Tearing The Usa Apart From Kavanaugh To Incivility To Caravans To Violence To The 2018 Midterm Elections And Beyond

The United States of American is being torn about by political differences more than any time since the 1960s and maybe since the Civil War of the 1860s. This division was amplified by political events in the summer to fall of 2018. This time period could prove to be seminal in the history of the United States. It could precipitate this country into ever widening divisions, or it could be when the country realized it needed to pull together and heal the splits in our society.Democrats, liberals, leftists, and the mainstream media are on the left, while President Trump, Republicans, and conservatives are on the right, with the American people caught in the middle and being forced to choose sides, with no middle ground seemingly possible.This tearing apart came to the forefront and was amplified during the confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Democrats, aided by their allies on the left, pulled out all the stops and every dirty trick in the book to try to derail his confirmation, while Republicans and the rest of the right dug in and did what was necessary to ensure his confirmation.That fight was sure to have an effect on the 2018 midterm elections. But before the country got to Election Day, several additional events occurred that further tore the country apart and which would also affect the midterms, from caravans of illegal immigrants, to pipe bombs, to yet another mass shooting in the USA. Then after the midterms, yet more events occurred or continued that further tore the USA apart.This book will overview the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings in detail. It will then overview these additional major events that occurred up to the end of November 2018.

The United States of American is being torn about by political differences more than any time since the 1960s and maybe since the Civil War of the 1860s. This division was amplified by political events in the summer to fall of 2018. This time period could prove to be seminal in the history of the United States. It could precipitate this country into ever widening divisions, or it could be when the country realized it needed to pull together and heal the splits in our society. Democrats, liberals, leftists, and the mainstream media are on the left, while President Trump, Republicans, and conservatives are on the right, with the American people caught in the middle and being forced to choose sides, with no middle ground seemingly possible. This tearing apart came to the forefront and was amplified during the confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Democrats, aided by their allies on the left, pulled out all the stops and every dirty trick in the book to try to derail his confirmation, while Republicans and the rest of the right dug in and did what was necessary to ensure his confirmation. That fight was sure to have an effect on the 2018 midterm elections. But before the country got to Election Day, several additional events occurred that further tore the country apart and which would also affect the midterms, from caravans of illegal immigrants, to pipe bombs, to yet another mass shooting in the USA. Then after the midterms, yet more events occurred or continued that further tore the USA apart. This book will overview the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings in detail. It will then overview these additional major events that occurred up to the end of November 2018.

This timely volume offers a comprehensive and rigorous overview of the role of communication in the construction of hate speech and polarization in the online and offline arena. Delving into the meanings, implications, contexts and effects of extreme speech and gated communities in the media landscape, the chapters analyse misleading metaphors and rhetoric via focused case studies to understand how we can overcome the risks and threats stemming from the past decade’s defining communicative phenomena. The book brings together an international team of experts, enabling a broad, multidisciplinary approach that examines hate speech, dislike, polarization and enclave deliberation as cross axes that influence offline and digital conversations. The diverse case studies herein offer insights into international news media, television drama and social media in a range of contexts, suggesting an academic frame of reference for examining this emerging phenomenon within the field of communication studies. Offering thoughtful and much-needed analysis, this collection will be of great interest to scholars and students working in communication studies, media studies, journalism, sociology, political science, political communication and cultural industries.

“[A] tour de force. Building upon her argument in Beyond Ideology, she adds an important wrinkle into the current divide between the parties in Congress.” —Perspectives on Politics As Democrats and Republicans continue to vie for political advantage, Congress remains paralyzed by partisan conflict. That the last two decades have seen some of the least productive Congresses in recent history is usually explained by the growing ideological gulf between the parties, but this explanation misses another fundamental factor influencing the dynamic. In contrast to politics through most of the twentieth century, the contemporary Democratic and Republican parties compete for control of Congress at relative parity, and this has dramatically changed the parties’ incentives and strategies in ways that have driven the contentious partisanship characteristic of contemporary American politics. With Insecure Majorities, Frances E. Lee offers a controversial new perspective on the rise of congressional party conflict, showing how the shift in competitive circumstances has had a profound impact on how Democrats and Republicans interact. Beginning in the 1980s, most elections since have offered the prospect of a change of party control. Lee shows, through an impressive range of interviews and analysis, how competition for control of the government drives members of both parties to participate in actions that promote their own party’s image and undercut that of the opposition, including the perpetual hunt for issues that can score political points by putting the opposing party on the wrong side of public opinion. More often than not, this strategy stands in the way of productive bipartisan cooperation—and it is also unlikely to change as long as control of the government remains within reach for both parties.

