Bipartisan blinders

Bitterness beyond tribalism

Since 2020, I have had a somewhat limited presence on social media. Other than substack and some private communications, I have, for the most part, avoided the major players - until recently. About a month or so ago, wanting to expand the reach of my substack, I finally acquiesced and obtained an account on the platform formerly known as Twitter. I was already aware of the great divide between left and right in our country that has been growing since the early 2000s, but reading people’s posts and comments on X opened my eyes even further.

Some, including the President in his State of the Union, have mentioned the Civil War, but mistakenly in their analogies. The likeness between now and the Civil War isn’t what one side wants to do to another; the similarity is in how ardently assured each side is that it is standing on the moral high ground and that the other side is unequivocally evil. What few seem to realize is how obtuse are those on both sides of the conflict, completely unaware that they are all being used as pawns by politicians who, to preserve their own power and prosperity, would gladly sacrifice every one of the people or groups for whom they claim to stand.

Over the past 20 years (we could go back a little further, but it really has been incited mostly since the Bush/Gore and Obama elections), the political class has fomented division in the country in order to further its own agenda(s). After all, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls” (Luke 11:17). Of course, one need not read the Bible to understand this basic principle. We have all heard the phrase, “together we stand; divided we fall.” So long as we allow our best and brightest to divide us, we stand no chance against them.

Yet most are so obtuse, and so uneducated regarding the concepts that drove America’s founding fathers to establish a new form of limited government deriving its power from the people, that both sides scream and shout about what the government “should do,” when in reality, most of that about which they clamor should not involve the federal government at all.

This leads to the unfortunate tone deafness of both sides. Though I’ve seen many instances in my short stint on X, I saw one truly glaring example this morning. As I was skimming, I came across the following:

First, and most glaringly, both sides use fear to sell their positions. Yes, Republicans scream about communism and socialism (not completely unwarranted), about moral decline (they’re not wrong there), and about illegal immigration overburdening the system (sanctuary cities are now evincing the legitimacy of that “fear”); but Democrats scream about “white supremacy” (falsely), the end of “Our Democracy™” (wrongly), and “fascism” (mistakenly, since fascism is a leftist ideology), and promulgating the idea that this will be “our last election” if you don’t vote for a Democrat. The Democrats are just as addicted to fear porn as are the Republicans.

Claiming that “MAGA” believes there is nothing good about America is about as blind as blind can be. People who claim to be “MAGA” believe America has always been great, but it has faltered over the past couple of (few?) decades and want to return it to all its glory. It was a Democrat who said that his goal was to “fundamentally change America.” You don’t “fundamentally change” something that you believe is good. And as for “putting us down,” was it not a Democrat President who went on an apology tour? Is it not Democrats who tell us daily of our wretchedness, having built a country on racism and continuing this day to be systemically racist? What good are they claiming to see in people when they excoriate those on the right as “phobes” of all flavors, as fascists, as Nazis, as white supremacists? But this is what blinders do - they restrict the view of the one wearing them.

This is not just true of the left. Those on the right are just as self-unaware. Many suffer a form of Trump Derangement Syndrome just as slavish as those on the left, and are just as guilty of demonizing (often literally) their political opponents. As misguided as those on the left may at times be, it helps no one for those on the right to lump them all in one basket (just as those on the right did not particularly enjoy being lumped into one “basket of deplorables”). Those on the left with the loudest voices may deserve derision, but not everyone on the left embraces all that the Democrat party propounds.

Further, despite the outcry from the right against anything unconstitutional of which the left may be guilty, the right does much the same. Hypocrisy is often the deal of the day when it comes to Republicans. They rail and cry over illegal immigration, yet in the past (if not now), many used those illegals as cheap labor. They lament that Social Security is an entitlement - it is not, not when people are forced to pay under the pretense that they are paying in for their future retirement. Yet the right is just as guilty as the left of using Social Security as a slush fund to finance their ostentatious spending, and just as shameless in using Social Security as a bargaining chip at election time. In reality, neither party benefits from solving problems - they only find gain in histrionics, hand-wringing, and pearl-clutching.

Most of what politicians in Congress, both on the left and the right, try to convince the American people that the federal government should do, is unconstitutional. That the American people are utterly oblivious to this country’s founding principles, the content of the Constitution, and the very limited powers and responsibilities granted therein to the federal government, allows those in office and their parties to manipulate their constituents into voting the way the parties want. They have the masses convinced that there are “Constitutional rights” to which they are entitled, and that the other side wishes to take away those rights, but most of what they claim are “rights” are not rights at all (healthcare is a prime example).

The fact is, if everyone would remove their blinders, Americans would find that most want the same things: a robust economy, a strong job market, low taxes, and liberty. That so many look to government to provide these (and more) is problematic because: 1) the government can’t control any of these (though they can manipulate and interfere with them); and 2) the government isn’t responsible for any of these, aside from protecting and ensuring our liberty (with which, again, they more often interfere). Is it any wonder we’re so divided? Take off the blinders and open your eyes to what the politicians are doing. There is nothing they fear more than the people united.