A Way Out of America’s Division

By Rich Tafel and Annabel Park

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”

1861. These were the words newly elected President Lincoln spoke, desperate to avoid a civil war. It was too late; Americans had given up on words and friendships and descended into violence.

We are two Americans each from opposing political parties and ideologies, and we are friends. It is 2019, 158 years after Lincoln’s speech, and we are both currently worried about the low-level civil war that has become the norm in America.

In addition to the well-known instances of violence taking place accompanied by radicalized political messages, it has become the stuff of everyday life to hear our friends and peers use dehumanizing language to describe the other side. People seem resigned to thinking that we must be at war with each other figuratively and literally to resolve our differences. We hear many casually say out loud, “They just need to die.”

Leadership today means fighting the other side with hatred. And we are inclined to choose our candidates based on how effective they are at humiliating the other side. With these tactics practiced on both sides of the aisle, we are escalating our conflict and the inevitable outcome is more domestic violence and greater susceptibility to the divide-and-conquer tactics from foreign actors.