POLITICAL POLARIZATION

One Side Seems to Own This

I’ve hated how nasty the political wars seem to be and how the politicians and media seem to thrive on encouraging anger and blaming.  Excluding the far left and right who would never have been able to listen to those who disagree with them, I found one thing extremely puzzling.  Speaking positively about Trump or even, heaven forbid, having voted for him caused many on the left to shun you completely.  During my years of discontent with Obama, I never cut off a friendship, nor declined an invitation to talk politics with those who lauded him.  I understood that we all have different values, ways of interpreting actions and more and that a specific political decision is often highly nuanced and complex.  I may not get why you’d vote for him, even as I had some suspicions, but if I respected you before, I don’t stop respecting or liking you now.

The Trump Effect

But that’s not the way many peers on the Left saw it.  Trump was evil, bad and even equated with Hitler. This offended me greatly, given what Hitler did to my family.  I would never have equated the missteps and even damage caused by lefty Presidents to a genocidal murderer.  Nor would I have equated those who voted for him to the SS.  While I was financially damaged by Obamacare and struggled to keep my small business going because of the significant cost increases we had to shoulder, I didn’t hate Obama.  And I sure didn’t hate the people who voted for him.  I felt they had shown some degree of poor judgment, but I was willing to listen to them explain why they liked him.  Oddly, they were not so willing to listen to my concerns.

Trump was more of a bellwether, signaling the end of civility in political discourse.  Disagreement no longer could be accepted by the Left.  You were at the least, wrong-headed if not truly evil if you felt anything Trump had accomplished had value.  It’s gotten so bad that there are groups of people who simply stay off politics to avoid the inevitable discord.  But in my experience, the ones taking this stance are always on the Left.  I’ve listened to those defending Biden.  Do I agree with them?  No.  I see him as wrong on everything, but I don’t ostracize them, nor do I shut them down.

A Depolarization Group

Because of these issues, I joined Braver Angels, seeking to find an approach that would allow people of differing beliefs to converse in a respectful and curious manner. You see, at that moment, I felt there were things I could learn about respectful speech.  I owned part of the problem and sought to consider where my language might be offensive or my approach hard to handle.

Sadly, even in this group, while we list words that are “triggering” for each side, those who call themselves Blues still use some of these words on our calls.  They call it “racism” or “sexism” because a conservative doesn’t like a particular policy.  “Safe spaces” or “trigger warnings” are called out when they hear something they don’t agree with.  When Joe Manchin didn’t cleave to the progressive base, he was censured.  I was shocked; I monitor myself closely as I realize that when I talk to my Red friends, we can often fall into those traps ourselves.  Still, I don’t hate people on the other side and I don’t pity them or condemn them.  But I feel the disdain from the Left, even from those who have supposedly been trained not to speak that way.

The Core Problem, IMHO

I found myself remembering the book, “Bias,” by Bernie Goldberg.  In it, he explained what he saw as the reason so many on the Left are not just disagreeing with the Right – they see them as the enemy.  In his work, he explains how they believe that they do not have opinions – they have the facts.  In other words, you’re wrong and they are right.  When you believe something is a fact, it can be hard to handle someone insisting you’re wrong.  However, it isn’t an offense worth ditching friends and family over.  That part is harder to understand.

Perhaps each of us has to take a step back from our beliefs and ask if we KNOW these are facts or if there could be a difference of opinion.  But I’m a bit discouraged when I read that the Left thinks that insisting the 2 + 2 = 4 is racist.  Perhaps there is no solution.  On the other hand, medical research shows that people who are angry all the time shorten their lives significantly.  So perhaps the problem will simply “die out.”