Reply to No Matter Who You Are Tell Me When You Think Our Current Form of Government Became Dysfunctional?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Tipping point? I think after the 2010 Midterms when any semblance of trying to enact policy went out the window in Congress. Since then, US government has been in complete dysfunction mode.

Key Contributing factors?
- Post-Reconstruction Era backlash and enactment of Jim Crow
- McCarthyism
- Southern Strategy
- Grover Norquist anti-tax extremism
- Contract with America and rise of Congressional Republican brinksmanship
- Iraq vote as litmus test for Democrats
- Citizens United and rise of TEA Party (esp. post Obamacare Town Hall demonstrations)

Ultimately, though, I think every single thing boils down to the lingering unresolved issues from slavery. Not the lingering racism which is rampant in most Western democracies, but many unresolved issues post slavery. While I think most Americans are unconflicted about the moral benefits of ending slavery, we have never fully grappled with the philosophical meaning of Federalism from a social or economic standpoint. Racism is part of the legacy, but so is fighting over the welfare state, corporatism, wealth inequality, etc.[/quote]

Agree with much of this and was going to bring up Grover Norquist specifically. But I think it started in 1994, and turned worse in 2010. Gingrich becoming Speaker and the crowd that was elected that year was the beginning of the end of bipartisan cooperation in Congress.[/quote]

Agreed but the reason I think that it boils down to unresolved issues over slavery is that rich white guys established slavery here in the U.S. to ensure that they could stay in power and continue to hold economic power.  Bacon's rebellion and another rebellion in Maryland scared the sh** out of the wealthy white ruling class.  They did not want black and white indentured servants and slaves joining together to overthrow them so they made sure to pass laws that codified and encouraged racial differences and discrimination.  Rich white men (remember women had no real seat at the table) needed to ensure that the poor and less well off economically would not join together and take over.  This divide and conquer/oppress strategy has worked since the beginning.  Make sure that poor blacks and poor whites won't join together with other folks in a similar circumstance.  Make sure that women won't join together to demand a real seat at the table.  Keep oppressed groups fighting with one another by exploiting class, sex, race, religion, ethic background, gender, etc. so that the rich primarily white haves can continue to amass more and more and more.  That is the root of it all.  Without that root would we have had Jim Crow, McCarthy, the Souther Strategy, Grover Torquiest and the mostly angry white anti-tax extremists, the Newt Gingrich and his cabal of angry white male talk radio/cable tv hosts (Rush Limbaugh, Howie Carr, Glenn Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc.), the rise of purity/litmus tests for Dems, Citizen United and the rise of the tea party.  And I would add the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which was just one more way the wealthy white guys ensured that they could control the message and keep folks divided including working class whites.  [/quote]

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