100%. This is a core tenet of US civic religion. We learn about George Washington's farewell address, where he bemoans factionalism. We deify Henry Clay, "The Great Compromiser." The most noble thing you can ever do is climb into bed with the slave drivers for the tranquility and comfort of the aristocracy. To stake out any position as nonnegotiable is an act of heresy - the more correct and irrefutably justified the position, the more treasonous. The abolitionists almost blew it.
This is universally reinforced by the media, which frames the bourgeois political crisis a conflict between intractable, extreme parties, when in fact there is very little they disagree on. None the less, the solution is always in the middle. Always compromise. We are led to believe this is where all the "independents" and non-voters live.
We have this deeply cultivated idea that in politics, we all want the same thing. Vagaries like liberty, justice, democracy, prosperity. The conflict then is only about different techniques to arrive at the same outcome. The idea of an actual conflict, of divergent and mutually exclusive interests, already strains the imagination. The notion that our greatest enemies live right within our borders is unspeakable, unless spoken in the vernacular of the oligarchy - terrorists, fifth columnists, saboteurs and traitors. Rioters, Anarchists, criminals, and agents of chaos and misinformation sowing doubt in the tautological benevolence of Hamilton's Constitution.
100%. This is a core tenet of US civic religion. We learn about George Washington's farewell address, where he bemoans factionalism. We deify Henry Clay, "The Great Compromiser." The most noble thing you can ever do is climb into bed with the slave drivers for the tranquility and comfort of the aristocracy. To stake out any position as nonnegotiable is an act of heresy - the more correct and irrefutably justified the position, the more treasonous. The abolitionists almost blew it.
This is universally reinforced by the media, which frames the bourgeois political crisis a conflict between intractable, extreme parties, when in fact there is very little they disagree on. None the less, the solution is always in the middle. Always compromise. We are led to believe this is where all the "independents" and non-voters live.
We have this deeply cultivated idea that in politics, we all want the same thing. Vagaries like liberty, justice, democracy, prosperity. The conflict then is only about different techniques to arrive at the same outcome. The idea of an actual conflict, of divergent and mutually exclusive interests, already strains the imagination. The notion that our greatest enemies live right within our borders is unspeakable, unless spoken in the vernacular of the oligarchy - terrorists, fifth columnists, saboteurs and traitors. Rioters, Anarchists, criminals, and agents of chaos and misinformation sowing doubt in the tautological benevolence of Hamilton's Constitution.