For what it is worth, it has been that way since the beginning when we had Hamilton’s city merchant Federalists vs. Jefferson’s rural gentry Anti-Federalists.
Thanks, I'll try to read about it. The divide in itself pretty much is pretty much a fact of life, that groups with different lifestyles will have different out looks on life. I just feel that in America it runs deeper, and there's a mutual disdain, whereas elsewhere it feels more like a resentment from the rural communities that feel underprivileged or marginalized. Not sure I've been able to explain it well.
Both groups would be reasonably well educated too and reasonably well off so it’s crazy to think of educated, well off but not super rich folk voting for Trump.
This is what stands out as a bit odd. Same communities living in similar conditions, but being so entrenched in their views and allowing their differences to define them.
I recently heard someone say that "Tyranny is the absence of nuance" and I see it in politics generally, but more obvious in American politics. Maybe it's due the two party system painting everything in black and white, with or against. People either see Trump as the devil or the messiah, and it's close enough that despite all he's done there's a genuine possibility he could get reelected, and however the election goes the results likely to be contested.
Even among democrats there's acentrist progressive fracture, where centrists feel that progressives have an obligation to vote for a nominee even if said nominee is the antithesis to their values, or progressives that won't get behind a candidate they feel does not represent their values, even if it's to avert a greater evil.