What Teaching Ethics in Appalachia Taught Me About Bridging America’s Partisan Divide - POLITICO Magazine
Article by Evan Mandery who is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"The 2016 election exposed a national rift so deep that it feels as if even reasonable conversation is impossible. I’m a liberal New Yorker, but I know that plenty of people on both sides of the political spectrum worry that this divide poses an existential threat to the American democratic project.
On the most controversial issues—race and immigration, to name just two—we’ve lost the capacity for compromise because we presume the most sinister motives about our opponents.
I’ve arrived here in the fall of 2018, hoping to find a wider range of views—not to change anyone’s opinions but rather to see whether there remain principles and a shared language of ethics that bind us together."
I loved this article and it's given me a lot to think about.
Please share your own thoughts. Can you change personally to see beyond obvious differences or has it become too hard at this point?
@grayson
"To be honest the political divide in this country scares me.There is so much hate. "
You're not alone @grayson
The partisan divide doesn't scare me as much as it infuriates me. It's been created and stoked for two proposes: to assure continued financial dominance for the wealthy, and to perpetuate the subordination of women. The right wing has played on people's worst fears and instincts for decades, not because it really believes in these things, but because it ensures their dominance.
Whatever you think about democrats/progressives/liberal, they don't engage in the same way, because their objectives are not the same. Thankfully it seems that the younger generation do see through the charade. Hopefully, they can help our country change course. In the meantime pray/meditate/whatever it is you do, that people in this country will see clearly. That will be our salvation.
@lynnventura
What I am praying for is that we can solve this mess without repeating horrible things from the past.
I think I understand what the Two of Swords I pulled in my tarot card reading was warning me about.
"The reversed Two of Swords may also suggest you are feeling stuck in the middle of two competing sides. You may be trying to play the peacemaker role, but in doing so, you are just confusing yourself and creating more tension. For example, you may attempt to bring two conflicting family members together in the hope of fostering a harmonious family environment, but instead, you end up being the messenger or the dumping ground for each of their concerns. Decide whether you honestly have a role to play and whether you can create peace between the two opposing parties. Otherwise, get yourself out of there!"
The partisan divide...It's been created and stoked for two proposes: to assure continued financial dominance for the wealthy, and to perpetuate the subordination of women. The right wing has played on people's worst fears and instincts for decades, not because it really believes in these things, but because it ensures their dominance.
Whatever you think about democrats/progressives/liberal, they don't engage in the same way, because their objectives are not the same...
I could not have said it better, Lynn. All of it.
As for your point that the people who funded these ways of thinking do not necessarily believe the disinformation they spread --the Climate denial is a case in point. Rex Tillerson (former Sec State and former CEO of Exxon) openly admits he believes in climate change, especially since Exxon funded climate science going back to the 1970's and his company knew that climate change was real all along. But he actively perpetuated the climate denial movement.
I have Republican friends and we feel love for each other. But we never discuss political issues. I don't know how one can. So there is this divide.
It is truly heartbreaking. Has anyone seen or predicted a healing of this divide in the future? Anytime in any way?
Our extended families on both sides have ones we love and for the most part we have learned to not talk hot button subjects either.
I know they would all grab their rifles and protect us with their lives though. This reminds me that love is still the answer and the key.
I see us all having to have a greater reason to recreate a unified family of humankind. Perhaps an enemy far greater than one another. Ultimately, it will be survival of our species and our earthly home unless we are all too late in our understanding and expansion of conscious awareness of greater and higher levels of consciousness and universal and unconditional love.
It all brings me to tears that it will take so much loss and destruction, to bring us to a place of healing ourselves after eons of war and division among humankind on earth and not just the partisan, cultural and religious divide that humankind has incessantly created and perpetuated.
@michele-b-here-in-the-forum
I think the divide will blow over eventually. But I am wondering about my North Carolina hurricane dream. In the meantime, I find it good to make friends with political opponents and just don't discuss the issues so at least we stay connected in any way we can. As you have demonstrated many times here and in many ways, love heals and love rules. You have done so much, Michele.
Thank you Jeanne. Truly. Means a lot.
"As you have demonstrated many times here and in many ways, love heals and love rules. You have done so much, Michele."
I agree with Jeanne that it will blow over, at least to a degree.
Even when Nixon left office about 25% of the population supported him. This is just the way it is, everywhere. You have people at opposite sides of the divide. Couple that with the fact that what we're experiencing in the US (and worldwide as well) is that the group that's had power literally throughout history is losing it, and they are not happy, and won't give up without a fight.
I grew up in a republican household where my parents loved Nixon, and Reagan, and Bush. They were refugees who were welcomed into the US by a democratic administration, but they were right wing nonetheless. Years later is when I realized how traumatized they'd been by the experience of leaving their country, and that trauma made them responsive to politicians who were somewhat authoritarian. I think about that now with trump supporters. I think a lot of them are afraid of loss, have experienced it already, and just want a "strong" figure to tell them they're right and that everything is going to be OK. But life doesn't work that way, right? It's way more nuanced. I think folks who are more spiritually evolved understand that much better. I suppose that means we need to be compassionate toward others who are still a work in progress, even though that can be really, really hard.