Reply #22: Oh, hooey.

[smoogatz]

There've been plenty of periods of intensely uncivil political debate in the US, and only one of them led to actual civil war--and in that case, great regional economic interests were in conflict. That's certainly not the case today. In fact, I'd be inclined to suggest that we're in only the third most un-civil period in American history after World War II--the McCarthy era and the late-60s/early-70s (remember the Watts riots? How about Kent State?) were far more politically contentious, and in many ways the stakes were much higher--cities burned, and people actually died or went to jail for their political views. The so-called culture war, to the extent that it exists, is mostly a product of right-wing-screaming-idiot radio and TV, which is generally in a period of declining ratings. I'd guess that the percentage of people in this country who couldn't sit down and have a civil political discussion with someone who holds more-or-less rational but diametrically opposite views is in the low single digits. Once you get away from the internet and the screaming idiot shows, Americans are generally pretty level-headed.