Maybe I ought to start a blog. 😉

Thanks for clearing up that mystery!
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I find this an apt concern for our times:

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” – E Burke

Too many are rather vocal about the “others”, but seldom seem concerned in frequency and magnitude about issues on “our” side.

Yet, it is “we” on this side who are best positioned to hold accountable those who represent “our” side.

Few see the consequences of the hyper-partisanship that has taken over.
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Almost missed it!

You exchanged emails with Andrew Sullivan?

Perhaps in his earlier days, he was much more open to personal contact?

Nowadays, that’d be a license for an inbox full of spam and vitriol.

Very much agree.

Two areas where we may see this come through:

1) Trade War

Tax and regulatory reduction / simplification can provide a big economic boost. BUT, ~23% of our economy is directly trade related (unsure how much is indirect).

If trump fully follows through on his rhetorical “promises” and starts a trade war (ostensibly in the name of “bringing jobs back”, or just plain generalized “unfairness”), then any boost will be quickly killed, along with a new recession.

“we must trace not merely the immediate results but the results in the long run, not merely the primary consequences but the secondary consequences, and not merely the effects on some special group but the effects on everyone”
http://walkerd.people.cofc.edu/200/HazlittCh15.pdf
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2) International Uncertainty / Chaos

Like it or not, the US is a stabilizing force in the world. It’s “unfair” that the US carries more than its share of that burden.

But, I’d argue that is better than the alternative path we’ve gone down with obama and seem to about to accelerate under trump.

As the US steps back from its leadership role, or becomes more “transactional” in approach, that leaves our allies in the lurch concretely, if not perceptually.
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So what?

Many think pulling back will make the allies “step up”.

Big assumption, and hardly the only way things can go.

As we start reneging on / “renegotiating” our treaties, including trade, NATO, UN, etc, we leave a hole to be filled by some other country.

Syria is a good example of that dynamic. Ukraine another.

And, believe it or not, the TPP (despite its flaws) is yet another (it also represents a renegotiation of NAFTA, btw, as Mexico and Canada were signatories to that deal – Surprisingly, Mexico has more “free trade” deals with more countries than the US! That alone can override wages as an enticement to local plants there for export of product. TPP was to mitigate some of that).
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Soon countries will get the message that they may be better off aligning with our enemies – China in the east, Russia in Europe. Why not? They might get a better “deal”! (transactional view)

Maybe, it’s only to hedge their bets – perhaps competition is good, and they have to follow through to show they mean business.

Once the US pulls out or renegs on prior signed agreements, it is not a one way street. What stops other nations who signed agreements from unilaterally doing the same?

As allied nations realign or become more defensive, that leaves the door open for rogue nations to expand their influence, one way or another.

If trump decides that is also unacceptable, what’s he going to do about it, having abandoned diplomatic norms?

Flex our military might?

Escalation! Nice formula for war.
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There are real consequences from abandoning leadership and focusing on how much we “win” (transactional) on everything (as opposed to “win / win”) in our dealings with other countries’ governments

Not to say there isn’t room for improvement on a whole host of things nor that changes should never be discussed.

But, managing international relations is far from doing a real estate deal. There is far more involved and many more consequences.

trump’s propensity to “hit back twice as hard” at real and perceived slights, and to personalize his attacks, along with the above, creates a volatile mix of uncertainties, and, probably, in crisis, chaos.

Remains to be seen if his picks for cabinet could mitigate it all and tame trump’s “instincts”.

I admit all the “civil war” talk has me a bit jumpy.

You and me both, brother. It’s been around in certain areas of the right for some time, but events since the election make it seem more likely. The current insanity of the left as seen in the protests won’t be the trigger, IMO. An economic crisis or melt-down combined with the intense polarization is my fear.

I wrote fewER, not few.

There are plenty of ends justify means people on both sides. But my very strong perception (and I’ve been around both sides a long long time) is that that are fewer on the right.

The ends justify the means is pretty much universal on the left. It is nowhere near universal on the right. That said, ends-justify-means is a human impulse that is hard to resist. It is seen in great abundance on both sides, but the left embraces it and the right does not.

Well, that’s not really an example of an end justifying the means, is it. There are no means being employed by an agent, in order to effect an end he intends.

Letting the insistently obnoxious and appropriative run full force into brick walls of their own, or nature’s making, is not an act of agency.

” I tend to think there are fewer “ends justify the means” folks on the right” – Neo

I have to disagree, in the magnitude and context. Maybe true in the overall populous, but even then maybe not. That the msm is largely leftwardly biased may make it seem so.

However, there are plenty, such as many commenters here, for whom the “end justifies the means” – heck, some would even let a political opponent drown without so much as calling 911, they are so filled with animus.

The fact that there is a sudden acceptance of what would have been labelled “RINO!!!” only 1.5 years ago, is an enormous tell.
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There are too many cheerleaders who like to point to how bad the left is, as if trump is an innocent bystander.

I see a lot of “fight” from trump and co (something many cheered about, and still cheer on), but not a lot of “strategy”, which brings into question his “competence”.

I see very little admittance that trump is perhaps the instigator, perhaps not all that competent (as compared to what he campaigned on), not all that honest (to the point that one has good reason to suspect everything the man says), and has questionable motives (with plenty of indicators he’s much more interested in self aggrandizement and enrichment).

Too much seems to go by unnoticed or is “forgiven” because either the left is “worse”, or “he’s fighting for us”, or whatever end one wants and imagines will be what trump will deliver on.
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As I mentioned in an earlier comment elsewhere, there is a HUGE underlying assumption in all this… that all will be forgiven once the results come in.

Well, it matters how you get there, as that can make the difference between even getting there, let alone how long those changes will last.

trump really doesn’t have the support like many claim or believe. His election wasn’t a “landslide” that trump’s team and his media supporters continue to spin.

If the man was honest, was clear in his philosophy and objectives, was relatively transparent in what he intends to do, was ethical vs legal, particularly wrt conflicts of interest, etc., he’d have waaaay more support.
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So, we have what we have, and we hope.

We hope, because we know by now (as if it wasn’t predictable) that trump is not going to change one iota.

And that escalation, the lying and misinformation, the bumbling mistakes, and the self-serving attacks on our institutions, etc. will all continue.

We will now have to endure both sides playing the same terrible game at an intensified level where there are really no winners, least of all the average joes.

After the 2016 election cycle, and seeing many “conservative” leaders and voices change up what they long preached, either for opportunity, or merely revealing their true colors, it was more than disheartening.

The game was revealed for what it is, and so long as we all join in on game in those (their) terms, we will lose.

We will not get to where we need to be long term. Any “win” will prove illusive over time, without broad support. The price in return will be high.

The ONLY realistic course for us is to hold BOTH sides accountable, and insist that BOTH sides be honest, competent, etc.

In the meantime, the ONLY glimmer of hope at the WH comes from what looks like competent cabinet members (for the most part), and that they may be able to sway and tame trump.

You didn’t ask for an example, but someone provided it. Funny how that works.

“Bill Says:
February 15th, 2017 at 7:10 pm

One reason our country is so divided is because it’s hard for many to believe that their ideological opponent has honestly-held beliefs.”

Funny guy.

No, it’s because the moral aliens of the left, need, demand and insist on having from conservatives and libertarians through the coercive agency of politics, and to the cost of our heritage of liberties and lives, what libertarians and conservatives neither need nor want from the left. All in the name of the left’s cherished by any means necessary termite state.

ObamaCare for instance. I’m quite sure that those in favor of making me a state serf in order to force me to pick-up or help underwrite the costs of their>/b> autogenous disorders, are quite sincere in their beliefs.