Jeb Bush: People need to work longer hours

[euphemia]

Today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who as of-late has gone relatively gaffe-free, uttered a phrase that may not go over too well with the constituency he seeks to reach. During an interview that was live-streamed on the app Periscope, Bush told New Hampshire’s The Union Leader that to grow the economy, “people should work longer hours.”

Read more here (http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-people-longer-hours-235206730.html).

[DisneyFan]

And this is the man that the establishment thinks has a good chance of beating Hillary. What an unbelievably dumb and tone deaf thing to say.

[amy31416]

Send him to work doing manual labor for 12 hours a day. I've done it, so can he, right?

[timosman]

//

[Jan2017]

As is, I see many businesses don't want to have workers getting over the 30 hours a week or whatever
to avoid their business having to offer health insurance under Obamacare.

[euphemia]

This article really pushed a button for me. I just finished an 11-hour day , on my feet, working with the public. I don't know if Jeb has ever done that before. I could trade him for a month. He can come here, live in my neighborhood, work my job, and try to pay the bills. I can go to his house, fly first class, ride around in the limo, eat the pricey meals, and give the speeches. I'm way funnier than he is.

[Ronin Truth]

No Jeb, the economy NEEDS MORE JOBS. DUH!

[timosman]

No Jeb, the economy NEEDS MORE JOBS. DUH!

There are no jobs. Start getting used to the idea of Universal Basic Income - http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/05/05/krugmans-argument-in-favour-of-a-universal-basic-income/

[Ronin Truth]

There are no jobs. Start getting used to the idea of Universal Basic Income - http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/05/05/krugmans-argument-in-favour-of-a-universal-basic-income/

As the late Ayn Rand would say, "At whose expense?"

[Occam's Banana]

And this is the man that the establishment thinks has a good chance of beating Hillary.

I have no doubt that the Establishment would like Jeb! to be the GOP nominee.

But what makes you think that they think he has a good chance of beating Hillary?

[timosman]

As the late Ayn Rand would say, "At whose expense?"

MIC, FED - take your pick.

[Ronin Truth]

MIC, FED - take your pick.

None of the above.


"Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling…makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition’s blurred. If I’m to choose between one evil and another, I’d rather not choose at all." -- Geralt of Rivia

[Todd]

Um...he was talking about underemployed workers. I don't like Bush...but let's get it straight.

[euphemia]

In this economy, every hourly employee is underemployed. Most of my single friends either work to supplement their SS, or have two jobs.

[CaptUSA]

You want more money? There are only two ways to do it. Either provide more value per hour or provide the same value for more hours.

Bush is a moron and shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office, but I'm not sure I can disagree with him here.

It was certainly inartful, but if Ron Paul said the same thing, we'd all be defending what he meant.

[specsaregood]

You want more money? There are only two ways to do it. Either provide more value per hour or provide the same value for more hours.
Bush is a moron and shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office, but I'm not sure I can disagree with him here.
It was certainly inartful, but if Ron Paul said the same thing, we'd all be defending what he meant.

I don't think Ron Paul would say such a thing. There are so many other problems with our economy that suggesting people work longer hours would be way down his list. He has always first pointed out that our monetary policy punishes savers, and inflation eats away the savings of the low and middle class people (the people working those long hours already).

[ClydeCoulter]

And hour is 60 minutes, how can you make them longer?

[euphemia]

You want more money? There are only two ways to do it. Either provide more value per hour or provide the same value for more hours.

Um, no. Our company uses a step system, so value per hour is not figured in to pay. They do not do performance based raises. The company has restricted the number of hours per week, even though we are working fewer people in the department. I am at the top of my pay scale for comparable positions in the area, and dividing up my skills set and using the best ones would net me about a 30% pay cut, even considering all the experience. What I do is very unique. There isn't another position exactly like it anywhere, even though my skills are easily transferrable to something else. It's a tight labor market here. People are hanging on to their jobs and taking extra jobs to help make ends meet.

[Carlybee]

I wish I could work more than my 40 hrs a week..I could use the extra income but I just can't hold up to it anymore. Bad back, baby boomer, tired. Oh to have a trust fund like Jeb.

