "irreconcilable differences".
So just keep that in mind for a bit.
Niraj Chokshi, NYT:
Ever since Donald J. Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to “economic anxiety.” Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Mr. Trump, and a message, to Washington.
Or so that narrative goes.
A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come. White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they felt their status was at risk.
“It’s much more of a symbolic threat that people feel,’’ said Diana C. Mutz, the author of the study and a political science and communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics. “It’s not a threat to their own economic well-being; it’s a threat to their group’s dominance in our country over all.”
The study is not the first to cast doubt on the prevailing economic anxiety theory. Last year, a Public Religion Research Institute survey of more than 3,000 people also found that Mr. Trump’s appeal could better be explained by a fear of cultural displacement.
In her study, Dr. Mutz sought to answer two questions: Is there evidence to support the economic anxiety argument, and did the fear of losing social dominance drive some voters to Mr. Trump? To find answers, she analyzed survey data from a nationally representative group of about 1,200 voters polled in 2012 and 2016.
- and -
“The shift toward an antitrade stance was a particularly effective strategy for capitalizing on a public experiencing status threat due to race as well as globalization,” Dr. Mutz wrote in the study.
Her survey also assessed “social dominance orientation,” a common psychological measure of a person’s belief in hierarchy as necessary and inherent to a society. People who exhibited a growing belief in such group dominance were also more likely to move toward Mr. Trump, Dr. Mutz found, reflecting their hope that the status quo be protected.
“It used to be a pretty good deal to be a white, Christian male in America, but things have changed and I think they do feel threatened,” Dr. Mutz said.
The other surveys supported the cultural anxiety explanation, too.
In a neat little nutshell - White Male Christians are scared shitless that brown people and women are going to treat them the same as White Male Christians have treated everybody since they started this joint.
And Brown Women? Holy fuck, dude - you don't even wanna think about that shit.
This ain't new, BTW. And it helps point up one of uncomfortable truths about 2016 - that the bit about "Hillary was such a shitty candidate blah blah blah" is a convenient excuse for not showing up for her, and allowing the greater of the two evils to be installed as POTUS.
There is no purity in politics.
One last thought - stop thinking that Blue Tsunami is some kinda sure thing.
Get together
Get focused
Get busy
Get shit done
