Why are liberals and republicans so divided?
Liberals are concerned with individual rights. They want protections from government in their lives like The Bill of Rights (US) . To that end, they want limited government and maximum freedom. Being gay or transgender or living in the woods without power is fine with liberals, as long as you don’t interfere with the lives of others. Liberals are against authoritarians and Fascists preferring a considered government.Those are my values. I defend them. That makes me conservative as well.Liberal thought is contained here.Progressives believe in the collective and making individuals conform to the collective. They want expansive government, voter rolls dependent on government programs, and limits speech, defense and religion (except a special relationship with Islam). Extreme progressive groups are fascist. To all these ends, progressives are anti liberal.You can see it here at demonstrations and riots to shut down free speech of liberals.Their ideology has roots in Rousseau, Marx, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, the Pivens, Saul Alinsky etc.They are ardent supporters of their ideology and inflexible. Even in victory on their “progress” they remain unsatisfied. They are well past conservative in defending their beliefs to something that is radical and destructive.
What would happen if you told the president to "shut up"?
This may not be technically ”Shut up”, but it comes pretty close !On his show “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis”, the comedian host Zach Galifianakis *shushed* President Barack Obama.He said it On record. And it is available on Youtube for your viewing pleasure:-Link: Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: President Barack ObamaIt is probably obvious that it was a comedy show and the President took it in the right sense. But, to answer your question, Zach is doing just fine. Watch the video to see how the President comes back with insults and does so in such style.Note: I do not have any political bias in this matter. It is just a matter of what I felt to be a good comedy piece.
Why is Obama so conciliatory towards the GOP when he enjoys far more support?
In 1965, Pakistan attacked India with the belief that Indian military was severely weakened by the Indo-China war in 1962 and it would be very easy to reach New Delhi and thus capture India. Unfortunately for the Pakistani military, the reverse happened and the Indian military was soon marching deep into Pakistani territory when ceasefire was signed.At that point in time, India was in the driver's seat and could have demanded very serious concessions as a condition to the peace treaty. But what India could not change is the fact that Pakistan and India share familial connections, a shared border and the deep wounds of the Partition of 1947.Just because you are in the driver's seat today doesn't mean you are going to be there all the time. Obama has to be the grownup in the room at a time when the room is filled with petulant 5-year olds who keep saying "My ball, my rules". Imagine if during the shutdown, Obama declared that the federal government would only spend money in districts/states where the representatives sign a pledge to reopen the government. That would spook our investors and creditors far more than the shutdown itself. We CANNOT afford to look like a banana republic.It is fun to demonize the tea party as nutcases (because they are) but Obama has to keep selling the idea that there is a difference between the US governance structures and those of Greece, Russia, India and China.
Why are some liberals so condescending toward Trump supporters? Do they really feel they are superior?
They can’t believe anyone voted for someone who has spouted so much hate speech, who has so few coherent ideas, and whose tendencies seem too patently autocratic.It’s not about liberals feeling “superior”: it’s about us being morally aghast that you guys got behind a demi-man who called Mexicans “rapists” in his campaign announcement, has degraded women, attacked anyone who dares criticize him, waged a systematic war on the very free press whose constant attention to him probably factored in his victory, attacked a Gold Star family and compared his “sacrifices” as real-estate billionaire to those of the young and dead Muslim-American soldier Humayun Khan, who besmirched John McCain’s status as a war hero — when was Trump ever in Vietnam?, who wants to create a registry for Muslims (much as Hitler did for Jews — bad precedent), who has the zealous support of the KKK, who cozied up to Putin (whose government interfered in the election — in the country whose security the president is supposed to ensure), who has been nominating plutocrats and alt-right loons to very lofty and powerful positions, who promises to deport millions and break up families, to “build a Wall and make Mexico pay for it” (good luck), who will lead us into trade wars and likely encourage fiscal policy that will lead to another huge financial meltdown, calls climate change a hoax propagated by China (and therefore embraces destructive industries and deregulation, and has no agenda to help mitigate the first anthropogenic extinction in our planet’s history), etc., etc., etc.We are disappointed to think we live in a country in which our fellow citizens think that these things are presidential, that they befit the leader of the free world. We are horrified to think that America elected its own image, and that image is this. The man’s affronts to common decency and infantile vulnerability to any provocation should have disqualified him in the minds of all decent and sane people.So what the fuck happened? I am no great fan of Hillary’s. I don’t think Washington is functioning properly. But electing this wholly selfish, power-hungry golem to our highest office was not a wise alternative.It’s not so much about superiority. The feeling is “This is America in the twenty-first century! How could you?”