The coming civil war …

The nation is weirdly divided right now. 

One faction believes in the power of big government to right all wrongs and provide whatever anyone wants.  One faction believes the government should only provide for the common defense and support for those who are truly in need, with the emphasis on “truly.”

Then there’s a sizable faction that works in government, or largely depends on government for a living – everybody from bureaucrats, politicians, defense contractors, mega-multinational companies and others.  Small businesses that are not part of that faction tend to view the same government with suspicion at best and fear at worst. 

There are the ultra-rich, the ultra-poor, the middle class, the well-educated and the uneducated. A growing number of people live mostly or entirely on public assistance, including those who do so not out of necessity but preference, which really annoys a fairly large segment of the public.

We have the military haters, the one-world types, anti-gun and anti-death penalty folks. We also have the pro-gun, pro-military, anti-immigrant, law & order, leave-us-alone, America-first people. The former think we can earn the love of the world – and that actually matters – if we give up being a world super power and act more like Europe; the latter doesn’t give a rat’s ass what the rest of the world thinks of us and believe the only way we can protect ourselves and our rights is a big, bad-ass military and a well-armed citizenry not willing to take crap from whomever is serving it up, foreign or domestic. 

Republicans vs. Democrats, or conservatives vs. liberals doesn’t really matter. That’s because all of the groups and factions I’ve mentioned – and I’ve left out many more – aren’t monolithic, despite what politicians and media talking heads and bloggers promote. 

Just because you think there should be controls on gun purchases doesn’t make you anti-gun.  You can be opposed to abortion depending on the circumstances and pro-choice under other circumstances.  It’s easy to be against war yet still want to have the biggest, bad-ass military in the world so no one is ever tempted to go to war with you. The whole issue of entitlements – who should or shouldn’t get them – is again dependent on circumstances for most people; almost no one thinks we shouldn’t provide aid to those in need – the difference is deciding who is in need and who isn’t.

The real divide is on how much power the government should have, who pulls the strings, and how and where the government spends your money. 

Everything else is a matter of degrees. 

The Trump phenomenon illustrates this. 

Certainly, there are rabid elements in both the Hillary and Trump camps. However, the real debate is between business as usual and something different. Hillary is by far the more experienced at government the way it is; Trump is a wild card who scares the crap out of the political establishments of both the Republican and Democrat parties.

And me, too, at times. 

Once you get past the hyperbole, Trump is something no one has seen in a while – a cross between a liberal Republican and a conservative Democrat. 

There’s another factor, too, perhaps even more important: Hillary and most current politicians in either party are money-grubbing whores beholden to whatever special interest group or lobbyists that give them the most money and support. Frankly, Trump doesn’t need the money, nor is he apparently afraid to toss traditional sources of money and support under the bus. 

He just did that with the NRA and extreme gun-rights groups (not the same thing, BTW) by indicating he’d be willing to listen to arguments for reasonable controls on access to guns. He’s also said while he’s personally opposed to abortion in general, he believes the Federal government shouldn’t be deciding who can and can’t obtain abortions – a traditional pro-choice stance.  On taxes he’s said he’s not totally opposed to raising taxes on the rich. Nor is he interested in cutting Social Security or disability benefits – and he concedes that we need to help the poor.  

Ah, but what about immigration?  Trump supports legal immigration – which most Americans do – but is against illegal immigration, again which most Americans also oppose. His talk about building a wall between us and Mexico chills some, but is actually a popular sentiment, as is his thing about banning all Muslims for a while.

In relatively short order he’s managed to piss off the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which supports open borders); major multinationals like Apple and Ford (which outsource jobs); radical conservatives and radical liberals; Grover Norquist and Elizabeth Warren; the NRA and gun-control fanatics; extreme anti-abortion and extreme abortion rights advocates, and a host of other single-issue groups that would normally be on opposite sides.

The only people he hasn’t pissed off are all those who are tired of being caught in the interminable tug of war between diametrically opposed special interests. The members of that group don’t really care that much about safe spaces, microaggressions, gender identity politics, income inequality, bailing out student loan deadbeats, racial or sexual preferences, the war on women, and whose race/gender turn it is to be President.

They really only care about a few things – none of which are on that list. Among these are the economy, decent-paying jobs, and terror. Everything else isn’t that important      

They blame politicians in general and big-money donors who control them for wasting time and resources on things that don’t matter much if you don’t have a good job with a future, and are worried about your safety. Nobody in DC seems to care what’s happening to them, preferring to focus on appeasing the politically connected and deep-pocketed special interest groups. 

All the posturing and finger-pointing is just useless background noise to them, designed to hide what they fear is complete and utter contempt for them and their values by media and political elites who have absolutely no idea what everyday life is like for them.

Unlike the elites, their kids go to public or parochial schools. They don’t have private drivers to whisk them and their kids here and there. No private security firm polices their neighborhood. They can’t afford to ski in the Swiss Alps, travel to Spain for shopping, or take a private jet wherever they wish. They shop at Walmart, Target, Costco, Sams and BJs, not on Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue. Their clothes and shoes are off-the-rack, not custom made for them.  They buy most of their groceries and produce at their local supermarket.

In essence, they are typical middle to lower income Americans. They aren’t rich; they aren’t poor.  They worry more about paying their bills, taking care of their families, and keeping safe, than whether transgendered people should be allowed to use the restrooms of their choice.

Most of all they worry that there’s nobody in government helping them get or keep a decent job, or protecting them from violent criminals or home-grown or foreign terrorists.  Or even realizes that these are the most pressing issues they should be dealing with. 

Over the decades they’ve seen nothing change, except for the worse. More wars. More mass shootings. More jobs being outsourced to foreign countries. More illegal immigrants entering our country with apparent impunity. More ridiculous edicts from DC about what they can do in their private lives or businesses. More government spending on things that don’t matter to them.  More political polarization.  More racial and gender divisiveness. 

More of everything except a good economy, decent jobs, and safety.   

The civil war is here.  It’s between the status quo and anything different than that. 

This November, every incumbent – regardless of party – is vulnerable. Years of political experience are no longer an asset. Endorsement by the political establishment of either party could be the kiss of death. 

A significant part of the public is furious with business as usual.  And they’ll vote.