[euphemia]

No kidding. Jeb can come here and try living like the rest of us. He might learn a thing or two. I doubt it, but there's a chance.

[timosman]

I wish I could work more than my 40 hrs a week..I could use the extra income but I just can't hold up to it anymore. Bad back, baby boomer, tired. Oh to have a trust fund like Jeb.

You should try Tinder.

[Carlybee]

You should try Tinder.

What is Tinder?

[CaptUSA]

Um, no. Our company uses a step system, so value per hour is not figured in to pay. They do not do performance based raises. The company has restricted the number of hours per week, even though we are working fewer people in the department. I am at the top of my pay scale for comparable positions in the area, and dividing up my skills set and using the best ones would net me about a 30% pay cut, even considering all the experience. What I do is very unique. There isn't another position exactly like it anywhere, even though my skills are easily transferrable to something else. It's a tight labor market here. People are hanging on to their jobs and taking extra jobs to help make ends meet.

I always have to laugh when someone says, "They do not do performance-based raises..."

Of course they do. But you have to be willing to actually perform. If you are performing a job that is providing more value to your employer, then tell him you're leaving, he will have to pay you more or lose you. If you are really providing more value to him, he will have to cough it up or you will provide that value to someone else. This works in every job and in every company. However, if there are NO other companies that will pay you what you think you are worth, then perhaps it is your own estimation of the value you are providing that is skewed.

Seriously. I've worked on loading docks, cleaning bathrooms, retail, fast food, reading meters... It's all the same. You just have to know what you're really worth to someone else. I've worked for 3 different unions where the pay scale was "locked" and even in those cases, I've prevailed. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't make more by providing more value - That's bullshit. It's just their way of keeping you performing to the least common denominator.

[timosman]

It's just their way of keeping you performing to the least common denominator.

This is the old Soviet era way -

We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us! (A joke that circulated freely in factories and other places of state-run employment.) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes)

welcome to USSA !

[dannno]

What is Tinder?

It's a hookup app, I think they are saying you should prostitute yourself :confused:

Usually people say, "you should try tinder" if they are looking to hookup.

[euphemia]

I always have to laugh when someone says, "They do not do performance-based raises..."

Um, maybe you need to read a little more carefully. They do not do performance-based raises. They use the step system. It is based on years of service, and I have reached the top of the pay scale. This was a policy change documented in April.

Welcome to the 21st Century where the only business is Big Business and they chew up employees and spit them out. Go ahead and laugh your butt off. That might have been the way it operated in the old days with Mom and Pop businesses. I work for a company that has almost 200K employees.

And just so you know, I work hard and am very good at my job. Award winning, you might say.

[timosman]

And just so you know, I work hard and am very good at my job. Award winning, you might say.

Does not mean a thing in today's 200k people company environment. Keep stacking these employee of the month plaques. The additional performance, above the obedient slave baseline, is never recognized as something worth paying for.

[euphemia]

Does not mean a thing in today's 200k people company environment. Keep stacking these employee of the month plaques. The additional performance, above the obedient slave baseline, is never recognized as something worth paying for.

No need to be mean. This is not about just my experience. It is about Jeb Bush and how out of touch he is with today's employment reality. He thinks we all have choices about work. In a tight labor market, the bulk of new jobs are part-time, entry level jobs.

I'm really proud of how I do my job. I answer to my customers way more than I do to the people who are in charge.

The people who should be afraid are the customers. Business deliberately provides inferior service so they can just pay a little bit. "Sorry, our profits are down. We're cutting hours." It's all part of a carefully orchestrated design.

[Carlybee]

It's a hookup app, I think they are saying you should prostitute yourself :confused:

Usually people say, "you should try tinder" if they are looking to hookup.

Oh. Well...I am married. But if I wasn't I would be a hermit.

[devil21]

China will require longer hours from their American peasants. What, you thought Foxconn was only going to work people to death in China? Pffft.

[euphemia]

And hour is 60 minutes, how can you make them longer?

Indeed. Just like Jeb! to think he can stop the clock.

[Occam's Banana]

You want more money? There are only two ways to do it. Either provide more value per hour or provide the same value for more hours.

Bush is a moron and shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office, but I'm not sure I can disagree with him here.

