Polarization in politics produces poisonous propaganda.

I just wanted to use some alliteration there--but you know what I mean.

In my lifetime, the polarization in politics has worsened substantially.  Today, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush (41) would likely struggle to win the Republican nomination for President. They would seem too liberal to the right wing of the party.  Likewise, Bill Clinton would seem too conservative for the liberal wing of the Democratic party.  In contrast to much of what we see in politics, these three men seem to be closer to the middle politically.

There are many reasons for that, but a few that I note:

--The Republican Party has been, by all intents and purposes, hijacked by the religious right.

--The Democratic Party has been hijacked by the social justice warriors.

To be fair, there are many people in the middle in both parties who don't feel like they belong either place.  

--Last, but most importantly, the polarization is magnified by the relatively new phenomenon of social media

Let's look at each of these in more detail:

1.  The hijacking of the Republican Party by the religious right

Sure, the Republican Party has long been the party to which the more fundamentalist Christians migrated.  That did not mean that the Republican Party of two decades ago shunned people who differed religiously.  In the last decade, especially with the emergence of the Tea Party with a fundamentalist Christian agenda, the moderate voices have been drowned out by the louder voices of the more strictly religious members of the party.  Of course, there is no negotiating in their minds, because God is on their side, and you can't argue with God, now, can you?  The end result is a party that is putting more and more candidates forward that are antithetical to the beliefs of Democrats.  President Trump is an interesting exception to this extreme religiosity.  But, while not an ideologue himself, his extreme rhetoric on the campaign trail resonated with the extremism of the party, and that irritates the rank and file politicians in the party.  Republicans deserve Trump.  

Religion has little place in politics.  While acknowledgement of God was common in the day of the Founding Fathers, most of them were Deists, believing that God set the world in motion and then has had little to do in intervening in the affairs of humankind.  They were for freedom to worship as you feel directed, but did not advocate legislation of morality beyond common human decency.  We should still be guided by those principles.  

My summation is this:  If you can legislate Christian rules and regulations, you have set a precedent for Sharia law.

Let that sink in.

2.  The hijacking of the Democratic Party by social justice warriors

I am for doing all we can to enhance the equality of all people. Many people in this country have been treated in horrendous ways, and often by our government.  Native American slaughter and displacement, African American slavery, women's voting rights and inequality in the workplace, the mistreatment of two consenting adults who love each other and just want to be left alone are a few examples of where we as a nation got it very wrong in the past.

But social justice warriors are hijacking the Democratic Party, and once again speaking with voices that are louder than the majority of democrats.  This leads to the same phenomenon we see in the Republican Party, only in reverse. Each of the groups above (with the exception of the Native Americans, who seem to uniformly approach advocacy the right way), has a very loud group of social justice warriors who have the audacity to think that they speak for everyone in their demographic.

They don't.

3.  Social media as a polarizing force.

Look at your social media friends list.

Do most of them agree with you?  Probably.

When we have the choice, by nature we surround ourselves with people who agree with us.  In social media, the number of people with whom we can communicate is exponentially more than what was possible even two decades ago.  

More and more shares of articles (some with dubious sources) that agree with our opinion are seen by us every day.  That leads to the belief that most people believe like us, and--horror of horrors--if there is someone who disagrees with us, they must be out of their minds.

Taken to the extreme, this kind of polarization of ideas is what leads to wars between religions and countries.

But does that really matter?  Can someone have an idea different than my own, and still be a good person?  

I believe they can.

I close this post by encouraging everyone to Google Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" quote.  There is an awesome Youtube video that has his voice quoting it.

Let us not be so polarized, and think that our opinion is the only right one when we are but passengers "on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."


Peace,
Anthony