[chitowneats]

> Intelligent commentators mocked the famous George W. Bush line when he uttered it. But a decade and a half later and it’s the prevailing sentiment among many of the same people who ridiculed it.

The degree to which this has occurred, across a wide range of issues, is still stunning to me.

[Apocryphon]

Not really. The Bush administration accelerated the polarization of post-Cold War American public culture, which the Obama presidency failed to truly heal. It’s hard to be stunned when everything is progressing (or rather regressing) into tribalism and atomization as it has been for decades, just louder and more obnoxiously.

[chitowneats]

> which the Obama presidency failed to truly heal

Hard to succeed at solving a problem when your actions seem almost perfectly tailored to exacerbate it.

I'm not going to relitigate the Obama era. Democrats seem incapable of understanding that the "clinging to guns, religion" comment, and the policies that follow from such a stance, were divisive.

Edit: Responding to the comment below because this account is rate limited:

Indeed, they did not. That entire "movement" is a stain on the GOP, and you are right to criticize them for it.

It's a great example of Trumpian nonsense Musk has never engaged in.

There is meaningful daylight between the views and actions of men like Trump, DeSantis, and Elon Musk. They are not "aligned" to the degree claimed throughout this thread. Though, I understand why it's politically convenient to state otherwise.

[Apocryphon]

For all of its faults, I do not believe the Obama administration came up with the Tea Party Movement or Birtherism.

[roflyear]

Not everything is politically motivated.