Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Paul Murray's avatar

To answer the question, "Where did we go wrong?", one must presume that there was a right way, or that the system could work. I'm not convinced the presumption is valid, but if it is, where we "went wrong" was by thinking that once we had voted in our representatives we were then fully absolved of any further input or accountability. Self-rule is a 24/7/365 job, but we let ourselves off the hook for the sake of convenience. Our "elected" representatives are foolish, self-deluding people such as we, right? We would have had to sit on them day and night. Delegation is meaningless without accountability. Best always. PM

Expand full comment
Brien's avatar

There are two sides in America now. We have always had two political parties but for most of our history there were more than two sides. On any given issue there might have been three sides or maybe a dozen. That is what you get with a functioning First Amendment and a free press. Both are gone.

Now you are either on the government’s side or you are not. If you are not you had best keep quiet about it.

In 1861 Abraham Lincoln wrote in his diary: “Both sides could be wrong, but both sides cannot be right.” The more polarized any topic or society becomes the more Lincoln’s statement is thrown into stark relief. He was confident in his side.

Expand full comment
20 more comments...

No posts