Welcome to trumps america. The country feels so good to fight it is so. Great that other parts of it is so full of stereotypes and prejudice toward People Living under regions of the country it feels as if its the worst time weve ever had. What has happened to this country where society appears so irreparably divided and so what is america now. And populism is the american way of talking about social class trump punchers. I dont think racism ever really want to weigh. In so what is. Its my duty and my. Job. To try. One out of every 5. Says. What is america who are we in. A culture war is raging over the future direction of the nation and Party Politics has turned into an idea launchable battle. The rise of fascism in your. Chain when people who lost control of their economic best and in america 90 percent have lost control of their economic. And so theyre desperately looking around for a savior and donald trump steps forward and says i am your savior plays the exact opposite he is the devil incarnate for them but if he tells them that its their savior and nobody else says that theyre going to turn to him and they have. 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 now we can have the president himself feels it is racist sexist homophobic is a lot of language people in the community feel if the president had to say that like to say its as if the french at this point i cant believe this wait till till i think mostly. Just now out in the open and its breast 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 would donald trump we are seeing the beginning of the end of america as we have known. The election of 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 donald trump is not you dont trump is a continuation of something thats been going on for a long time you know trump has really. Eve what the Republican Party set out to do 50 years ago which is he has won over. The by and large you know a huge part of the White Working Class in this country to the Republican Party. Public 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. 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. After the 26000 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 whatever 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 out of the barrel thinking and i was stunned by the lexus by the lets the results and really wanted to know what ive missed how did i get it 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 with 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 0 mines. Youre actually looking at one of the larger operation there was an electric outlet right here thats if right say when i say a load of its not running coal they have. Coal coming to your growth we were raised on coal. Robert was one of those who lost his job in the mine. This is proper authority. They want someone in office. Who will stand up for the ordinary person dont be. In the political realm of like its always been in washington. For trump i was a truck plant im now i voted for him because he appeared to me to act he would be the guy that would actually really busts. Trouble over regulation that was strangling the country in the snow in the end hes kind of guy that will whether you agree with him and all hell speak his mind well i think manning will speak his mind. Miners only 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 at another nearby mine this mine was closed down under president obama but is set to reopen soon. Gary is in charge of operations overground 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. Latifah mark latham. It is big enough with the land of interrupting still. Found side of kentucky very few people believe that coal mining has a future but do the liberal coastal elites 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 thats 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 and hatred and lies form a dangerous mixture that could explode at any time. To feed briles atmosphere and the dangers of right wing populism 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 declining 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 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 vision dominated america and with the collapse of reaganism and no competing vision from us. The apparently unstoppable march of the populists and the. Threat to American Society the country is at a crossroads. If we dont get that real change then 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 a lot of hard work out of their standard stuff or politics is dirty and im going 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 who actually understands World History somebody who has real ideas but who also was a power monger and a kleptocrat. Well that turns the 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 weigh i think you know there is there is a maybe a resurgence in the way we talk about air the way its framed. But you know i i think that trump and sort of us happen is actually pretty you know distinctly americana theres definitely a division by race i 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 wires of right wing populism in america is deeply connected to the issue of race ever since Richard Nixon republican politicians are realized. 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 and 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. 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. The American Society seems to have lost its ability to form a consensus the lines being drawn according to 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 gotten 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 a working class family my mother was a. House cleaner my dad was a bartender an education wasnt really. Encouraged it was just you know you were meant to find a trade and you go out 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 a lot of teen 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 undercurrent. Here in america that i have and have nots that is definitely present almost every conversation that there snowmen. And a sense of things being unfair not equivalent for in terms of class. While the average income of a us household has dropped drastically in the last decade. The rich in the present losses recently on. The middle class. And even if i have to do some of that i have until after jumping oxers. Their station in life. I think nearly possible in the states right watching so mom. It seems impossible. Here today more and more citizens are asking themselves whether the American Dream was ever more than an illusion clue. And even though were here in the main. Thats why the country is a real crisis point right now because the 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 