There was a time when there was cooperation in Washington DC. That all changed in the mid-1990s. For sake of argument, let’s say 1995 or 24 years ago. A brilliant and imaginative man arrived in Washington. I am not going to name him or his party because it can invoke partisan feelings. My purpose here is to show how his ideas and actions led to the extreme divide we have in this country today. His purpose was to advance the agenda of his party as he saw it. One of his first moves was to identify the opposing party as “enemies.” Enemies as in war. Any member of his party was quickly labeled a traitor for even talking to someone of the other party. The idea as he explained it was to keep friendships from developing because it was easier to frame the other side as an enemy if you didn’t know them. This idea was very successful and he successfully advanced his party’s agenda.
I don’t believe he ever thought about the long-term consequences of his framing of the other side as “enemies.” There have been other men in history who thought their cause was just but brought about unwanted consequences. An example would be Robespierre. He had a leading part in the French Revolution. In his zeal to advance the revolution, he created something that would be later called the “Reign of Terror.” He sent thousands to the guillotine and in the end, he was sent to the guillotine as well. Back to the current day, the man who was successful in advancing his party is no longer truly active in his party, but we are left with the current divide. We have government workers not being paid and both sides are absolutely convinced they are on the right side because the other side is the “enemy.”
The solution to this dilemma is simply for all of us to see those who disagree with us as simply that – people who disagree with us. They aren’t our enemies. We share much more in common than our differences. The argument over “the wall” is really one of providing a means to control the flow of people into our country. Both sides agree to the need for that. They agree on many other things too. Let’s stop seeing other Americans as enemies.
