People are angry these days, and it’s mostly thanks to our elected leaders.
The fine art of pitting us against one another
As a nation, we are probably as divided now as we’ve been in a long, long time. There is little doubt that it is mostly because our political leaders these days have picked a piece of the population, stoked it into a rage with fear language and veiled threats, and staked their own success on how convincing they can be. For them it’s do-or-die, so they have a lot to lose if they can’t get us scared and angry enough.
And they have certainly been remarkably successful at it. We are as divided and polarized now as we’ve been in a generation. We’ve been convinced that truth only comes from the lips of our guy. And when he says that everyone else is out to destroy us or our way of life, by golly, we’ll defend our right to kill a brother before we let that happen.
They try to mislead us into believing that black people want to be superior to white people; Latinos and brown people want to invade our country; gays and lesbians want to destroy your marriage; tree huggers want to regulate you out of your job; gun grabbers want you to be defenseless; lefties want government control of everything, including healthcare; liberals want to be able to kill babies any time for any reason; Muslims want to kill you; Jews are anti-Christian; poor people are a drain on society.
The list of accusations goes on, and none of them are accurate. And most of the people who are saying these things knows that… but they’re counting on you, on us, to take the bait, send them money, give them power, and destroy anyone who doesn’t agree.
Honest people know that the African-American population and no other minority group wants to be superior to any other, they just want to be equal in every way.
Brown people, Latinos, do not want to invade the U.S. They only want to raise their families in a place that provides safety, a good education, healthy food, clean water and an opportunity to work.
Gays and lesbians don’t want to change a thing about your ability to fall in love, get married, raise a family and be everything you’ve always been. They just want the same opportunities.
Environmentalists do not hate humans. They just love the earth. They want us to preserve as best we can the creation that God has given us to care for and maintain. They want us to be mindful of our role in being the earth’s stewards and being conscious of what we are doing to our future generations.
Most every elected leader wants you to be able to defend yourself, your home, your family. Even the people who are working toward ending gun violence are trying to achieve that goal by advocating for better scrutiny just to make sure that guns don’t end up in the hands of people who are not equipped or prepared to handle one. They also feel that it is reasonable for military-grade weapons to remain in the hands of the military where there is a legitimate use for them.
When it comes to human services, there are some things the government can do well, there are a lot of things it can’t. Every reasonable “liberal” knows that, acknowledges it, and advocates for successful private industry. Those who support public healthcare simply want everyone to have access to it, and the current private healthcare model does not make that possible.
I don’t know of anyone anywhere who sees the pleasure in abortion. It is beyond dispute that better access to quality women’s healthcare does more to lessen the number of abortion procedures than making it illegal. However, it is the same people who advocate for reducing or limiting access to women’s health services who speak loudest about ending abortion. It is interpreted as being disingenuine, and rightly so.
The organizations that raise millions of dollars through hyperbole and radical accusations would have us believe that there are doctors and nurses standing at the ready to kill babies right up until after they are born. It’s just not the truth. Some honest research will help you find it though.
There is a well-earned public perception these days that conservative Christians and Evangelicals are racists. I’m sure it’s not true. Just like the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not violent or want Americans dead.
Just like the Muslim community, the Jewish community simply wants to live in peace, practice their faith and traditions and do it as best they can in their neighborhoods and communities. They have no desire to interfere with your deeply held religious beliefs or practices.
Almost 40 million Americans live in poverty. And many more are a paycheck or two away from it. The way a nation treats its needy and poor is a reflection of its core, and these people are not a burden, but often the backbone of our society.
There are of course fringes and small segments of every population that likely do subscribe to extreme ideas, but the politicians and preachers who stir fear and stoke hate want us to believe there is an enemy around the corner, and if we get scared enough or angry enough, we’ll find a way to eliminate them once and for all. And somehow that will make America great again.
