Crossroads of Insanity

I set out to write something kind today—I wanted to make a point, but gently. A nudge of persuasion and a sprinkle of controversy. But I realized I was dissembling and dancing around my real concern—which is really more than a ‘concern.’ It is a fear – the sort of fear that you dwell on at midnight when your spouse is asleep, and the world is quiet.

Currently, the United States is on a road to nowhere. The people who care about politics have zero common ground. Their ideologies are headed in opposite directions at 90 miles per hour. Who is supposed to unite us? Most of our supposed ‘leaders’ are incompetent or stupid or both! The remaining few are either so alone as to be ineffective or looking forward to the sweet lobbying gigs they will get in a few years. COVID, test scores, the economy, Afghanistan, China. Not a single one of these issues has been handled well. When someone occasionally tries to handle something well, they are stymied by the opposing party’s loyalists in the bureaucracies. And we as citizens are cheering for the soundbites that make us feel good, rather than for good governance. We cheer as our team scores a touchdown and spikes the ball while ignoring the stadium that is burning to the ground around us.

Cancel culture is supreme right now, and it’s all about hurting someone’s livelihood because they hold – or once held – political views other than what you find acceptable. No redemption, no forgiveness, only punishment. The worst part is, I get it and totally understand. There are people whose beliefs I find abhorrent. I hope they get fired from their jobs or suffer. Is that kind or loving? Well, no—but I doubt I’m alone in wanting to see it happen.

Isn’t that the core of the problem though? Knee-jerk reactions are rarely healthy for us. If too much of a good thing is bad, then too much of a bad thing is obviously doubly bad. Is there anyone who would argue that a baker’s dozen of donuts and a six pack of beer every single night for decades isn’t deadly? How about disagreeing with every single idea your opponent has, not based on facts or information but on moral grounds? Is it safe to call your opponents evil time and time again? What if they start acting like it? But our nation is currently doubling down on this idiocy and ruining the health of civic discourse in America.

Let me tell you why I’m afraid for my nation. Why I’m afraid enough to say the quiet part out loud. Unless something changes – drastically – significant chunks of the populace will actively hate strangers based on their political beliefs. Already, where you live, what you eat, drive, and watch, and where your kids go to school is loosely based on your party affiliation. It’s not going to get better, it’s going to get worse. At this point, why would a Republican keep living in California? Or a Democrat in Texas?

Look at the replies to that tweet. Twitter is not real life, but most of those people are all about it because they hate their opponents and believe they are evil.

Now, people might believe something about how history arcs towards justice…. but the key word there is: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is LONG but it bends toward justice.”- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (emphasis added). How long? A decade or five? Maybe even a century? History may barely blink but for us that’s a long time.

I hope that good will win out, but I have less faith than I used to. Liberty is receding across the globe. China was supposed to be joining the ranks of free nations. Instead, they have literal concentration camps that can be seen from space, and they censor their citizens’ internet access.

Let me tell you about fear that keeps me up at night. Right now, the United States is on a path to breakup with itself, and breakups are never painless. As Americans, we have been lucky. People were really upset about Jan. 6th, but was it really that bad? I think we should be thankful that, in the nation with the highest gun ownership per capita, Jan. 6th wasn’t worse. Children were killed in the streets of Dublin only a few decades ago. Pro-America politicians in Afghanistan lived in fear of their families being targeted for assassination. Americans are amateurs at domestic political violence, Thank God.

But I believe that if we continue to balkanize—if every policy decision is elevated to a moral decision about good vs. evil—then we will experience greater political violence. Just watch the news for a bit: clearly, we are a nation of mature adults who handle disagreement and hardship well.

I have a toddler and a second baby due in two months. I want them to live in a better America than the one I grew up in. And the one I grew up in was better than any other place on Earth, despite its flaws. But I fear that if we continue to do what ‘feels good’ in our politics over what is good for our nation, then my children will inherit a fractured republic.

If there is anything left to inherit at all.