It was certainly inartful, but if Ron Paul said the same thing, we'd all be defending what he meant.


I don't think Ron Paul would say such a thing. There are so many other problems with our economy that suggesting people work longer hours would be way down his list. He has always first pointed out that our monetary policy punishes savers, and inflation eats away the savings of the low and middle class people (the people working those long hours already).

The Cap'n has a point, but specs is right - "working more" might indeed be on Ron's list of things that would "grow" the economy, but it would be way, waaaay down there. And even then, it would be included only as a sort of general truism, not as something Ron would put forward as any kind of policy-position talking point.

It would certainly only come after a lengthy enumeration of various other more critical factors, all of them having to do with getting the government the hell out of the economy's way (by eliminating regulations & inflationary anti-savings policies, etc., etc.). Those would be policies that Jeb!, as the Deciding Decider (or Lord High Executioner) of The Economy, would never seriously entertain. Jeb! has no desire to get the government out of the way of anything - especially not the economy. So his chief resort is to put the onus on non-government actors, such as workers, who should "work more" ...

[HankRicther12]

In this economy, every hourly employee is underemployed. Most of my single friends either work to supplement their SS, or have two jobs.

To supplement their what? Does the SS mean social security?

[euphemia]

To supplement their what? Does the SS mean social security?

Yes. Some of my coworkers are well into their 70s. Some draw SS, and both and have other jobs jobs because the government forces people out of private plans and on to Medicare, which does not pay for everything.

I'm in the red zone on retirement, meaning less than 10 years. This gets a little scary. I will not be able to do this current job all the way to age 65, which is now looking like we will be told age 68. If you don't think age discrimination exists, be a middle aged person and look for a job.

[David Sadler]

Americans need to think more. Study more. Strategize more. But you can only work the hours your employee allows you to work.

This is the 'Service' economy the GOP pushed in the late 1990s. The problem is the economy, the system and the culture of government dependents the system has created. Open borders, 'free' trade, endless wars, bankster bailouts, entitlements for doing nothing and having done nothing, government employee unions, government indoctrination centers -- all need to go. Not an easy fix, but it can be fixed with the right leadership.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Send him to work doing manual labor for 12 hours a day. I've done it, so can he, right?

working 12 hours in a day?! That's nothing, there's tons of people that work 16 hours a day. Of course, not 5 days a week, but 16 hours in a single day is still ridiculous. For example, I think some Nurse's generally work 14 hours a day 3 days a week.

Though I actually would rather work 13 1/3rd hours a day 3 days a week and have a 4 day weekend. How sweet is that?

[euphemia]

working 12 hours in a day?! That's nothing, there's tons of people that work 16 hours a day. Of course, not 5 days a week, but 16 hours in a single day is still ridiculous. For example, I think some Nurse's generally work 14 hours a day 3 days a week.

But that's not the point. Jeb Bush is saying people need to work longer hours. This demonstrates he is totally out of touch with today's employment reality. Florida has a lot of retired people and a lot of places that use seasonal and on-call workers. Of all people, he should understand that the federal government has created an enviornment that ships high paying, full time employment out of the country, and ships in tech people that will work for very low pay. Florida has pretty much turned into a part time state. Retired people buy condos they live in during the winter and rent out in the summer.

[Carlybee]

Yes. Some of my coworkers are well into their 70s. Some draw SS, and both and have other jobs jobs because the government forces people out of private plans and on to Medicare, which does not pay for everything.

I'm in the red zone on retirement, meaning less than 10 years. This gets a little scary. I will not be able to do this current job all the way to age 65, which is now looking like we will be told age 68. If you don't think age discrimination exists, be a middle aged person and look for a job.


Yep that's why I'm thinking about setting up a home based business while I still have a full time job.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Americans need to think more. Study more. Strategize more. But you can only work the hours your employee allows you to work.

