There seems to be an ongoing problem where countries are hugely divided. In both Ukraine and Thailand, there are mass protests against the government. But the catch in both cases is that the governments also have support from many in the country, and would likely win any new elections.
It's a new paradigm for protesters vs. governments. Those of us who came of age in the eighties are used to the idea of people standing up against oppressors. But this is half the people rising up against the government of the other half. Also, we've all heard of elected governments that go on to abuse their power, but not governments that could get re-elected.
There are less dramatic examples elsewhere. The U.S. famously has its red state/blue state divide, and Toronto has its bewildering love/hate relationship with Rob Ford.
It makes one wonder if there can be compromises made to please both sides. Certainly in the American situation, people have proposed - tongue in cheek - splitting the country up along ideological lines. I don't really expect that to happen any time soon, but one wonders what else can bridge the divide.
Maybe countries should be organized by ideologies, not culture. Ironically, all this is happening at a time when Scotland and Catalonia are pushing for separation. In both those cases (and Quebec, too) the culture looking to separate isn't that ideologically different. That is, Quebec does have political differences with the rest of Canada, but they're small compared with the differences between America's two political solitudes. What do you think, fellow citizens of Healthcaria?
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