Let's start off by being real for a moment: The general atmosphere surrounding American politics today is extremely hostile.
In America, we're always in a political upheaval of some sort. There's an entire political spectrum, but rarely does anyone pay much attention to those who fall in between the two extremes. In American politics, you can identify as whatever major or minor party you want, but if we're being honest the majority of the country really only cares about the two extremes: Democrats and Republicans.
It's often said that "well-behaved women rarely make history," but I would extend that to encompass ALL people, male and female. Think about the news--how many so-called "depressing, sad, awful" news stories do you hear about in a day, as compared with the "feel-good" stories? The scale is uneven there, because of the simple fact that people live for the drama, the out-of-the-ordinary, the bizarre and heart-wrenching. Same goes with politicians.
In the Cato Institute's January/February 2011 policy report, "American politics encompasses both intense minorities and aspiring majorities--both minority factions and special interest groups, and majority sentiment, often given voice by majoritarian parties."
Republicans and Democrats make up the majority here. You can lean conservative or liberal, but it's the all-in conservatives and all-in liberals who run the show here. And it's sad.
Why do I say it's sad? Because the divide between Republicans and Democrats is all but dividing the country.
For the benefit of the doubt, founding father James Madison did say "no free country has ever been without parties, which are a natural offspring of freedom.” According to the Cato Institute, partisanship is rooted in the Constitution because of First Amendment freedoms. Freedom of the press and speech allow for and even occasionally encourage the abuse of partisanship.
But although it protects such speech and related actions, freedom of speech isn't to blame here: The abusers of partisanship are.
Now, I'm not saying that ALL Republicans and ALL Democrats are partially responsible for causing divisive rifts in the politics of a free country, because that would be both unfair and untrue. But there are always those people lying at either end of the spectrum who take it to the extreme, inciting violence, breeding hatred, severely berating those who disagree with them and killing any chance of civility.
The divide in politics is nothing new, but I would venture to say that it's getting bigger as time goes on. Especially in the wake of the 2016 presidential election with all of the flame-throwing between Trump's and Hillary's camps, and the consistent head-butting between parties now that Trump is president, political culture is getting more violent and even corruptive.
We just had a shooting in which a U.S. Republican representative, Rep. Steve Scalise, was very seriously injured during practice for a charity ball game. James Hodgkinson, the shooter, was allegedly a liberal who worked on Bernie Sanders's campaign. Hodgkinson allegedly drove halfway across the country with a list of Republican government officials in hand, seemingly targeting conservatives.
In 2012, Florida pastor Terry Jones made headlines after hanging former President Barack Obama in effigy in front of his church. A dummy of Obama was hung from a noose and the words "Obama is Killing America" was posted on a trailer nearby.
And while these are extreme examples, things continue to happen every day that further the divide. Whether it's anti-Islamic rhetoric, hate speech, some of Trump's tweets, accusations or berating of either party, none of it is conducive to a healthier, thriving country.
We'll never be able to make America great again if we can't give and take, if all we can do is show hatred, if we can't even open our minds and ears to just listen to what others have to say. Instead of getting caught up in the crossfire between two parties, it would make the political atmosphere a much more effective environment if we put the metaphorical weapons down once in a while to put egos aside and bring the needs of the people and the country to the forefront.
