It has become increasingly obvious to me that sanity and common sense have left the building. There are several people that comment here that I consider highly intelligent and well informed. I generally respect their opinions on just about all things. Even when I don’t agree with them. But… I don’t know… there must be something in the air that has taken hold of these normally sane and rational individuals that has made them impervious to anything that does not match their preconceived notions. To illustrate, I am going to post 2 comments by supporters of one candidate about the opposing candidate.
(Trump is) a gen-u-wine psychopath with paranoid and malignantly narcissistic features, bereft of normal human empathy, incapable of love or respect or deference to others whom he cannot control, lacking judgment and educated rationality beyond certain feral instincts. To me he is truly evil. And he’s an antisemite who is now willing to go beyond the dog-whistles and snide little remarks.
(Harris is) a worthless, inept, talent-free, brain-dead, incompetent communist. She urged on the rioters destroying American cities in the marxist summer of love in 2020. She bailed out rioters. She failed to keep this country safe for the past 4 years by opening up our southern border to 19 million illegal aliens. She mackles her way out of every question posed to her.
Variations of these descriptions are typical of what I hear all the time from Trump and Harris supporters. In my view, comments like these are so over the top that it takes away credibility from any legitimate criticism they may have. But more importantly it shows how the discourse in this country has devolved into hatefests - because of exaggerations like these. Exaggerations that would make any normal person enraged about the individual it was being said about.
I don’t recall any other time when the nation was so bitterly divided. One might blame the former President for this. And I suppose there is some truth to that. But I believe it began long before Trump’s famous (or infamous – depending on your political perspective ) escalator ride announcing his run for the presidency in 2016.
It started with conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh whose disparaging rhetoric about Democrats and RINO Republicans was not all that different than Trump’s rhetoric. Trump was just following in his hero’s footsteps. Limbaugh spawned many successful imitators on right wing news media like Fox News. That rancor eventually found its way into the lexicon of the left as well, especially in left wing news media like CNN. This is where the voting public is right now. For every Tucker Carlson, there is a Don Lemon. (Can't stand either of them!) And then came Trump.
That being said the issues over which each side disagree cannot be ignored. The chasm between the left and right keeps widening. The Trump slogan ‘Make America Great Again (MAGA) is seen by supporters as a goal to return to American values that have been abandoned in recent years. Many of which are religious values. The founding fathers were descendants of the Puritans who were heavily focused on the old testament and its values (Sometimes referred to as Judeo-Christian values). MAGA supporters want a return to those values. They are upset by the fact that America has turned its back on them.
Democrats see MAGA as a regression to the past Which they consider biased against personal freedoms. They do not believe that Americans ought to be burdened by values deemed immoral in an outdated book written by men in unenlightened times. They want to go forward and build upon the freedoms of our more enlightened times which are no longer consider immoral. Their motto is the opposite of MAGA: We aren’t going back. We are going forward.
Sounds great as a motto. But what they are really saying is that they support any kind of abominable behavior as long as it is done in private between consenting adults. In other words going biblical is going backwards morally and ethically based on our more enlightened times. (Of course they don’t use the word biblical or the word religious.)
This is not to say that everything in the past was perfect. Obviously this country did not live up to its credo of all men being created equal. Slavery was the biggest impediment to that. Segregation perpetuated that inequality for decades, long after slavery was abolished. Racism continues to this day in various forms (overt and hidden).
But it has improved to the point of electing a 2 term black president and a black woman running for president right now. There is nothing in the bible that says we are required to have slaves or be prejudiced black people. Owning a slave is not a Mitzvah. But the bible has plenty to say about certain types of behavior it considers immoral. Most liberal Democrats reject those values. Most conservative Republicans embrace them.
I believe that this is the primary issue that motives the electorate. Millions of MAGA supporters have watched Democrats move to the left in ways that no one could have ever imagined back in the days of JFK.
We are at a point where violence is the what each side resorts to in order to get their way. Whether it was the insurrection on January 6th or the ‘Black Lives Matter’ riots in many cities across the country in the immediate aftermath of the murder of a black man by a white cop in Minneapolis.
We are at a point where in some cases family members don’t talk to each other. Where liberal Democrat cannot accept a kindness from a MAGA Republican. And I don’t see things changing.