This is the 'Service' economy the GOP pushed in the late 1990s. The problem is the economy, the system and the culture of government dependents the system has created. Open borders, 'free' trade, endless wars, bankster bailouts, entitlements for doing nothing and having done nothing, government employee unions, government indoctrination centers -- all need to go. Not an easy fix, but it can be fixed with the right leadership.
I hate the crappy employee system, and the government makes it a pain in the ass to start your own business. There's so many regulations you have to follow, taxes you need to file, and fees you have to pay. By the time you just start you're already bankrupt. My first job I didn't understand why I couldn't just skip my lunch and get paid an extra 30 minutes, or leave 30 minutes earlier. Stupid bs work laws that, even if I don't want a lunch, I'm forced to take it. So I just sit around for 30 minutes doing nothing without getting paid. Fun!

[DGambler]

Fuck him

[euphemia]

Americans need to think more. Study more. Strategize more. But you can only work the hours your employee allows you to work.

This is the 'Service' economy the GOP pushed in the late 1990s. The problem is the economy, the system and the culture of government dependents the system has created.

The service economy has a lot of overlap with other economic sectors, and it will exist as long as people have money to spend. Even during the worst crash in the Bush years, I could not believe the amount of money people would spend. People feel like they work hard, so they are going to play hard. It's a very creative industry.

The toy manufacturing industry is a good example. Look at American Girl. They started out with three dolls in the early 1990s. They have evolved into a whole subculture of toys. An American Girl store is a really big deal. Girls bring their dolls and stand in line to have the doll's hair restyled. There are American Girl restaurants. Hotels near AG stores will have American Girl experiences. Girls are buying dolls again. I've never seen such in all my life. Barbie? Who's Barbie? And AG does not advertise on TV, either. They have really dumbed down the stories since they first came out, but they are making a truckload of money.

That's the overlap. Basic toy manufacturing has turned into a major service economy sector.

[HankRicther12]

Yes. Some of my coworkers are well into their 70s. Some draw SS, and both and have other jobs jobs because the government forces people out of private plans and on to Medicare, which does not pay for everything.

I'm in the red zone on retirement, meaning less than 10 years. This gets a little scary. I will not be able to do this current job all the way to age 65, which is now looking like we will be told age 68. If you don't think age discrimination exists, be a middle aged person and look for a job.

I am middle aged. I work two jobs and have saved, my property is paid for, catastrophe can always happen, but I have a network of friends and family. I'm not counting on SS, bottom line is, that money is borrowed, printed, or taken out of someone else pocket.

[euphemia]

I am middle aged. I work two jobs and have saved, my property is paid for, catastrophe can always happen, but I have a network of friends and family. I'm not counting on SS, bottom line is, that money is borrowed, printed, or taken out of someone else pocket.

And that's not the point. The point is that longer hours are requiring more than one job. Bush is out of touch on today's economy. He thinks people are underemployed because they only want to work 20-30 hours a week. He thinks we can work more hours and have all the jobs we want. There are only 24 hours in the day. Travel and sleep take up about 10 hours of that.

[idiom]

This graph is making the rounds.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJcV5BzWoAAgbgH.png

I wonder what might have happened the year the lines diverge.... ;)

[Badger Paul]

I hear Bush thinks more people should be working in mines too. :)

[timosman]

This graph is making the rounds.

I think HRC started it - https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/618987543674142720
Some of the feedback she is getting is really good.


I wonder what might have happened the year the lines diverge.... ;)

Nixon shock - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock

[timosman]

http://www.epi.org/blog/making/


Americans' wages have lagged further and further behind productivity gains since the late 1970s, but it wasn’t always this way. After World War II, our pay rose with productivity—the more we made, the more we were paid. Today, the gap between American workers’ productivity and their wages is at an all-time high. What could you be making if wages had grown with productivity?

http://s3.epi.org/files/2014/prody_chart.png

[devil21]

That's when the last peg to gold was dissolved!

What do I win?

[osan]

Today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who as of-late has gone relatively gaffe-free, uttered a phrase that may not go over too well with the constituency he seeks to reach. During an interview that was live-streamed on the app Periscope, Bush told New Hampshire’s The Union Leader that to grow the economy, “people should work longer hours.”

Read more here (http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-people-longer-hours-235206730.html).

And Jeb Bush should go home, shut the door, never again in his life reopen that hole of hideous utterance which betrays a soul of depthless rot, ignorance, and blind corruption, and never again emerge from that den of filth, satisfied in the knowledge that he has done at least one thing in his miserably worthless existence to help his fellow men.

