The American climate today is analogous to the climate in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Allegedly. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-schmookler/the-spirit-that-drove-us-_b_5749884.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
I'm anti-corporatism in the government giving them special interest and putting road blocks to entry of the market. However tying that to slavery is a slight to the black community, imo. I thought it was a horrible article and I think it's way with in reason and logical for an individual not to want the federal government to steal their property and give to others.
The Republicans staked out that position and loudly proclaimed it much more so than the Democrats. Working with Republicans isn't the same kind of faux pas for a Democrat as vice versa. Still, as far as the article goes, as a historian, I think the pre-Civil War history is pretty good, but the analogies to today is where it breaks down. There were much different dynamics back then that she isn't accounting for if she wants to make this analogy and that one was far more sectional than the current ideological divide. I mean, is she suggesting that we are heading for a Civil War, if only a metaphorical one? Sorry, that's a huge stretch of the imagination. It's not like this is the first time we've had such distinct ideological divisions between parties, either. Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist, Democrats vs. Whigs, etc., etc....
