It is exaggeration, hyperbole and the cry of “the sky is falling” to say that these last few weeks have brought us to the brink of a new civil war. We are not in a new civil war.
It is not exaggeration to say, however that these few weeks have shown us that we could be heading towards one. The vast differences in the way whole swaths of the citizenry view current events, and more importantly, each other shows us, and shows the world that the divisions run so deep that civil war, I mean a real civil war, are no longer simply unimaginable. More seasoned observers have said as much.
Armed men calling themselves patriots occupy government buildings to protect what they call their rights, then threaten mayhem on others marching to protect the rights of others.
Our president not only threatens but uses active duty military to harm those engaged in their constitutional right of peaceable assembly, while some citizens on their own volition use deadly force against individuals in law enforcement.
Still the vast vast majority both of protestors and police, the vast vast majority I hope of those on moderate right and moderate left desperately want our nation to come together and succeed, survive and thrive.
But the extremes, the fringes of any movement tend to be able to hijack the agenda of the middle. If tens of thousands of police are concerned and compassionate professionals, a few dozen nation wide captured across a nation on video can brand the whole group an occupying force. If hundreds of thousands of citizens trying to find a way to peacefully but forcefully bring to a nations conscience the death of unarmed black men at the hands of that small group of police who abuse their power, well then a few hundred looters and arsonists can brand that movement as anarchists.
We must not let the extremes in our politics hijack the agenda of an entire nation, which is to make the lot of all improve, to survive and grow and thrive as a nation.
This blog is intended as a vehicle over the next few months to try to argue for us to search for and act on common ground a shared values.
I believe, and will try to articulate that in this particular election, our only hope as a nation, our hope to find common ground, will be to come home, come back, to the more sensible and centrist choice. In this case, this time, I will argue that the only sensible choice is the Democratic Party. Joe Biden is an experienced, sensible, and decent man, and could help bring us back in the direction if not all the way to the destination of being a unified nation.
Note, that may not always be true and perhaps not in every election, but this time it is.
Over the next few months I will try to discover and articulate what I believe are our shared values, our truths, our common ground.
I hope the reader will participate and share.