The New Civil War

Today’s society is unwittingly being subjected to a selection process. You and I are being recruited into the “ranks” of opposing forces. These forces are drawing the lines, herding us into their ideologies, arming us with their version of each new political development, making us hate one another, and, perhaps worst of all, they are convincing us that there is no reason to consider the other side because-as they have decided for us-there is no merit to the opposition.

We are preparing for a new civil war.

On the right, we have the patriots. The people who hold the true values of America at their heart and will fight to destroy anything that threatens their cherished way of life. They are primarily Christian and strongly disagree with abortion. The right are the self-appointed protectors of free enterprise and big business. They are the champions of the true America: The small businessman, the soldier, and the soccer mom.

On the left, we have the individuals devoted to equality for all people. They are the ones watching out for the weak, the poor, and the downtrodden. They arm themselves with the knowledge that it is the responsibility of the wealthy to aid the poor. They know the true moral responsibility of this nation and believe it is the governments job to solve all of our problems by imposing laws that redistribute the excessive wealth of the rich to the poor. The left are the champions of the real America: the city dweller, the poor, and the labor unions.

These are the stereotypical warriors of each army. These are the stereotypes that dominate our current political culture.

This is partisanship.

As you can probably see. There is no common ground between these two armies. The Right irreconcilably believe they have the values of true America at their heart and the Left believe that they, too, hold the true America in their sights. Both forces are completely polarized against one another… if you enlist in one, you cannot conceivably ever find common ground with the opposite. This results in a political atmosphere where there are only two options: absolute conservatism or absolute liberalism.

And if you stand in the middle you are simply too afraid to pursue the true potential of either political agenda… too afraid to pursue lazzie fair or too afraid to level the playing field for all Americans. You’re almost worse than the other two for not having the gall to clearly define your political values.

Obviously, by now, you’ve realized that I’m talking about the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

The fact of the matter is, we are gearing up for another civil war. Not a real armed one, of course, but an ideological one where we have two sides that cannot find common ground. We either have a liberal country that plummets into extreme wealth redistribution and socialization or a conservative one that lets big business run out of control (mortgage crisis anyone?) and tries to militarily police the whole world so it conforms with our political views and values.

To prove how deep the divide has become we need look no further than the news, the Internet, and the blogosphere:

-As most of you have probably heard, Conservative talking head, Glenn Beck, recently announced on his program that he thought Obama was racist against white people. This polarizes liberals against conservatives.

-Liberal talk show host, Mike Malloy,  said he hopes Glenn Beck commits suicide. Offending his entire, large, viewer base and polarizing them against liberals even more than Mr. Beck could.

-Liberal comedian, Bill Maher, said that America was stupid.

-Bill O’Reilly fired back at Mr. Maher saying that Maher reflected the hidden thoughts of all liberals.

-The White House released an official statement saying that they believed that recent protests by conservatives are actually fabricated by the GOP to create the impression of a majority disapproving with the Health Care Reform Bill.

-Glenn Beck said, on his television show last night, that conservatives weren’t that good at protesting because they were the ones with the jobs that provided the resources that liberals carelessly throw away.

-The DNC released an ad saying that the only reason conservatives disagree with Obama and Health Care reform is because they are mad that they lost the election.

I can literally go on forever… and that is just the officials (talk show hosts, journalists, and the actual White House). To get the actual, and very extreme fringes of both political ideologies, go to the blogosphere, look up one super conservative blog and one super liberal website and you’ll see the real resentment that brews between the two.

I’ve heard individuals claim that conservatives are red-necks and hill billies who don’t really understand the issues… they just regurgitate what their big name talking heads tell them; and I’ve heard people say liberals are obsessed with taking away all of our freedoms, promoting a socialist society, and hiking taxes into the stratosphere.

Hopefully, you can see the problem here.

There are a lot of people out there who are no longer concerned with looking at both sides and forming their own opinion. They go to their own political strongholds (MSNBC and FOX) to arm themselves against the others with the “absolute truth” about politics.

And the war continues…

I can’t write a post like this and fail to give you a possible solution to the problem… but I’m afraid I don’t have it. I’m just trying to alert you to the possibility that you may be engaging in these kinds of politics. That the news you watch may be unfairly skewed against a certain view point. All I can request doing is trying, no matter how mad you get at the opposition, to go to a site that promotes that viewpoint and read up on it. For every con, there is a pro. And, who knows, you may find yourself second guessing a viewpoint you thought was as solid as stone…

It happens to me all the time.

So, I’ve put down my political weapons and talking points and have decided, instead, to begin viewing things through a different lens. As the ranks of the two Armies swell, we are placed in further and further opposition to one another and America becomes more deeply divided. Every time we spew forth a scorching comment about the opposite side of the aisle, we are prompting that person to do the same to us, creating a larger divide and even a hatred between us.

Be aware of the hyper-partisanship that plagues today’s news and do your best to be fully informed of both sides of the argument. I would recommend going to factcheck.org, remain skeptical of even your most trusted news source, and try to have conversations with people that hold differing views.

Until the extreme partisanship dies down (if it ever does) in Washington and the media… the only ones who can keep the ranks of the Armies in check is us… the actual people that populate their ranks.

Thank you,

C.J. Swanson