Was there ever a time when grown adults that supported different parties could have an intelligent r

I’m asking this because I’ve only followed politics for a short time. The hatred is mind boggling. Was there at some point where 2 neighbors with different signs in their yards could carry on a friendly discussion, or 2 coworkers who supported different parties could discuss politics at work and not be vilified or written up?

 

Yes,

My parents and my former in-laws were separate parties and neither couple allowed politics to divide them.

I am totally and completely confused by all the hatred, anger and blaming that I see here. Quite frankly, it disgusts me.

 

It hasn’t always been this bad.
The democrats (formerly known as sane people) have become a hate cult and want to stuff all their beliefs down others throats
This doesn’t make for nice conversations

 

I feel the same way. Individuals can be hated for doing something horrible. But group hatred is always wrong.

However, I am not free from this error. I sometimes mock the Russians and find that funny.

 

After having read your hostile opinions of Christians multiple occasions I find this post to be rather ironic...

 

Having read your hostile opinions of everything to the left of Attila the Hun, I find the irony of this post hilariously, and unintentionally, ironic...

 

Tis true .. and on the other side the Religious right runs the show.. Lose lose..

 

Before Newt Gingrich and Lush Rimbaugh created combat politics it was a much more polite world. MUCH!

 

I'm not the one complaining. I only hate fake people that wear two faces

 

Before Obama became POTUS yes. But when he became POTUS something changed. Both sides will naturally blame the other side. Which one started to actually become extremist first I couldn't tell you.

What I can tell you though, at least from my POV, is that many on the left seems to have taken things to the extreme far more than those on the right side.

I say this because many of the stances on the left has changed from what they once were. For instance those on the left used to believe in personal responsibility. I just do not see that anymore. Most of thier stances are truly socialist in nature. With some members of Congress even outright admitting to being a part of the socialist movement.

With the Right however most of thier stances are relatively the same. They still espouse personal responsibility, still want abortion banned, still support the 2nd etc. Some are just taking it to extremes now. That's the only real difference with them between then and now.

Due to them both going to extremes thier emotions are doing the same. Resulting in more hatred being expressed and less talking. Or perhaps it would be better to say less willingness to believe that the other side can be good. I don't know.

 

Thank you, that’s what I wanted to know. I never heard my parents talk about politics and unfortunately they’re gone now so I really can’t ask anyone. Who can you ask these days right? I hear it all the time in stores, hatred for both sides. Maybe one day it won’t be this way. I don’t know either.

 

Read your AMERICAN history, after George Washington's presidency, politics back then were just as partisan and bloodthirsty as today, simply minus the 24/7 modern media amplifying it all.

 

There are however lulls in just how bloodthirsty things are. Things were never this bad during the Bush era's and Clinton era.

 

True enough, it seems to run in cycles....now THERE'S a subject ripe for study.

 

It'd be an interesting read for sure. But...I'd hate to be the one to do it. Lol

 

Well in part that depends on whether you're taking about people who blindly support a specific political party (who are the minority) or normal people who just have different political beliefs and opinions.

Even in the first case though, and certainly in the second, people like that get along all the time. There are even married couples with different political opinions who get along just fine. The key point is that you won't hear about people getting along because that is normal and undramatic. You will hear about the few examples of conflicts, arguments or fights but that doesn't mean you should take that as representative of the whole.

 

I think the political divisions have always existed. In the best of times, the neighbors who supported different parties, probably couldn't understand why their neighbor supported the other party, but they didn't think it was because of malicious intent and hatred for the country or the other side.

In the worst of times, the hatred was so strong, that the political opposition had to be eradicated by violence. One only has to think back to the civil war as an example here in the US, or the attempts to eradicate the communists in Nazi Germany and Mussolini Italy, or the cleansing of the anti-communists in Stalin Russia. We have to be careful that we don't fall back into this trap, although we are certainly currently on a path in the wrong direction. Why? Because money can be made from the division by media and social media.

 

Exactly!

 

When communication was face to face before the internet, people were a lot more civil because hateful words put you at risk of being punched in the nose.

 

Funny; you've been on a hot streak, today.

 

Party politics should never be a zero sum game. Once the election is over, it's time to govern for the American people. Shorten the election cycles, reduce the money needed to win at politics and starve the 24hr news giants to cover facts and less opinion and spin.

 

Both parties have purged their moderates to the extent possible. As a result both parties have drifted to toward the ideologues.

 

While this is true, Newton's third law, the right is much more radicalized currently.

 

LOL, then there was Bork.

 

Far from it. Democrats have moved so far left that moderates are now considered far right. Democrats used to be nationalists and patriots but the far left communists in the party has turned into a very far left political party.