Tribalism in America

So if you say the same things--writing the same things-- that you've been saying and writing for the last five years, and someone who has been reading what you write and agreeing with it for the last five years but is offended by the exact same offerings all of a sudden, what does that mean?

You've built a reputation for having an individualist mindset and a conservative political Point of View, but, after someone of your same race/color/ethnic group says something that seems similar to something you've been saying, but that same someone of your race/color/ethnic group has said other things which are offensive to you and to nearly all others. The types of things this someone says--"G** Damn America!!!"--are an anathema to everything you hold dear and have dedicated your adult life to.

Nevertheless, this person who has read what you've thought for five years begins to look upon you with suspicion for one reason and one reason alone: that you share the same race/color/ethnic group with the person who exhorts the Lord to consign our beloved country to Hell.

What does that mean?

(To be continued...)

UPDATE: The same coin.

UPDATE: And the primary Sower of Discord fields another one.

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Way to unite a people, genius.