The Proud Tower, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Guns of August, and The Zimmerman Telegram comprise Barbara W. Tuchman’s classic histories of the First World War era During the fateful quarter century leading up to World War I, the climax of a century of rapid, unprecedented change, a privileged few enjoyed Olympian luxury as the underclass was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.” In The Proud Tower, Barbara W. Tuchman brings the era to vivid life: the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy; the Anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; the Peace Conferences in The Hague; and the enthusiasm and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized by the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the night the Great War began and an epoch came to a close. Praise for The Proud Tower “[Barbara W. Tuchman’s] Pulitzer Prize–winning The Guns of August was an expert evocation of the first spasm of the 1914–1918 war. She brings the same narrative gifts and panoramic camera eye to her portrait of the antebellum world.”—Newsweek “A rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.”—The New York Times “An exquisitely written and thoroughly engrossing work . . . The author’s knowledge and skill are so impressive that they whet the appetite for more.”—Chicago Tribune “[Tuchman] tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding.”—Time

Does God have a sex plan? By that is meant, did God design the human race to function best by following a specific plan for how human beings are to interact sexually and to reproduce? What happens when this plan is followed, and when it is not followed? Are different varieties of sexual behaviors just as legitimate as God's original sex plan? This two-volume set explores these controversial questions. Many issues are discussed that are related to sex, including but not limited to: monogamy, marital sex, polygamy, incest, homo-sexuality, premarital sex (fornication), extramarital sex (adultery), celibacy, transsexualism, reproduction, infertility, contraception, abortion, sexual harassment and assault, masturbation, pornography, and gender roles. The bulk of this set consists of looking at relevant Scripture passages, studying them more or less in Biblical order, starting with the Book of Genesis, then moving on through to the Book of The Revelation. The verses are quoted then commented upon, with the focus on what the passage is teaching and the implications thereof. Along the way, extra-Biblical arguments for and against the Biblical position are addressed. Shorter such discussions are indicated in the text as being a "side note," while longer discussions are separated by the subtitle "Extra-Biblical Discussion." But the focus is on the Scriptures. The addressed issues are often controversial, provoking strong emotions and heated arguments. But they are dealt with in as a congenial manner as possible. However, no attempt is made to be PC ("politically correct"). Instead, fidelity to the Scriptures is the goal. This exposition of the Scriptures is not meant to offend, but if someone is offended, it is because they are offended by the Scriptures or sound reasoning, not by this writer's opinion. It is this writer's hope and prayer that this set will be received by both Christians and non-Christians as an honest attempt to understand what the Bible has to say on these topics and the implications thereof, while also considering relevant extra-Biblical arguments and material.

Americans revere their Constitution. However, most of us are unaware how tumultuous and improbable the drafting and ratification processes were. As Benjamin Franklin keenly observed, any assembly of men bring with them "all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views." One need not deny that the Framers had good intentions in order to believe that they also had interests. Based on prodigious research and told largely through the voices of the participants, Michael Klarman's The Framers' Coup narrates how the Framers' clashing interests shaped the Constitution--and American history itself. The Philadelphia convention could easily have been a failure, and the risk of collapse was always present. Had the convention dissolved, any number of adverse outcomes could have resulted, including civil war or a reversion to monarchy. Not only does Klarman capture the knife's-edge atmosphere of the convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories: the rebellion of debtor farmers in Massachusetts; George Washington's uncertainty about whether to attend; Gunning Bedford's threat to turn to a European prince if the small states were denied equal representation in the Senate; slave staters' threats to take their marbles and go home if denied representation for their slaves; Hamilton's quasi-monarchist speech to the convention; and Patrick Henry's herculean efforts to defeat the Constitution in Virginia through demagoguery and conspiracy theories. The Framers' Coup is more than a compendium of great stories, however, and the powerful arguments that feature throughout will reshape our understanding of the nation's founding. Simply put, the Constitutional Convention almost didn't happen, and once it happened, it almost failed. And, even after the convention succeeded, the Constitution it produced almost failed to be ratified. Just as importantly, the Constitution was hardly the product of philosophical reflections by brilliant, disinterested statesmen, but rather ordinary interest group politics. Multiple conflicting interests had a say, from creditors and debtors to city dwellers and backwoodsmen. The upper class overwhelmingly supported the Constitution; many working class colonists were more dubious. Slave states and nonslave states had different perspectives on how well the Constitution served their interests. Ultimately, both the Constitution's content and its ratification process raise troubling questions about democratic legitimacy. The Federalists were eager to avoid full-fledged democratic deliberation over the Constitution, and the document that was ratified was stacked in favor of their preferences. And in terms of substance, the Constitution was a significant departure from the more democratic state constitutions of the 1770s. Definitive and authoritative, The Framers' Coup explains why the Framers preferred such a constitution and how they managed to persuade the country to adopt it. We have lived with the consequences, both positive and negative, ever since.