Perpetual Divisiveness

 

With the election over and a new Commander-in-Chief one has to wonder what will become of the U.S.  If you’re expecting some great dramatic changes focused on realistically improving the societal climate in the U.S., you are probably in for a big disappointment. 

Over the past four years, the polarization that took place in our country accelerated at a far greater pace than at any other time in recent history.  Our country saw both a movement further to the Right coupled with one further to the Left.  Sadly, neither ideology represents what it will take to truly make American great again. 

During the past administration the predominant Right wing approach was that all legislation enacted by Democrats, and in particular by former President Obama, was ‘evil.’   Many executive orders were implemented, bypassing Congress, to undo this ‘evilness.’  Likewise, the code of ethics adopted by Democrats was that legislative actions enacted by President Trump and other Republicans was also ‘evil.’ 

Do you really think that everything that either side enacted was completely devoid of any benefit to our society?  Sadly, that was never a consideration.  All that mattered was which side proposed it.

Unfortunately, this polarization still rages with the obsession of the new Democratic president to undo the ‘evil’ of the previous Trump administration.  This is evidenced by the new plethora of executive orders rescinding Trump’s executive orders, again bypassing Congress, without any objective analysis of their possible benefits. 

What we now have in our country are over 74 million obsessive far Right loyalists and over 80 million obsessive far Left loyalists.  There appears to be no room for compromise anymore, and this is the only way for effective changes to occur. 

One only has to look at the recent divisive rhetoric of our Louisiana congressional and state representatives to see what is occurring now nationwide.   Instead of setting an example of unity to tackle the problems facing the state or nation, they continue to foster the hard Right or hard Left ideologies while not even remotely suggesting a coming together through compromise. 

Sadly, there appears to be no end in sight to this rampant polarization, and I am extremely pessimistic as to the future of our country.   I truly feel sorry for my kids and grandkids.

We need to get a grip and wake up as a nation and somehow come together.  However, in order to do that we would probably have to throw out most of our state and federal representatives which is not realistically possible.  On the other hand, we could lead by example and change our own divisive behaviors.  

Is that even possible?