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Movies => Press Releases and Film News => Topic started by: Allhallowsday on July 12, 2008, 09:42:04 PM



Title: President Clinton warns of growing polarization
Post by: Allhallowsday on July 12, 2008, 09:42:04 PM
President Clinton warns of growing polarization 
PHILADELPHIA - Former President Bill Clinton warned Saturday that the country is becoming increasingly polarized despite the historic nature of the Democratic primary.
 
Speaking at the National Governors Association's semiannual meeting, Clinton noted that on the one hand, following the early stages of the Democratic primary, "the surviving candidates were an African-American man and a woman."

Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, battled for the Democratic nomination into June with fellow Democrat Barack Obama, son of a white mother and black father.

But this achievement was overshadowed by a growing distance between Americans, said Clinton... 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080712/ap_on_re_us/governors_bill_clinton (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080712/ap_on_re_us/governors_bill_clinton)



Title: Re: President Clinton warns of growing polarization
Post by: indianasmith on July 12, 2008, 09:52:18 PM
Our country has ALWAYS been polarized politically, and always will be.

 I am reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton right now, by Donald Charnow.  It is fascinating to realize how deep and bitter the political divisions were during the first two decades of America's existence.  Hamilton, who served as the first Secretary of State, was the most powerful member of Washington's cabinet and the President's right hand man.  He saw Jefferson as a dangerous Jacobin who wanted to bring the Terror of the French Revolution to America and set up guillotines to destroy the merchant and banking classes.  Jefferson saw Hamilton as a monarchist through and through, whose greatest desire was to either restore the U.S. to British rule or create a native hereditary monarchy.  Ironically, Hamilton had served in Washington's army with great bravery and was wounded in action at Trenton trying to FREE America from the British, while Jefferson, as governor of Virginia, fled with his family when the British invaded the state.

But both men were actually patriots who loved America and wanted to see it free, prosperous, and growing.  I personally like Hamilton better, but both men were necessary for the establishment of our government.  Sadly, the bitter political divisions with Jefferson's faction cost Hamilton his life . . . he was killed in a duel on July 11, 1804, by Aaron Burr, Jefferson's VP at the time.  At least we're not THAT divided today!


Good post, AH!!  Of course, good ol'l Bill was NEVER a divisive or polarizing figure while he was in office . . . . :lookingup:


Title: Re: President Clinton warns of growing polarization
Post by: CheezeFlixz on July 12, 2008, 10:12:23 PM
Early polarization was localized do to the lack of mass media, the polarization has grown far beyond the beltway, grant it there wasn't one during Jefferson day. However, the political polarization permeates society today and there seem to be very little common ground or common sense on either side, a country divided will not stand and at some point both sides are going to have to give a little, and learn to accept changes that may not want.
Unfortunately, there is little room to work as the opposing side are so far apart they can't even see each other. So I don't think the polarization is growing, it's grown.

As a 'rightie', there are things I can accept from the left, but some things are so far left they're illogical and I'll never accept them no matter what. Should we be good stewards of the earth, yes we should. Should we do it to the determent of out society? Absolutely not. At some point common sense must come into play. There is going to have to be give and take and some folk just flat out don't want to give on anything.



Title: Re: President Clinton warns of growing polarization
Post by: ghouck on July 14, 2008, 11:22:02 AM
As I see it, it's become too much of a bargaining process, and people fail to keep their goals in sight. It shows in every facet of politics, even in issues as far out on the fringe as you can get. Locally, we have the ongoing battle between the snowmachiners and the cross-country skiers. The Skiers want a certain area closed to snowmobiles, of course the snowmobile riders want to ride there. But, that's not the argument, the starting point of the skiers it to disallow snowmobiles on the entire peninsula, (an area larger than several of the smaller states), and a $2000.00 a year registration process for anyone that OWNS one in the area, call it a "preemptive fine". They start with this huge demand, knowing it isn't realistic or even remotely fair, with the expectation of getting what is a good deal on their side of FAIR. This brings two problems: 1) If you are a snowmobiler, any stance you take that is similarly unfair in YOUR direction looks totally ludicrous, and 2) You gather support from people who don't know any better, and keep rallying for your ludicrous demands, eventually taking the aforementioned approach of taking the extreme even further.
The same thing happened in regards to a proposed mining area: The opposition started with lobbying to shut down several mines in the area, now they're to the point of "We're NOT trying to eliminate jobs, etc, this ONE mine is one little issue we're taking up."'
We had here a Governor that was just as crooked as you can imagine. He TOTALLY circumvented the entire state's procurement system (which is covered by a state statute) and bought a jet, simply because he wanted one (Anyone else that works for the state would see even a $1.00 purchase without authorization cause for termination). He also went against state procurement rules when trying to close a deal on natural gas mining, in that he disallowed some companies from participating in the bid process, and completely threw the "freedom of information act" out the window. Now, how did this dirtbag get into office: well, one thing was the number of people that were campaigning for him, one of which ended up being appointed as director of an entire state department, a job which he was COMPLETELY unqualified for and he failed at miserably.

I have to agree with Cheeze: Often people take position on an issue that just simply defies logic and common sense, and often those people will not move at all. It becomes little about the issue at hand, and more about imposing their will upon others.