What has happened to this country where society appears so irreparably divided so what is america now. And populism is the american way of talking about social class trump conscious. I dont think racism never really want to weigh. In so what is. Its i do think that im. Still trying to. One out of every 5. Says. What is america who are we as. A culture war is reaching over the future direction of the nation and Party Politics has turned into an ideological battle. The rise of fascism in your. Chamber when people thought they had lost control of their Economic Justice and in america 90 percent have lost control of their economic. And so theyre desperately looking around for a savior and Donald Trumps up short and says i am your savior boys the exact opposite he is the devil incarnate for them but if he tells them this their savior and nobody else says that theyre going to turn to him and they have a. Right wing populists have driven a wedge into the heart of American Society which could leave its mark for decades i think the divisions in our country have been very large for a long time but i think that when you have the president himself. As a racist sexist homophobic his. Language people of the community feel its the president to say that they can say its as if the french at this point i cant believe this wait till the whites think the sleep. Spell out in the open and its just courage to close out the. Right wing activists are increasingly visible marching through the streets void by the an election of donald trump. Americas a country thats and i think very very deep trouble and it is possible not likely but possible that with donald trump we are seeing the beginning of the end of america as we have. The election and donald trump has posed one of the Biggest Challenges in the history of the republic. Ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and Great Movement made up of millions of hard working men and women who love their country i call this the backlash the great backlash and its been running since. 1968 is when i would say that it really got got going and its a backlash against liberalism trump is not a new donald trump is a continuation of something thats been going on for a long time you know trump has really achieved what the Republican Party set out to do 50 years ago which is he has won over. The by and large you know huge part of the White Working Class in this country to the Republican Party. Poly green belongs to a growing group of americans no longer willing to stand idly by as trump pursues his policies a peace activist she lives in the liberal northeast of the country in the town of leverage massachusetts. Paula founded the internationally renowned Karuna Center for peace building and has successfully mediated between warring factions in places such as rwanda bosnia and the middle east. Africa 2016 election i wanted to take everything i had learned and apply it somewhere own country because the divides here i thought were just as toxic as theyve been any place in a war zone overseas. That paula has launched an initiative aimed at conservative voters in other states she hopes that opening up a dialogue will help overcome some of the barriers here in germany we didnt understand what had happened to work on tree and the impulse to bring a little time of leverage together to talk about this was what this puzzle what has happened here what how how did this happen and why did it happen and what do we do about it and i thought one of the things that we should do is see if we can try to understand who the people are voted for trump and what happened that made it possible. Donald trump the great divider bringing democratic america. Back together our community is a bubble of the barrel thinking and i was stunned by the lexus by the Election Results and really wanted to know what ive missed how did i get that so very wrong im still angry. Because i have failed to come up with an understanding of how anyone can support a 1000000 of extraordinary cruelty. And in humanity. And corruption for me i kept thinking that it was the media and the politicians in our country that have vested interests in keeping us divided and if we could meet face to face with what weve all along called the other that we would find much more in common than we all have been thinking. The other shes referring to includes People Living in the state of kentucky once the greatest coal mining region in the whole country now falling demand for coal has led to the closure of almost all the mines. And youre actually looking at one of the larger operation that was an electric outlet right here if the price they had when i was still owed out is not running call they have. Coal coming to your growth we were a stone cold. Robert was one of those who lost his job in the mine. The proper authority. They want someone in office. Who will stand up for the ordinary person dont be. In the political room a lot its always better than watching the. Mob over drunk i was a trump man and no i voted for him because he appeared to me to act he would be the guy that would actually really busts. Trump Global Regulation that was strangling the country in the snow in the in the and hes kind of guy that will whether you agree with him and all hell speak is mind watching mandible speak his mind. Miners all over the country have put their. In a president who claims that coal has a future and that Climate Change is a myth robert pays a visit to his friend kerry had another nearby mine this mine was closed down under president obama but is set to reopen soon. Gary is in charge of operations over ground he too is a fervent supporter of trump like almost