Let’s Take a Deep Breath, and a Step Back

Politics has become so important that we treat politicians—Republican or Democrat—like monarchs with control over the nation's soul.

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The day before Election Day, Reuters ran a story about the personal toll politics has taken on some peoples’ lives. 

Mayra Gomez told her 21-year-old son she’d be voting for Trump. He essentially disowned his own mother in response. Gomez says he told her: “You are no longer my mother.” 

Gayle McCormick, a 77-year-old woman, left her husband because he voted for Trump. 

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  1. Victoria Ferauge

    As I read the comments I can't help but think of Amin Maalouf's theory of "deadly identities." Identity itself is not a problem, not is having a passionate attachment to an identity a problem. Identities become a problem when a identity requires that you hate and despise others and insist (at best) that those others submit to your identity or (at worst) the others have to disappear in order for your identity to exist in its purest state. The Dems versus Repubs is perilously close to that. "The Dems (or the Repubs) are the source of all evil in our lovely little Republic" and they must submit or change. Or else. Not a recipe for anyone's happiness (or pursuit thereof).

    I am a passionate Catholic and a true believer in the Church. I don't believe that salvation is possible outside of it. That right there will certainly piss off quite a few people. :-) But it isn't "deadly" in the sense that I must think that all non-Catholics must convert or be purged. I'm perfectly content to let others decide for themselves and I can certainly live quite happily among non-Catholics. But I have only to look a few countries over to Northern Ireland to see how a Catholic versus Protestant identity is deadly as hell.

    Question is is this what we want for the United States? To have two "deadly" identities going at it? To live in a country where one side must convert or die?

    Personally, I will pass on that but then that's not my decision to make.

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  2. Cscott glider

    The more you look at something the more your perception becomes a factor in what you see. Call it science or worse political science. We will get through this when we stop listening to our monkey brains. The thought of impending secession is not secession. The thought of tribalism is not tribalism. Choose wisely.

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    Tammy Herbert

    I voted write in candidates partly as a nod to this, and to what I've learned in the last 12 years since I started talking about politics but not fighting about them, that the national ballot especially cannot be the most important driver of my beliefs. I will not allow it to just become transactional. I will not vote for someone just because I dislike the policies of the other. And I will work harder closer to home to live out the things that I long to be taken away from government control, loving my neighbor so to speak instead of asking the government far away who doesn't really care except whether you vote D or R to take care of them for you.

    Also, I wonder if a way forward ~ what's next ~ would be a very intentional effort to get to know the Trump voter (or the Dem voter for that matter) to see exactly why they are voting. I can imagine that if they're like me, often called a supporter of Trump because I'm conservative in worldview yet ostracized by Trump supporters when I criticize (okay, I'll admit this has happened in my own family yet we've figured out how to talk about these things and still like each other) Can we really get to know the REAL Trump voter? Not the MAGA wearing, drive your truck in parades, stand out in the rain to see their guy Trump supporters but people like my Mom who in every aspect of her life look likes a soft "leftie" by working during retirement so she can help with supporting other widows and literally making homes for young families without one. A softie she is! Nothing like people characterize someone who thinks Trump is the best president we've ever had. She votes for him because she doesn't want the kind of government that those further left are talking about, and Trump is the safeguard, and she tolerates his language, demeanor, even his character etc because of this. And she's upset with me for pointing out why I can't. Are people really about to get to the true heart of a vote? Is that even possible? I mean, I can tell you exactly why I didn't vote for him or Biden, why I wrote in who I did. THey're my own well thought out researched legitimate reasons. Maybe we would understand the way forward more if we understood by asking them rather than assuming why Trump is such a big deal to so many of those who are on the right side of the circle.

    I could say the same about Dem voters as I'm the first to think "they're only voting for Biden because they hate Trump" because I can't imagine why he was the choice they made, but then, maybe if I took time to ask, I'd understand how he was the one as opposed to so many others.

    Okay I'm done. THis has been on my mind since last night as I saw the media characterizing real people in ways that I don't believe are right. And this was a better place to share it, hoping for further dialog on it without snarky twitter takes or outlandish facebook arguments.

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    Frank Vergden

    Should "1860s in England" be 1680s?

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    1. Bob Bell

      I believe so.

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  5. Dylan Paul

    "I certainly think America could benefit from another religious Great Awakening, but the last thing I want to see is a government-run Office of Religious Revival."

    And that's why the post-liberals are dead wrong.

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    E7a56c3893

    As a liberal I was hoping for some sign that we share some common reality, that the behavior of this president this past summer was not something I imagined. I guess not. Everyone is back to their same corners. So unfortunate.

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  7. Heidi Seward

    Did you mean the 1660s in England?

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  8. sane_AZ

    I don't expect our media or our elected officials to do anything to "heal the nation". R vs D is now and has always been a false dichotomy, although it is currently supercharged in a way I've never seen before. If we are to avoid our very own Civil Cold Way, it will be up to the citizenry to demand better. I simply hope that politics is downstream of culture because our leadership isn't leading us anywhere good.

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    Earl King

    I have no idea if your happy but it looks like the NT's may have threaded a needle. IF the GOP keeps the Senate they won't have to own the lunacy that would have come from the House and Senate Democrats. All I could think of was watching Chris Coons, a man I used to respect use blackmail on national television. He essentially said unless the GOP agrees to pass everything we want, that would very likely cause us employe these measures. End the filibuster, pack the courts, add Democrat majority States etc. You have helped get rid of Trump as President. Congrats. I believe Trump has made a huge contribution to the GOP....he has expanded the Party. Blue Collar, people of color. He has made the party more main street. I am hopeful and more skilled politician will drive her campaign bus thru the wedge Trump has created.

    As for the theme I am older than you...as at times in the 60's it looked like the country was coming apart. Between the 60's race riots and 68 Democrat convention and assassinations I thought we would explode. Clearly the issue of slavery was divisive and led to violence. The difference however was a Confederate soldier who neighbor was a Union Soldier would recognize each others culture. They shared much more in common in their daily lives and worship.
    Today, our lives are shared...we work, we eat, we have relationships but I don't have a clue of the culture of those who I don't know.
    I don't want to accuse solely Democrats as worshipping division but in their quest to find the aggrieved and engage in race politics they have chopped us up into voting segments. The horrid SCOTUS ruling Roe v Wade made compromise impossible for sensible Abortion policy. So we are left with screaming at each other. You're killing babies or if you oppose abortion you're accused of wanting women to die.
    It's ludicrous. Such is the result of Liberal Justices who have legislated from the Bench. It is actually their behavior that keeps us from finding compromise. This is the single worst thing that has occurred in my lifetime.
    National Politics has become a blood sport. You only win by getting everything you want. Nancy Pelosi feels unless she gets everything she wants in a Covid plan she willing to have Americans lose.....so the President can't win. I am conservative but I think I could make a bipartisan deal and I'd rather have something than nothing. You have to politicians willing to compromise.....So going back to Chris Coons and others like him...be they left or right. Screw them all...Such, BTW was one allure for Trump.

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  10. Victoria Ferauge

    "Advocate for it at the local level, where the powers that be are more connected to the reality on the ground, and where political winners and losers have to look each other in the eye." That is excellent advice and all the more pertinent to me since I do not live in the US. I watch what is going on in the US but so little of it has anything to do with my daily life. With the exception of US tax law, no law passed by Congress, no Supreme Court decision, no Executive order of the US President has any application where I actually am. I suspect that I would feel much better if I became a citizen of the country where I actually live and could meet my local politicians at the local market on Sundays. :-)

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