"It will get worse before it gets better."Īnimosity between parties has been growing for decades now, to the point that studies show Republicans and Democrats don't want to date one another, don't want their children to marry one another and don't want to live in the same neighborhoods at a rate unprecedented in modern America. "That is the question of our time: Are we going to choose to continue the war, or are we going to choose peace? And we don't know yet what the answer to that will be, because while a majority of Americans are fed up with the extremity of our political divisions, it does feel like we're stuck here," Willer says. It's impossible to guess, he notes, how much damage will be done in the meantime. The volatile tribalism now so ingrained in American life will eventually right itself, says Robb Willer, a sociology professor at Stanford University, but not until the public decides it's had enough and stops rewarding politicians who use incendiary language and demonize the other side.
"I feel like the leadership in our country right now is just encouraging violence, and I wish that that would stop." "I just can't believe the kind of violence that we're experiencing in our country," Pittsburgh resident Cindy Jennings said at a vigil for those targeted at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Then came the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that claimed 11 lives, an attack likely to cause ugly partisan debates over gun control, hate speech and more. The hope Parker had that this might be a turning point faded. Both parties blamed the other, and the president called for unity, then again described liberals and the media as villains. By then, politicians and talking heads had already backed into the usual corners.
On Friday, authorities arrested a suspect in the bomb probe - a 56-year-old registered Republican and Trump enthusiast who "appears to be a partisan," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said when asked about motive.
ANIMOSITY SHOWS SIGN LETTING UP SERIES
The mail-bomb plot is merely the latest in a series of stunning attacks to test how much political animosity Americans are willing to accept: the shooting of a Republican congressman at a baseball practice, the white supremacist rally that turned deadly in Virginia, the recent ricin scare-letters mailed to Trump and other top members of his administration. "If this isn't it, I'd hate to think about what it will take," said Parker as she cast her ballot in early voting last week in Louisville, Kentucky.
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