Divide and Conquer

The divisiveness in American politics and society is crazy.  There has always been bickering, disagreement, and outright distrust between the two parties, and across the spectrum of views.   But until the last 20 years or so there has been at least an ability and desire to work together.  A willingness to compromise- not give up one's ideals or goals, but to work something out to keep the country moving forward.  "I want this, you want that, we'll come to an agreement somewhere in the middle."  Since the rise of Fox "News" and Rush Limbaugh, et al, many people and politicians refuse to accept anything short of everything they want.  That doesn't work in real life.  Not among individuals, not among groups, not among nations.  It's not solely conservatives who refuse to compromise at all, but let's face it, it's mostly them.  They want to talk, for example, about how "divisive" Obama is.  He is not.  They don't agree with him, and they get pissed off and refuse to do anything he wants.  That's not him being divisive- that's them.  I guess he's polarizing, maybe, but not purposely divisive.  Conservative "outrage" about every single thing he does, even when it's things they would normally support?  That's what's divisive.  They want to divide us, make it us against them.  Democrats against Republicans, Christians against Muslims, black against white.  That world of division, fear, self-righteousness?  That's a conservative world.

The rise of talk radio, Tea Party nutballs, and big money in politics have made our differences into divisions.  We demonize each other.  We don't talk to each other.  For example, I have mostly weeded conservatives out of my Facebook feed.  I do not want to see the nasty, angry, often false things that far too many conservatives post.  I certainly don't want to see apologists for traitors, as with the Confederate flag issue.  I don't want to see people defending the shooting of children (cf. Tamir Rice and many others.)  I am conservative on some issues.  I am glad to read, and talk about, conservative ideas with reasonable people.  I love conversations that get deep into stuff like that, about reality.  But I am fed up with the reposts of things that are blatantly false, and are often moralizing on top of that.  I have kicked people who post stuff like that off my page, and often also out of my life.  If you keep telling me Obama is buying up all the ammo so you can't have it, and getting ready to take all the guns, and the UN is going to take over, well, you're crazy.  And frankly, I've dialed back or booted some liberals too.  I don't want to see wacko right-wing things, or wacko left-wing things, all day.  Say something stupid and I will probably call you out on it; keep saying stupid stuff and I will boot you.  If you hold uninformed, unreasoned views on things, or think violence is okay (left-wing or right-wing,) or repeat things that are not true (and don't try find out if they're true,) I don't have time for you.  I'll kick you off my FB page, and I probably don't even want to talk to you in person.  And for the next year, I will probably be unfriending people online and in real life over their support for Trump or any other idiot

And that's sad.  I try to talk to them, reason with them, but I don't have the patience to do it forever.  The thing is, that hurts us.  It hurts our society and country.  We get into an echo chamber, don't see what other people think, don't engage with them and move forward.  Which leads to a vicious circle that just makes things worse.  We've lost something important.  I feel like I've lost something.  If I don't have conservative friends who I can talk to in a reasonable way, how will I be able to think clearly?  How will I learn if I don't hear new things?

We don't have to be divided.  We need to engage.   I am not optimistic about our ability to do that.  I don't know if we've had a failure in our education system, or just too many people who refuse to think critically, or this is all just part of a natural cycle, but it's bad.  And I look at the current presidential candidates, and I see it getting worse.  I don't see anyone on the Republican side even trying to bring us together.  And while the Democratic candidates at least try to do that, I don't see many conservatives capable of listening, and thinking clearly.