There is no Godwin's Law for evoking the Civil War in a discussion of politics. To most Americans, the Civil War was a seminal event in this country, one accompanied by the prerequisite amount of blood and death to qualify as a war, and one that was then, and this is now.
Yes, one must be very careful to not diminish the pain and loss of that war by unjust comparisons to it. This I believe, is Godwin's point. No, we have not taken up arms against each other for the better part---although there are more and more exceptions to that in a country gone hog wild with their guns. And no, our sons are not being slaughtered fighting each other in their own country. Things to be thankful for.
But there are too many places where the comparison is fair. Start with the fact that what drove us to a Civil War was the conflict between state rights and federal mandate. I cannot think of any time since the Civil war where that conflict is as intense as it is now.
Yes, one can site many examples of the battle between states rights and federal mandate in the long and bitter aftermath of the Civil War. Certainly the south continued to fight for their states' rights long after the Civil war, including Jim Crow laws, and school segregation, to name but a few.
But they did not win those battles, this country won them. Jim Crow laws became illegal, segregated public schools became illegal. A whole host of abusive legislation became illegal. Today, as we see the spread of civil rights laws to protect the LGBT community, today's republicans have done a darn good job of putting it all up for grabs again.
There are a sickening amount of examples. Let's talk about Indiana's new "right to be a bigot" law. A law that argues that a state has the right to undo federal law---remember, we aren't just talking about gay marriage here, we're talking about gay Jim Crow laws. Because that's exactly what this is, masquerading as religious rights. Oh, the mind blowing and perverse ironies and hypocrisies.
Then there's Rick Scott's Florida where it is now against the law to use the words "Climate Change" in any state related communication. Really?!?! How could this happen? Is it not in direct opposition to the first amendment? Sure, we all know we can't say whatever we want at work. Because if we did that willy nilly we'd probably lose our jobs. But that's a whole lot different than making what you can and can't say at work a law. Again, this is state triumphing over federal mandate.
In fact, the republicans have honed state power to a sharpened pencil point, and they are getting away with it. State by state they argue that they can do whatever they damn well can legislate. Exactly what the south argued before the civil war---that they had a right to legislate to their majority, and their states' needs, including ownership of other human beings.
This post is unapologetic in in it's concentration on the cultural civil war. Some here demean that as in "Democrats are OK on social issues, but that's not important enough to make them different than republicans. I say it is.
From voting rights, to gay rights, to union rights, to women's rights and religious rights, republicans are waging a war against the idea that certain things are inalienable to who we are as a country, as a union. They are waging this war because state power is their refuge against a changing world---the refuge of scoundrels, those that would seek to divide for power and profit, utterly shameless about the consequences for the union. Same as the southern states before the Civil War.
I'm sure you've all heard, read and experienced anecdotally how bitter and divided our politics have become. So many people I know bemoan this state of affairs, throw up their hands and say "I hate politics. It's all just too nasty these days." Pundits love to talk about it too. I'm looking at you Chris Mathews, just for starters, you who just can't get over the fact that things aren't as civil as you deemed them to be in your hay day. Wake up and smell the coffee, man.
Wars aren't civil. And there's nothing civil about what's going on in this country today. It's as serious as a heart attack. More insidious than all out war, and as corrosive and degrading to us on its own timeline, and in its own way.
So I don't apologize to those who just want us all to be nicer about all this. I don't apologize to friends and family who look askance at me sometimes, cock an eyebrow at my passionate expression of my concerns. Many of them are very good people with very good intentions, but sometimes I just want to take them by their well intentioned and oh so civil and preciously uninvolved collars and shake them alive. I want to say the question is why the hell aren't you scared to death about what's happening in your country?
And of course, I have absolutely no patience for the "no labels" people. Are you kidding me? If you can't label yourself as firmly against something, then it really doesn't matter what you're for. Some things cannot be compromised with. In my book you better damn well stand up and say "label me" as for this, and against that, and damn the torpedoes.
This site is a small island of sanity for me, despite our disagreements, because there are a lot of people here who are outraged. But it is a small place, and I would like to read more, and hear more about how outraged we damn well should be, and much less about how nice we should be about it.