We live in a time when politics is so starkly divided on partisan lines it seem as if we are in the trenches of Verdun or Ypres, so distant from one another and so set in our hate. But it is not machine guns or artillery or poison gas that divides us; it is hate. Hate for demographics, hate for beliefs, hate for political positions; that is the hate that has formed those trenches. It is almost absurd, often obscene, as I discussed in my last article about the death of Justice Scalia.

I grew up in the beltway, Arlington County to be specific. I saw this hate blossom; we had a government shutdown because of it. Speaking as a longtime Republican, the way the Republican Party has been acting for the past few years is downright shameful. It has been rabidly hating the current administration without offering anything in return, and has taken a disturbing amount of influence from the religious right. I find this deeply disturbing. The blatant homophobia from many Republicans, and the less than wholly egalitarian posturing regarding race and gender, especially in recent years after the problem of police brutality came to the forefront. And, of course, there is the rabid hatred of the Democratic Party and for liberals and leftists in general.

The Democrats like to self-righteously portray themselves as defenders of social equality against a bigoted party of crotchety old white men. Frustrating as it is to a conservative to see it, I can understand why they might think that. The Republican Party continues to support laws that permit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, such a recently passed bill in the Virginia Legislature (which Governor McAuliffe has promised to veto, and I applaud him for taking that stance), and the continuing rumbling about overturning Obergefell v. Hodges. There is the opposition to anti-discrimination legislation in regards to LGBT persons in the workplace. There is the dismissive attitude toward the issues behind #BlackLivesMatter (objection to their methods is another issue entirely). There is the stereotyping of all Democrats as welfare sucklings, immature college students or power mad plutocrats. There is the calling for a registry of Muslims, or more general restriction of their rights. This, right here, is hate.

Unfortunately, those on the left side of the aisle are hardly better. I cannot remember how many times I have been accosted for being a conservative, my opinions being conflated with those of the worst of the party. Our parties are big tent. They have all sorts of people in them. For example, the Republicans have libertarians, classical liberals, religious conservatives, business types, and plenty of others among their base. There is utterly no sense to conflate a party member with one group when there are so many groups running under that label. And yet many Democrats see that as fair, and even worse is commonplace. There are those that denounce all Republicans as homophobic, racist, sexist, etc. when there are many who do not meet that description.

And then there is the oft-maligned illiberal progressivism, derogatorily called "social justice warrior" (a name I detest), and the more orthodox hatred of the right. That those who oppose a certain form of leftist ideology are cast as bigots, whose privilege blinds them from the oppression of minorities. This is a starkly zero-sum, black and white view of the world that it fosters the very kind of hate that they purport to oppose. See the reaction to the death of Scalia; some wished the same death upon Clarence Thomas. There is the blatant bigotry against conservatives who are not the archetype of the straight white male, such as describing Justice Thomas as “a clown in blackface.” Even among the left, such hate is endemic; supporters of Bernie Sanders have called for Hillary Clinton being raped or Bill Clinton being caught in a rape scandal to tank his wife’s political prospects. It is similarly appalling. It is similarly hate.

Hate is attractive, ultimately, because it absolves oneself from thinking. Why rebut the opponent, why engage in rational argument, when the opponent may well be the Devil himself? Hate is an emotion that is a cheap way of going through politics, and life at that matter; it makes thinking unnecessary. It is not for nothing Orwell created a "two minutes’ hate" as a form of catharsis in his premier dystopian novel; hate allows energy to be released, a rational anger at injustice turned into a monstrous fury.

Hate is predicated upon dehumanization. Hate on either side of the aisle tends not to be of the blatant variety common in the Imperial era where opponents are subhuman, but rather reduced to a series of labels. Words like "liberal" or "conservative" or "progressive" are all useful descriptors, but they are just that: descriptors. The same goes for so many other terms; partisan terms, demographic terms, ideological terms, et cetera. These terms, as they are flung about the political arena, emphasize ideas and make us forget that we are debating people. To quote the administration of reddit, as flawed as they may be, “remember the human,” for that is something we often forget in our quest to be right.

Hate, I feel, is like a drug. It prevents people from acting rationally via its dehumanization. Reducing people to a series of stereotypes, of preconceived notions, clouds one’s judgement; one forgets the human. It is this discrepancy, brought on by the furor of dehumanization,that is the ultimate root of our political dysfunction. Those who want to transcend this must eschew hate, reject it in its entirety. Hate is irrational, and rationality dictates that such prejudice be cast off.