The Lack of 'Glue'

If you went out and asked a group of working-class Germans....is Germany truly unified, or is there a lack of cohesiveness existing in Germany today?  Most (my humble guess is near 80-percent) would suggest that Germany is very much a divided nation today. 

Tonight, via ARD (public TV in Germany, Channel One)....with the Anne Will public forum TV show (9:45 PM), there's going to be a full hour with political figures and journalists chatting over the issue.

Would this issue have come up in the 1980s, with West Germany?  No....I suggest that most people would have found some 'glue' existing which patched society, regions, and the political landscape into one single nation. 

It's an interesting discussion topic and I will offer four observations:

1.  Something 'clicked' in the early 1990s as East and West Germany unified, and a difference of opinion became more noticeable.  Part of it is East German 'thinking', but another part is the economic differences between communities in east and west.

2.  Hartz IV (upon arriving around 2003) did resolve some particular welfare issues in Germany, but it also created a tidal wave of a lesser society existing.  You can readily now find a ghetto landscapes in the creation and a good ten-to-fifteen percent of society living in a challenging environment.

3.  Out of the 82-million residents of Germany....it's figured (at least by 2016 numbers) that ten-million residents are originally not of German origin.  Since 2016?  I'd take a guess that another half-million have arrived and layered into the system.  It's difficult to see this group participating as a German resident would.

4.  Finally, politically speaking....the two dominant parties (the CDU and SPD, left of center and right of center) are in a free-fall situation.  Twenty to thirty years ago....they had 75 to 85 percent of the national vote.  This past election (2017), they marginally were able (together) to get just over 50-percent of the vote.  We are fairly near the point where half the voting public won't vote with the two previously noted dominate parties.

Is this a good thing....the lack of 'glue' as a society?  It means more debate....more arguments....more experimentation.....more stress on the general public. 

I expect this debate to talk about changes....more political experimentation....and an audience sitting in some form of disbelief or lack of trust.