Civil Cold War
If a post on politics is not what you’re up for, feel free to ignore this.
I write assuming Biden will win and be able to take office.
Despite this, the plain fact remains that a very large minority of American are okay with supporting a candidate who openly attacks democracy, the rule of law, and civil rights. 2016 was not an aberration. The evidence is there, but it does not shift their votes. More people have voted for Trump than in 2016. America is not the country we thought it was. Nor is there much motivation for Republican leadership to change much. Why change what very nearly worked?
Thus, we face the very high likelihood of continued political polarization, leaving the Federal government unable to act effectively against danger from without and within and degrading what professionalism there is.
What do you call that situation? I call it a Civil Cold War.
Of course, there are many differences between the world in the second half of the 20th century and America today. Not least is that the world was never united in one society and government beforehand.
I do not take the Cold War as a blueprint for what will happen to America, but I do look to it for patterns that may recur.
One pattern to recall is that most people in “Communist” countries were basically decent people who valued the services provided them by their government without endorsing all of its activities. Government propaganda was able to drown out Western messages, without the help of Facebook’s individual profiles.
Another pattern is the use of disinformation and rigged elections over naked force. “Communist” leaders knew the danger of open warfare.
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