under thinkable the result is a new class of forgotten people right wing populist have succeeded in channeling their fears which manifests itself as anger directed at cultural elites. Things change theres a huge divide in this country i think theres no way you can escape if youre the king in america living in this culture of intense 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 and names to demonstrate social issues injustices and discrimination. In the. Us 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 resource in the Gathering Place for a new future in a city like this so that means yes the exhibitions we choose are not entirely but largely by black americans who happen to be producing the most relevant workmate in the world today in my view. One of these artists according to the Museum Director is malenko magos he whose exhibition addresses the notion of resistance. So i think were asking why matter is why its necessary but i think what were really asking is how can we change society and how can we how can ot be instrumental in doing that thats the real question busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy. Bedford seeks to give a bigger platform to works produced by non white artists. Busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy africanamerican artists like how much of their own history has gone into creating modern america busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy. I realize that some things. And i experience as a person doesnt have to do with me it has to do with history it has to do with the culture of america so if somebody sees me and they hate me or they feel like i dont deserve to shop in a store where they feel like i dont deserve to stay in their hotel it has nothing to do with me it has to do with the culture american put American Culture that they were brought up busy and. Busy busy busy busy busy busy when i think about racism i try to think about mostly is not even necessarily the inner personal interactions that everyone likes to focus on but the ways in which these sort of institutions are set up in america in a way in ways in which there are these sort of structures of racism i think the idea of sort of we often frame racism as you know one person being mean to another person and thats kind of where the conversation stops to me its more the structure is. So far no president not even barack obama has succeeded in overcoming americas deeply ingrained racial divisions so i busy feel like were sort of at the kendall one point i dont think will be in the numbers civil war but there is a war of ideas and of arts and and a war of people wanting to hold on to an old way of life that at some point is going to the pave the way whether by force or whether by some happening why things have to change here in america and i feel like trump is just hes a way of showing us who we were all along. And now we see the ugliness of who we are and were trying to reckon with that we want to change it we know that we have to change it at some point. In the United States right now. Were experiencing a crisis of tribal identities. Whats lacking is a vision of a political identity that we would share right now we think in terms of racial groups and gender groups and regional groups people in the south against other people religious people but. In part thats because weve lost our identity as as a nation and as a society that we share. Can Civil Society find ways to rebuild where political elites have failed i feel its incumbent upon all of us to work as hard as we can to make sure that this country doesnt fall further than it already has the country is so large and so powerful and has the possibility of taking too much of the world with it both in terms of the environment and in terms of the politics so i would say were in the biggest trouble week big trouble that we never could have imagined much bigger than any of us could have predicted. Paula her husband jim and other concerned citizens have built links with the community in the red state of kentucky they hope to engage with each other and offer a forum for views that go beyond the usual cultural fall on. We spent a long time trying to find a community to be our partners and we found Wonderful Group of people in Eastern Kentucky in the coal country i live in its hallam that voted 90 percent for Hillary Clinton and they live in a region that voted 90 percent for trump so we were a match made in heaven and we thought about a name for quite a while and we both live in hilly areas in the countryside and we were reaching out to each other that we call the hand across the hills. Theres a good thing its the kids. Pretty here are. Home has already met up with people from kentucky twice in recent months after a 17 hour drive paula and her fellow campaigner arrived in kentucky 1300 kilometers from their home in massachusetts. Well this is philadelphia look at this place. Still wonderful but a pitiful place. Kentucky is one of the poorest states in the u. S. Unemployment has been running high since most of the coal mines were shut down. Peoples discontent is fueled by the conservative fox news americas most watched cable t. V. Network it makes frequent use of apocalyptic imagery to evoke threats to American Freedom and the socalled god given order of christian supremacy click that god please i can see 3 screens from where i was on fox news on and we would never see fox news in our region of the country nobody would watch it and i think its the only media belittles people here and sometimes i wish that i could tell my kentucky friends what ive read of their times or heard of public radio and what they hear and see its very different so we have 2 completely different for protections of the news its sharply to fight those and everything that they please they for us. To. Go oh all of. Busy a well in kentucky more than 80 percent of the population is White Conservative and protestant evangelical christians are among the most loyal supporters of donald trump. A little bit worried it every 5th american identifies as evangelical. Which is the last time you seen an american movie with an evangelical character you havent because arnie they arent represented on Television One out of every 4 merican is lives in the south. If you look at television or movies the only time you see southern characters is if theyre racists or they are ignored. And so theres this whole middle of america that doesnt see itself in the image that if you call it the culture industry gives of the nation instead they see things that. Look to be not only contempt for them but also they feel lectured to. The artist jeff chapman crane was born and raised in