everybody here whose livelihood depends on coal mining. But can trump turn back the clock on the energy industry. It is big enough to play live until the. Found side of kentucky very few people believe that coal mining has a future but do the liberal coastal and leads have any alternatives to offer to the people in the american interland who fear for their way of life were undergoing 2 revolutions simultaneously in the United States one is a political populist revolution from below its driven by class anxiety and kind of tribal feeling on the other hand were experiencing a cultural revolution having to do with representation and diversity thats being driven by cultural elites. And so what happens is that theres a theres a conflict between these these these 2 projects and the more that american liberals pursue and continue this cultural revolution the more it leads to a tribal reaction from below and so populism is a combination of tribal resentment plus economic disenfranchisement. The statue of liberty in new york is a symbol of freedom and democracy. But the deep divisions in trumps america are threatening that very democracy. The mutual suspicion hatred and lies form a dangerous mixture that could explode at any time. To feed brunel atmosphere and the dangers of rightwing populism have animated the art scene in new york. New york based artist molly crab apple was one of those who took part in the occupy wall Street Movement she shares a studio with her boyfriend and illustrator fred harper. Its hard to pigeonhole molly shes a journalist who draws an artist who writes and a political activist who have white americans who both are. Suffering to climbing economic fortunes because of globalization because of automation because of an increasingly rapacious and. Inhuman capitalism but who also are feeling their position of supremacy slipping and theyre incredibly threatened by the idea of equality. Populism is the american way of talking about social class and its always this idea of the average people working class people against what they call the elite. In the 1980 s. The conservative president and a Christian Ronald reagan left a Lasting Legacy in the United States with his policies of deregulation. Ronald reagan came along with an empty political vision of america where the would be Less Government fewer social programs a focus on the economy. For 35 years reagan its vision dominated america and with the collapse of reaganism and no competing vision from us you get down. The apparently unstoppable march of the populists and the failure of the democrats to combat them pose a threat to American Society the country is at a crossroads. If we dont get that real change them i believe that america will over time slip into being a fascist country a country who will have a ruler not a president and to a lot of people you know this is a lot of hard work out of understand the stuff for politics as dirty as i want to do with it imagine someone who comes along who has all of Donald Trumps charisma and marketing skill but none of his deficits somebody who actually knows how to manage somebody actually understands World History somebody who has real ideas but who also was a power monger and a kleptocrat. Well that turns a society into something very very different. In aug 2017 the culture wars escalated to heights not yet seen in one of americas Oldest University towns Charlottesville Virginia thousands of people from various right wing groups gathered to march in the name of White Supremacy. The unite the right rally involved self identified members of the far right ultra right and White Supremacy movements many of the marchers were heavily armed and chanted racist or anti semitic slogans at minority groups as they walked past. I dont think racism ever really want to way i think you know there is there is maybe a resurgence in the way we talk about it or the way its framed. But you know i i think that trump and sort of as happened is actually pretty you know distinctly american if theres definitely a division by recent think you know america is a very tribal country. The march was held in response to a city order to remove a statue of the civil war general robert e. Lee leader of the Confederate Army for many people on the political right in the us the generals of the southern confederacy remain heroes. The rise of right wing populism in america is deeply connected to the issue of race ever since Richard Nixon republican politicians are realize they can exploit race to get ahead and its much easier to say its that black guy its that guy from mexico thats why youre not doing better than to look at Government Policies spending taxes investments or lack thereof health care. Here the cultural divisions in america are exasperated to unprecedented levels by Network Television the conservative fox news and the more liberal c. N. N. Reflect the ideological fault lines running through the us i think that what the right wing media does that is different especially under this president and you see this with fox news and Sean Hannitys close relationship with President Trump they call each other all the time theyre constantly in contact and thats different thats more thats more of a Media Partnership that shouldnt exist a propaganda even between. A government and a news source that claims its objective when in fact we have all the evidence we need every night from 8 to 11 pm that its not objective at all. Illustrator fred harper designs the cover of the political magazine the week President Trump with his frequent scandals and outbursts provides him with an almost bottomless reservoir of material while fred uses comedy and satire to