This photo is not from 1939 Germany...it's right here in the US!

[plimsoll]

9. I think we are indulging in our own confirmation bias when we say that.

From the time Trump began his run for the presidency I have been worried about the people who would follow him. It’s quite easy to say things like “They don’t understand,” or “They continue to like him in spite of his behavior.” This is a liberal confirmation bias in action. We need to acknowledge that they do understand and they like him because of behavior.

We are engaging in our own brand of American exceptionally when we try to maintain that this strong undercurrent of racism, tribalism and brutality is not only present but nearly as prevalent as the enlightenment values that helped found the country. I don’t say, “The country was founded on,” because that is clearly a liberal trope. Enlightenment values played a part, but slavery was not prohibited, ownership of property and males only franchise was cooked into the country at the inception.

For as much as I dislike Kevin Phillips for what he helped perpetrate on the country, his views on the fundamental divide between “Roundhead and Cavalier” is both a verifiable historic thread, and an ongoing division in our society.