kentucky his paintings capture the essence of his home state and its people. Theres a lot of frustration i think about. Being left behind and forgotten. Their you know has been. In some way sacrificed for the rest of the country you know coal. In the past has provided over 50 percent of the energy in this country and it is coming to a pretty high cost to this area like i mean so i dont think the coal industry is ever going to provide the kind of. Economic support for this region that now has in the past. Jeff is one of a small minority in kentucky who have consistently spoken out against coal mining for environmental reasons. I think what is new is in the last decade or so. Weve got to the point where we really cant have a dialogue about things people dont seem to respect each others points of view. Theres much more of an adversarial. Attitude towards our differences but ever that that if you dont put the agree with with me then youre completely wrong. America is a country that was founded on this unbounded optimism this idea in the 18th century that we could govern ourselves and that if we ennoble the human spirit to see how it could flourish we could produce great things unfortunately america now is in a state word has to side with the were going into decline or were going to recover that optimism. In kentucky optimism has given way to anger and desperation. When johnson is from a family of coal miners and lives with her mother in their childhood home weve suffered from what we believe is a war. And that was our only industry so we were hard hit and were mad and were in despair and so we mr trump came along. With his. 4th rottenness and his willingness to feel and if he felt the person deserves to be iffy and it. Is kind of what we were feeling anyway and i think that spoke to the people because there are some some who want to brawling warrior. Population in. America has always maintained that anyone who puts their mind to it can get to the top bus. For many the American Dream is just that a dream. Americans need vision with that kind of country america is a project but right now were in this period where we have no vision we live in a vision free society and when that happens in america all the dark things come up from below whats missing is a vision of the country that would speak to everyone that we get people to look beyond their particular tribe and recognized the fact that were country we share a destiny together that decisions are being made and we have to think of the common good as well and both sides the democrats the left on the one hand and conservatives in the right feel that they can play this tribal game and can win. America and incurably divided nation. Paula and sharon are hoping to use personal dialogue to hear and understand the other side of america in kentucky they want to find out what if anything people of the United States of america have in common. That the other day was a. Busy you. Know well we didnt really come so i would visit her. And. It. Was just so terrific something here wouldnt be back in hemphill right never thought id be in my life i think thats right. So one of the questions that we could ask source ask ourselves is how deep are these divisions in the country how do you experience them how do you think about them what are your concerns about them i wound up voting for china. But. Hillary clinton said she was for the coal miners out of days since if we continue to made. Them we found prey to those who want to keep us divided you know orders to control us and. If there is one thing out there and. I go into labor and it was a conversation can bring up the Common Ground the story is not red america versus blue america the story is these divisions in every community the fact is we have been divided by those who benefit from us being divided and thats a lot of what share and when were talking about and the fact is that when we are divided we are comparable and that is what is going on the kind of discipline is that weve mostly been talking about today. Is really flamed by politicians in the media that people arent as divided as it would seem by the politicians and the media and that the meal. Well divide in this country is between a bitch and that not rich and that that all of this is kind of a person flush to mask that. In our Group Dialogue itself just when everybody is very aware of the extent of the divisions and the harmfulness of the divisions and i certainly am i feel like theyre more friendly theyve been at a time in my in my life and theyre fair streamlines interests and. Those are not going to get overcome by these little dialogues from 300000000 people in the United States and 25 people but what i want to do is to try to set something in motion that gets other communities across the various Political Economic social cultural divides racial divides in this country to Start Talking to each other and the more that talk the more we humanize the more than the visions go down and the compassion goes up and in my ideal world we have a complete would have a politics based on compassion not of politics based on competition and hatred thats my hope for our country. President Abraham Lincoln devoted his efforts to healing the divisions in the United States and reestablishing the union after the bloody civil war today america faces much the same task rebuilding a divided society and developing ideas for a shared way forward what is it stink is notice in the future up democracy. And freedom. Europe transformed. To focus on europes summer series some 30 years ago the 1st cracks it appeared in the iron curtain. What happened to the dreams and secure us of that extraordinary time. Our journey begins in poland where we meet Nobel Peace Prize winner black. In 90 minutes on the w. Every journey begins with the 1st step and every language but the 1st word. Nico case in germany to learn german. Why not learn with him. In simple mind on your mobile and for e. W z e learning course. German may be easy. Welcome to the girl max new 2 channel. Mode a good line of stories. With exclusive sites. And a must see concerning part time culture to ensure a. Place to be for curious minds. Do it yourself networkers. So sore. Scribing dont miss it. This is deja vu news live from berlin after 2 weeks of furious street protests for the ricos governor announces his resignation people have been celebrating on the streets of the capital after ricardo resales said he was stepping down now this comes after the leak of obscenity laced chat messages revealing a shocking contempt for the public will go a lot. Of also coming up sweeping changes as Boris Johnson picks his team to drive britain into a new era outside the year