What would it take to unite the U.S. citizenry?

I think written words are better than visuals. Maybe we process it in a different section of our brain. I realize that most of the “good” journalism I read has a leftist bent so I balance it with reading the Wall Street Journal which I think is a good newspaper with a slight right wing bent. I am not sure if your study means everyone should read a diverse stream of news or that reasonable people already do this.

 

Ranked choice voting would be a big help in making third parties viable.

 

Not a real study, but I have a friend who had a bet with a friend/trumph supporter. If they lost they had to watch an hour of Fox News, if their friend lost, they had to watch CNN. The friend lost, and while they haven't totally changed their mind about trump, they have softened their stance and plan to do more research because they feel they have been fed half of the story.

I also read about a guy in SW FL that was a hugh trump fan from the get go. He wrote for Quanon and info wars, started a group called Americans For Trump and only hung around other trump supporters. He didn't like Jan 6th so he started listening to both sides and saw how the people in DC who at first were aghast at what trump did, then turned and did a 180, he decided to start listening and reading opposing views. He then made the decision to walk away from maga. He has a website: www.leavingmaga.org for other supporters who want to leave but would feel like they are all alone. It's crazy.

In addtion, I have a good friend who plans to vote for trumph and she won't read anything, she has "to see it in video for herself". Ooookay.

 

Ranked choice voting would fix this... allowing people to vote a third party without fear of their vote not counting. I think this would be the single biggest change we could make to give a voice to the middle.

 

Good thought Jeff. I’m a big fan of rank choice voting. I am not sure I’d go so far as to say it would fix the issue, but I do think it would help. No doubt a set of political strategies would evolve to try to game the system, where, e.g. Trump instructs his followers to “Vote Biden 4th!”, but if pubs and dems always followed that strategy it might indeed open up a path for the 3rd party.

 

Perhaps the bipartisan hatred of free trade can bring us together as we celebrate our road to poverty.

 

Yeah, this thread is pretty funny in the context of actual politics where both parties leaderships essentially share the same views on economics/trade, immigration, crime, Israel & foreign policy, etc. How will we ever find this mythical unity?

 

Not going to be a popular answer, but a demonically empowered ruler like the antichrist would unite America.

 

This. It would take another 9/11 type event which of course we DO NOT WANT. And even then, the "unity" would only last a few months ala 9/11. This country has never been "united". Just look at black-on-black crime. For decades, the Dem nominee could count on 85%-90% of the African-American vote, which means there was solidarity in politics among African-Americans generally speaking. That didn't stop them from being in the highest of risk categories for violence from other African-Americans. This idea of "unity" is ignorant of reality, our history as a country and human nature in general. I really wish people would stop saying it. No, I don't want another civil war, but if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. We're never going to all sit around the campfire as a nation and sing Kumbaya. Hell, this country was built on the backs of black slaves. Segregation in public institutions lasted through the 1960s. As a nation, we literally subjugated an entire race as inferior and went out of our way to treat them like shit. But oh yes, we were "unified."

 

I thought that was Obama? Didnt work.

 

I hate that I'm going to paraphrase Nate Silver here, but I think many people are focused on the noise rather than the signal.

 

When was the last “normal” 3rd party candidate that anyone would want as president? Say what you want about party machine candidates outside of Trump we haven’t had kooky presidential candidates. Third party candidates are bordering on nuts. I actually consider Trump a 3rd party candidate that took over the GOP.

 

I think this further demonstrates that these rifts aren’t about actual politices. They are about identities. What would happen if Biden started talking about a wall, and Trump started saying that would be a waste of money? Would Trump supporters jump to Biden? Of course not. In fact, this inversion already occurred. Republicans were the pro-immigration party in the 80s. The policy disagreement is secondary to the moral conflict. Biden/Trump are evil, and therefore what they represent is evil, even if turns out to be pretty close to what I represent.

 

There's probably an element of that, but people who share a basic agreement on broad issues can certainly disagree on who is better at managing things, or can make a case as to which minor difference is better, or why something needs more or less funding that can be diverted to other priorities. Certainly rhetoric can exaggerate the differences, it sort of has to when you have 2 people running against each other for every office. And certainly voters dont necessarily align with party leadership on issues they are most invested in. But they are moveable on ones they are less invested in.

 

I think I found our unifying north star.... Got to be the Gator Baseball team.

 

Dingers by Jac make us sing Kumbaya

 

The antichrist would rise to power through the political process. Jesus ain't coming back here to win an election.

 

You got that right. If you read Revelation it will be something more like this: