Night falls on The Great Divide Day 1

I wrote earlier today of my desire to learn more about what I euphemistically referred to as, "The Other Side of the Great Divide". Who they are, what they think and why they feel as they do, believing if I could piece together the mosaic of thought belief and reason, that I would better understand US the People. instead, I got drawn into the passions of the argument, involved in a "tit-for tat", forgetting that I was there seeking reason and common ground. I went back to one of my principal "hosts", a fellow who publishes two political blogs that function as Breitbart satellites. and has more than two million followers.


After our spat, I went back and posted this: “Sean Brown, may we approach this another way? I didn't come here to get into a tit-for-tat with you folks. I came here because I would like to understand your points of view better. Not just who you hate or who you support, but why. Beyond the platitudes, I would like to know where your belief system was formed. What is the nature and extent of your educational background? You bill yourself as a journalist and "professional truth teller". Where and when did you begin your career as a journalist? Do you have any other specialized training? In short, what are the intellectual and ethical foundations that inform your opinions?”

This is the response I received: “Harold Levine you're delusional. Either you're a paid troll or you're clinically insane, because nobody in their right mind would look at what he's done and consider it successful, even by the faked numbers from the government. White people are afraid to say they disapprove of the first black president, and most black people love him because he's the first black president. That's how. Take the 'first black' out of the equation, and I guarantee his numbers would be below Bush's before he left office. Again, another affirmative action reject...”

It was followed by this: “So, how rich is it that a half-term senator who's literally fucked up everything that he's touched, is now saying that Trump isn't 'fit' to be president. Seriously, how arrogant is this affirmative action idiot that he thinks simply sitting in office for eight years while destroying the country after spending his life as a community organizer who did nothing more than stir up shit between different people makes him qualified to speak on ANY issue, let alone who WE the PEOPLE should decide who we want to run the country???

And this: "This guy is seriously the biggest joke on the planet right now, and if he weren't HALF black, then he would have been laughed off the global stage years ago because he's more useless than a three-legged horse trying to run the Kentucky Derby and more incompetent than his current prospect for predecessor, the one and only Hillary Clinton, who's too stupid to realize that an unsecured server is dangerous to national security but thinks that somehow we should trust her to run the country.
Seriously, I hate these dirtbags...Rant over Sean"

A deluge of celebratory posts followed from this fellow’s followers. Most included vicious denouncements of President Obama, including these:

 Diane L. McClement I always look at the fact...he's half white. Raised by a white mother and grandmother. So big deal...Mr. O, ya got to pick your team....

Then there was this from Sheron Hilliker Edge: "What an effin psycho! Harold, you are a traitor to America as far as I'm concerned! Go away!"

And this from Michelle Kissleman of Alaska: 
"I can't even put anything else on my page about that piece of half black sh** windbag traitor". 

I read them all dutifully and there were many, until I reached this:

Noel Scott Maddow “every career politician hates Obama on both sides of the aisle...and even out of the porch (sic) with the third parties...If that many people who make a living by pimping people back their rights...if that many people hate him...he has got to be good for the country because all the career politicians have done is clog the works up with their shit -- Hillary wants to flush -- Trump wants to take a big old plunger and just beat the shit down the hole...God Bless that Glorious Bastard! I don't care if he cuts a baby's head off with a dull butter knife on live TV...he will get my vote. Just to make so many others unhappy -- I don't want him to win -- I just want everyone else to lose!”

I have always believed that this nation would one day come together and fulfill the beauty of its’ promise. Tonight, I am filled with horror, dread, despair and a sadness beyond expression. HL

UPDATE: I've taken a pretty long look at these folks Many, but by no means all, fit the broad stereotypes; poor, uneducated. under employed, etc. They truly have been left behind and their needs must be addressed. But there are also plenty who are college educated, (for what that's worth) A striking number are women. Most are motivated by strong racial animus. What's most troubling is the nearly total absence of a willingness to reason and the violence of their rhetoric. It only takes one and the mad man who is their avatar is reckless enough to encourage them to pull the trigger. That's why it is so imperative to speak out.