In Front of our Noses: He’s a Divider, Not a Uniter (Part the Millionth)
A clip from today's Very Important Meeting at Quantico.
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, September 30, 2025
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3 comments
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.
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While a milder form of divisions than what he practiced right after the Kirk assassination, and better than Stephen Miller’s rants, but still, not the way a POTUS should speak. He constantly seeks to put us into US and Them.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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All I have to say is this is unbelievable. I know its true, but its so unbelievable.
Actually, I have this to add: Yes, he is dividing us into Us vs. Them. And he is setting the stage to make the military an “us” side for his 3rd term. Create the conditions now, so when he doesn;t leave office, scams another election, or stages another J6 he has his bases covered.
I see column after column looking at our current extreme division as having just somehow fallen from the sky and bothsides are to blame and must work to improve it. There’s a whole formalized management technique, Root Cause Analysis. The idea is to not just deal with symptoms, but to find and eliminate the root cause so it doesn’t keep happening. The MSM need to stop all the “Can’t there be peace in the valley.” drivel and name names. Thank you, Steven, for naming a name.
I don’t disagree that this is bad. However, in context, it’s laughable. Did Pete Hegseth just show them respect, or did he fat-shame them? Is that what you call respect? Did Pete Hegseth just tell them they don’t have to respect recruits, that they can swear at them and touch them? That’s showing them respect?
I mean, what a joke this guy is. If this were in a film, I would be laughing at it.