poke fun at the president he takes the shift to the right in American Society very seriously. The i think the country is becoming more populous and its its been recovering its its been tapping into something. That has been its it was like a lump of clay that hasnt been shaped and then these radical people that have been shouting all this time but ignored theyve always been in the fringes are now getting their chance you know to be in the spotlight and its really scary now. For American Society seems to have lost its ability to form a consensus the lines being drawn of course into region political allegiance skin color and religious faith are ever start. Dividing people by race is much much easier to do when people are in economic stress and theyre desperately looking around saying why are things worse how can it be that after 50 years of working i have got nowhere and this divide is at the core of whats happening to america some people are doing fabulously well but 90 percent of people are treading water. New jersey on the east coast here the American Dream seems to be unattainable for the majority throughout the region are signs of dying industry and a white lower middle class that has been left behind. One person for whom the American Dream has come true is photographer dan a singer but she has not forgotten her roots which are often reflected in her work. I grew up in a working class neighborhood and in the working class family my mother was a. House cleaner my dad was. An education wasnt really. Encouraged it was you know you were meant to find a trade and you go out and you have a family that was basically what everyone in my family did dennis spent many years traveling through and documenting this forgotten america. Its a portrait of a community a working Class Community in my interpretation of that community the community where i grew up. A lot of poverty a lot of drugs you know watching pregnancy a lot of drug addiction and so theres this cycle. You know with with lack of money comes lack of education and lack of health care so my work looks at a lot it looks at really the struggles of a working Class Community you know. You know what is that what does that look like. I do think that a lot of people feel trapped i mean i certainly felt trapped i think there is a undercurrents of. Years in america that have an afterthought so i was definitely present almost every conversation that their sound. And a sense of things being unfair not equivalent for a class. No one the average income of a u. S. Household has dropped drastically in the last decade. The rich in the present assets decently on the. Middle class. And even if i have to do some of that i havent time after dumping toxic. Air station in life. I think nearly possible in this new right working so moch that. It seems an awesome. Noon today more and more citizens are asking themselves whether the American Dream was ever more than an illusion it is. You even though youre in the main. Thats why the country is a real crisis point right now because they say that things are not going in the right direction and that they fear america. Will not be a better place for their children as it was for them yeah just like that. One major contributor to the divisions in society is the notion of american neo liberalism which worships the free market and sees competition as the only legitimate way to organize society. In washington the lobbyists for influential think tank such as the Libertarian Cato Institute beat the drum for laissez faire capitalism and reject the role of the state involvement in tackling social issues well i think libertarianism is the basic original philosophy of the United States i want much lower taxes much Less Government spending much less regulation i dont think we should focus on inequality and i dont think wealth created in a free market is taken from the poor or the middle class maybe weve lost our spirit of mobility weve lost our spirit of enterprise that people are not as quick to move to where the opportunities are as they used to be. Republican economic orthodoxy places all responsibility on the individual for their own success or failure of intervention by the state is unthinkable the result is a new class of forgotten people right when populists have succeeded in channeling their fears which manifests itself as anger directed at cultural elites. Things a chance theres a huge divide in this country i think theres no way you can escape if youre living in america youre living in this culture. And its stress. The country is changing faster than you are able to control the. Your vision of america and thats really the heart of it because there is no singular American Vision or ideal or culture that when you feel that yours is slipping away you are going to try through the political process to stop that and thats why Donald Trumps appeal was suppose because he told those people i will make America Great again and again thats the most crucial word in that slogan. Hearken back to for a lot of people the days when america was not as diverse when they didnt walk around on the street and hear 7 different languages being spoken. To some trumps promise to make America Great again was read as make America White again. The art museum in the east coast city of baltimore means to demonstrate social issues injustices and discrimination. But we know that we are in the black majority city 68 percent africanamerican it is a segregated city its a city thats afflicted with poverty gun violence issues with education its a fraught circumstance and so the question is how do you make a museum necessary how do you make it useful how do you make of the resourc