Political Discord Delivered Right to Your Mailbox
Chances are that you receive the occasional (or not so occasional) message from a candidate, political party or interest group. These solicitations often focus on a recent hot-button issue or make a more general ideological-driven appeal, but the one constant is they all want your money.
These entreaties usually portray political foes in the most unflattering way possible (to say the least!), so is it any wonder America is so polarized when they are constantly bombarded with the message that the political opposition is a bunch of evil, lawless traitors?
Can we really be surprised that compromise has become such a dirty word when people are led to believe at every turn, in the basest terms possible, that those with whom they don’t agree are to be feared and despised?
This relentless and never-ending effort to finance political campaigns has had such an corrosive effect on our perception of the government and our fellow citizens that we are barely governable at this point.
In the end, it doesn’t much matter who is in charge if all that remains is the scorched rubble of a once-great country undone by our inability to cooperate.
Speech must remain free for a republic to function, but respectful dialogue allowing for mutually beneficial compromise is pretty darn important as well!
So how do we fix this without infringing on freedom of speech?
As long as the driving force in politics is money, the pursuit of campaign cash will trump all else. Lessen or eliminate this need, and the incentive to pull out all stops in its pursuit lessens as well.
Clearly, this is not a problem easily solved, but doing so is essential if we ever hope to address the many issues we face.
In the meantime, we would all do well to remember that this negative onslaught is not always rooted in reality, and that those who are the most politically active are also the most susceptible. This is why extremism at both ends of the political spectrum has risen so sharply over the past few decades.
Under such a relentless barrage, it takes a conscious effort (which many are either unwilling or incapable of currently doing) to remind ourselves that most people who disagree with us politically are not evil; that they are not our enemies; that they are still our brothers and sisters…even if we feel like hitting them upside the head with a wiffle-ball bat sometimes.
The ironic part is that we don’t even like the people shoveling this swill. Public approval of Congress, the President and government as a whole would not be so universally low if most Americans agreed in principle with the actions or policies of either major political party. Yet it is our unrelenting acquiescence to this two-party dynamic which helps ensure that little ever really changes.
The problem isn’t that people on the left and right are incapable of compromise or that they disagree on every single issue, but that the machinery propelling both parties through vitriolic elections and inept governance all stand squarely in our way of doing so.
Currently, there is zero incentive to stop demonizing political opponents in order to gain votes and maximize contributions. Political campaigns will continue to have direct motivation to behave as they always have…but only so long as voters keep rewarding them for doing so.
Originally published at https://www.commonsensecure.com.
