Wrong and Wronger
Democrats mock Republicans. Conservatives despise liberals. Jesse Jackson and Rush Limbaugh vie for the hate-fueled rhetoric crown. Welcome to the United States Of You’re An Idiot.
There doesn’t seem to be any gray area anymore. In America today, you’re either a patriot or a communist – no in-between. We’ve become more polarized (and polarizing) than we’ve been for over a century. It scares me.
Where did it start, this extreme “Us vs Them” mentality? That part, at least, is easy: blame it on cable. Plenty has been written already about how the insatiable demands of our always-on televisions have led to the proliferation of Keith Olbermanns and Glenn Becks. It’s a sad fact, our “new now,” and we can only hope that people put down their verbal BB guns before they really do take someone’s eye out.
But before I go any further, a confession seems warranted: I’ve been a willing participant in this country’s increasing broadcast contrarianism. As a liberal Democrat, I read Slate.com, listen to NPR, howl at Jon Stewart, and think Stephen Colbert’s a genius. How is that any different from those who get their political information from Fox News or nod in heartfelt agreement with Sean Hannity?
Perhaps I need to reevaluate my own media choices, lest I continue to be a hypocrite…
It’s one thing to turn a spotlight on the divisiveness that characterizes so many of our country’s arguments – that’s become a virtual truism. The real question is: where will it lead?
For eight years, we liberals bashed Bush for not being able to pronounce the word “nuclear” and for leading our fighting men and women into a war founded on a lie. Now that Obama’s in the White House, conservatives gleefully enumerate his every broken campaign promise and point out the exorbitant cost of his healthcare plan.
Yes, the Democrats will probably lose their majority in Congress in the mid-term elections. And Sarah Palin may even become President in 2012 (in which case, I’m moving to Sweden, but that’s another story…) But then what? It’s not difficult to envision a future where every four years, the power changes hands from arugula-chomping “elitists” to beer-swilling “real Americans,” with the time between elections filled with sneering media commentary and total political gridlock.
And then we’ll have a revolution.
A Second Civil War.
What will it be like? Will there be uniforms? (“In this corner, wearing real American jeans, flannel shirts, and rugged work boots, are the Rip-Roarin’ Republicans; in the other corner, sporting three-piece suits, wingtip shoes, and wire-rimmed glasses, are the Debatin’ Democrats!”)
How about songs? “Over There, Where The Ideas Are So Wrong.” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home To A Two-Mommy Family Again.” “The Battle Hymn Of The Republicans.” “How You Gonna Keep ’Em Down On The Farm After They’ve Seen L.A.?”
I dunno – the titles seem a little long.
One thing’s for sure. Families would be torn apart. Even now, pre-revolution, there are dear friends with whom I don’t dare talk politics, since our discussions lead nowhere but to incendiary remarks and pejorative comments. We don’t listen to each other, and we don’t hear each other either.
If the Second Civil War comes, we’ll have to draw a line, establish a place for “us” and a place for “them” – which will, inevitably, leave many of us displaced.
How about other countries – in Europe, the Middle East, Asia? They’d have to choose sides – an odd position for them. Usually, it’s us meddling in their affairs, not vice versa.
Ultimately, who would “win” this (mercifully hypothetical) war? A colleague of mine brilliantly commented that it would be the conservatives, of course: “We libs would have to hide behind the trees we hug, because we don’t know how to shoot.”
So the idea that Lincoln (a Republican, I know) had – a more perfect union – would turn out to be a fantasy after all.
Is that really possible, though? Is the conviction that “I’m right and you’re so wrong that you should move to another country before you embarrass us any further” worth killing for? Worth dying for?
Maybe we won’t have to fight a war after all.
Maybe we can focus on the United States part.
And stop calling each other idiots.
I get the sense from what you’ve said and from your writing that you enjoy political discussion. Have you read the David McCullough John Adams book, or, at least, seen the HBO miniseries (which was great, by the way)?
I found it fascinating.
Here’s why. John Adams, who believed that a strong central government was required to financially provide for the common welfare, and Thomas Jefferson, who believed that federal government should be limited so as not to infringe upon the independence of states, were close friends. They competed politically. Adams even lost the Presidency after a single term to Jefferson, but they remained cordial and, in a way, remained allies.
The two had common ground, a belief that individual freedoms should be upheld at all costs, lest the revolution be a vain pursuit, and the United States become just another tyrannical monarchy.
Today, the root of their two opposing beliefs remain, but the common ground has all but vanished. Instead of demanding our freedom to write, interpret and enforce our own law, we have lost interest in the governance of the United States and are content to rely on our elected officials to “know better” than we do. So, when our legislators and executives take actions that are contrary to the wishes of the citizens they govern, we sit back and allow them to be re-elected, or worse, we begrudgingly pull the lever for one of a handful of pre-selected individuals that a group in Washington, over which we have no control, has selected for us. Democrats may recall that sentiment in 1984, when Mondale was their only option. For Republicans, it was McCain in 2008.
The truth is, I’m losing sympathy for my fellow Americans (myself included), who won’t bother to truly engage in the freedoms for which people like Adams and Jefferson risked their lives. Instead we take Rush’s word for it. We take Matt Damon’s word for it. We take anyone’s word for it except our own, and we choose from our pre-selected reality-show-esque candidates based upon surface-level impressions and sheer laziness.
Our Second Civil War will definitely not be civil!
Thanks Katy. My friend Max pointed out, however, that cable shows are appealing to much smaller (though more vocal) audiences than the networks of the past. But certainly even in the pre-internet days someone like Joseph McCarthy could and did do a lot of damage to a lot of innocent people before they self-destruct and/or get shut down.
I have to agree with Andrew that there is also a lot of laziness. I have to cop to it as well. I don’t take the time to delve deeply into all the political issues (too busy searching for funny videos and Buddhist rap songs on youtube). People satisfy themselves with sound-bites instead of really trying to understand all the complexities of the issues that they are reducing to bumper-sticker slogans.