The story elements below point to a fact of life in the United States these days, that we are divided not only in regard to what we think but, more importantly, in how we think and, because the line that divides us is hardly ever crossed, the discourse that should be the centerpiece of democratic process is dead. If it cannot be revived, than what should be a United States of America is impossible. Personally, I cannot, no matter how hard I try, find good reason to respect the thinking of those who hold to Mr. Trump. I, like Ms. Hicks, “feel like I am in a bizarre world,” me for the very reason that Ms. Hicks can find reason to believe as she does, that 67% of Republicans approve of the way Mr. Trump responded to what took place in Charlottesville, that a black woman could possibly support Mr. Trump and argue that the outrage over Mr. Trump excusing the acts of those professing racial hatred was political and disingenuous. Ms. Hicks is identified as a black woman.
Perhaps we have reached a point where the divide is so wide as to be swallowing all hope for a better nation.
I hope not.
A Deal Breaker for Trump’s Supporters? Nope. Not This Time, Either. By SABRINA TAVERNISE
AUG. 19, 2017. NY Times
- Sixty-seven percent of Republicans said they approved of the president’s response to the violence in Charlottesville last weekend, compared with just 10 percent of Democrats, according to a CBS News surveyconducted over the past week.
- But in an increasingly tribal America, with people on the left and the right getting information from different sources and seeing the same facts in different ways, it reflects the way Mr. Trump has become in many ways both symbol and chief agitator of a divided nation.
- I feel like I am in a bizarro universe where no one but me is thinking logically,” she said. “We have gone so off the rails of what this conversation is about.”
- Hicks, who is black and grew up in Charlotte, N.C., welcomes the public soul-searching on the meaning of Confederate monuments. She believes that the statues were erected to intimidate black people and that they should be taken down. But instead of focusing on that, she sees opponents of Mr. Trump focusing on Mr. Trump.