The more he speaks, the more reminded I become of Obama. Do we really want another dangerously insane psychotic in the Oval Office? Have Americans not yet had enough of this three-ring nightmare into which the politics of this nation has precipitated itself, as a giant aircraft falling directly into the sea from on high?

Come on America, you just cannot be THIS lost; THIS willful to stupidity; THIS ignorant; THIS lazy; THIS corrupt; THIS filled with self-loathing. Show some self respect and kick this empty-headed animal to the curb, along with Hillary and rest of the riff-raff who would serve only to drive your lives further into disease, poverty, misery, and ultimately destruction. For pity's sake, if you won't do it for yourselves, will you not at least show so much as a single grain of rational regard for your own children?

[69360]

I don't disagree with Jeb here. In fact those who do maybe should think about voting for Bernie, he'll give you free stuff. I hear Vermin Supreme is giving out ponies...

[tod evans]

What is Tinder?

No idea but white crosses used to be effective, nowadays they carry severe jail time, besides you're old like me and would probably pop a hose...:o

[Carlybee]

I don't disagree with Jeb here. In fact those who do maybe should think about voting for Bernie, he'll give you free stuff. I hear Vermin Supreme is giving out ponies...

Why? Because we don't feel we should have to work longer hours to help pay for lazy asses who siphon off everyone else's productivity?

[Ronin Truth]

Did Jeb happen to mention just how much longer he wanted the hours to be made?

[euphemia]

Why don't you disagree with Bush?

He said people should work more. He said people are underemployed. His solution is that people should work longer hours. How is that supposed to happen? He has walked his statements back twice and still can't get it right. Does he think the low participation is due to a glut of high-paying full time jobs? Low participation is the new normal because the high paying jobs are gone. Low paying part time work is what the administration is so proud of.

And my favorite hag, Nancy Pelosi says, well great. You can spend more time with your family, pursuing your own interests. Yeah, right. The reality is that people spend less time with their families because they work more than one job to try to make ends meet.

It really says something about the economic reality of this country when the new housing trend is tiny housing.

[angelatc]

Um...he was talking about underemployed workers. I don't like Bush...but let's get it straight.

I agree, but what he meant isn't what he said. He uttered the phrase in the middle of a sentence, not in the context in which he intended. The media does this crap to all Republicans - they did to Ron Paul all the time.

[angelatc]

Why don't you disagree with Bush?

He said people should work more. He said people are underemployed. His solution is that people should work longer hours. His point was that the average American is working less hours now than in generations past. People like us, who are working 70 hours a week, are actually indicators that the economy is improving.

The people in the media subtly implying that he was insulting the American work ethic are just flat out exploiting the comment. He clearly meant that Americans do not want to live in the "part time economy" that Obamacare and liberal employment mandates have created but of course that's not true of the liberals. They've whined for years that workers in socialist countries get more PTO - longer vacations, longer maternity leaves, earlier retirements...of course they're going to be "offended
'by someone saying that we Americans don't mind working longer hours, because they're pandering to the least valuable members of the nation.

As for the aforementioned recovery, it's a bubble, created by artificially low interest rates but that's another topic.

[Carlybee]

No idea but white crosses used to be effective, nowadays they carry severe jail time, besides you're old like me and would probably pop a hose...:o

Ha! No kidding.

[69360]

Why? Because we don't feel we should have to work longer hours to help pay for lazy asses who siphon off everyone else's productivity?

Bush was referring to underemployment aka part time. He wasn't advocating 100 hours a week.

[timosman]

Bush was referring to underemployment aka part time. He wasn't advocating 100 hours a week.

This is like your boss telling you you should come to work earlier in order to find parking space less than a mile from the office. It does not address the fundamental issue of not enough parking spaces.

[Brian4Liberty]

After many decades of increased productivity which should result in a reduced workweek for the average worker, a member of the elite Plutocracy tells the mundanes that they need to work longer hours. Nice.

[69360]

This is like your boss telling you you should come to work earlier in order to find parking space less than a mile from the office. It does not address the fundamental issue of not enough parking spaces.

What in the world are you talking about? Bush said people should be able to work a 40 hour week, not the part time hours businesses are forced to give people to avoid obamacare.

