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David Poe's avatar

At Appomattox many Confederates wanted to continue on with a guerrilla war. Lee said not to, and I think only the respect in which he was held prevented it. Does that sound right? (I had two great grandfathers in the Confederate Army.)

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Rightful Freedom's avatar

"The contest is not over, the strife is not ended." It is as old as history, or older.

"...the same political parties which now agitate the US. have existed thro’ all time... as they now schismatize every people whose minds and mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot. and in fact the terms of whig and tory belong to natural, as well as to civil history. they denote the temper and constitution of mind of different individuals."

Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams (1813)

The difference isn't arbitrarily "tribal". Centrism, unity, and a middle way are illusions at best.

"...the vision of a political rapprochement in which individuals from all corners of the polity converge in the political middle as they sing 'Kumbaya' is a dangerous fantasy..."

John R. Hibbing, Kevin B. Smith, and John R. Alford, Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences (2013)

Jefferson Davis was right, the arena grows ever larger.

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