He was quoted out of context by the liberal media and all of you just ran with it like the media wanted you to.

[angelatc]

After many decades of increased productivity which should result in a reduced workweek for the average worker, a member of the elite Plutocracy tells the mundanes that they need to work longer hours. Nice.

As opposed to the liberals, who believe the solution is a higher minimum wage and more PTO?

[angelatc]

This is like your boss telling you you should come to work earlier in order to find parking space less than a mile from the office. It does not address the fundamental issue of not enough parking spaces.

You're not entitled to a parking space.

[euphemia]

His point was that the average American is working less hours now than in generations past. People like us, who are working 70 hours a week, are actually indicators that the economy is improving.

That is a baloney. I am no indication that the economy is improving. My hours are stictly regulated, and we are understaffed on every shift. It's not because people don't want to work. It's because companies are demanding more from employees and giving them fewer resources. We are working harder, but not necessarily longer hours. We work the shifts we are given, and that's it.

[rich34]

You want more money? There are only two ways to do it. Either provide more value per hour or provide the same value for more hours.

Bush is a moron and shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office, but I'm not sure I can disagree with him here.

It was certainly inartful, but if Ron Paul said the same thing, we'd all be defending what he meant.

You have a point, but this is politics, sounds like a sound bite attack ad hopefully from Trump. I'd love to see those two use up all their money on each other.

[timosman]

You're not entitled to a parking space.

Bike to work !

[Brian4Liberty]

As opposed to the liberals, who believe the solution is a higher minimum wage and more PTO?

The leftists who want higher minimum wage while constantly advocating for increasing the labor pool beyond labor demand are useful idiots chasing their tails for the amusement and profit of the elite crony corporatist socialist Plutocrats like Hillary and Jeb.

[David Sadler]

I hate the crappy employee system, and the government makes it a pain in the ass to start your own business. There's so many regulations you have to follow, taxes you need to file, and fees you have to pay. By the time you just start you're already bankrupt. My first job I didn't understand why I couldn't just skip my lunch and get paid an extra 30 minutes, or leave 30 minutes earlier. Stupid bs work laws that, even if I don't want a lunch, I'm forced to take it. So I just sit around for 30 minutes doing nothing without getting paid. Fun!

When I started my business, I took the advice of Bill Gates and concentrated on my business while allowing experts to take care of the things that were imposed upon the business by government. In other words, I allowed a lawyer to incorporate me and I retained a CPA to take care of my books, payroll and taxes.

Other than a few conversations with the CPA each year, the red tape of the business was transparent to me. I could concentrate 99% on what I liked to do - the actual business - instead of the red tape.

It's a full-time job doing books, payroll and taxes. So if your job isn't as the CPA, allow a CPA to do it. If your business encounters legal matters and your job isn't as the attorney, allow an attorney to do the legal matters.

Affordable CPAs and attorneys who work with small business can be found if you look.

But government red tape needs to be greatly decreased and taxes need to lowered and simplified. It is an undue and unnecessary burden on businesses and individuals.

[David Sadler]

The service economy has a lot of overlap with other economic sectors, and it will exist as long as people have money to spend. Even during the worst crash in the Bush years, I could not believe the amount of money people would spend. People feel like they work hard, so they are going to play hard. It's a very creative industry.


It amazes me too as to what people will spend their money on and for which they will go into debt. Many, many people must be swimming in an ocean of debt. But this 'service' economy (sold as a benefit to passage of 'free' trade regulations) was the beginning of the decline in the American middle class and its prosperity. We need our manufacturing of finished goods and our service and support centers back.

[David Sadler]

That is a baloney. I am no indication that the economy is improving. My hours are stictly regulated, and we are understaffed on every shift. It's not because people don't want to work. It's because companies are demanding more from employees and giving them fewer resources. We are working harder, but not necessarily longer hours. We work the shifts we are given, and that's it.

Banks colluded and stopped paying interest on savings, CDs, checking accounts. Employers started working people just shy of 40 hours/wk to avoid 'full time' triggers. The society is failing - pure and simple.

Pat Buchanan said it well, "... A secession of the heart has already taken place in America, and a secession, not of states, but of people from one another, caused by divisions on social, moral, cultural and political views and values, is taking place."