Do You See What I See?

We all can feel the anger… division… and hatred. It is palpable in every corner of society. I am talking about our political polarization. Liberals feel threatened by a right-wing authoritarian occupying the White House, while conservatives cheer as they see long-held bureaucracies crumble. This may be what you see… but that’s not what I see.

Let me explain.

The Vicious Cycle

Let me first describe a vicious cycle that I see. A partisan wins the presidency and has a slim majority in Congress. They know they have two years to make dramatic changes before the mid-term elections when they lose their slim majority. They act quickly and decisively, riling up the other side. This president loses the majority in the midterms and threatens to veto anything Congress passes. Deadlock ensues for the next two to six years, depending on whether or not this president wins reelection.

The Primaries

The Congress is becoming increasingly polarized, with representatives representing their political parties instead of their constituents. Why? Because their districts are becoming more polarized. Left-leaning citizens are moving out of right-leaning communities and into left-leaning communities… and vice versa. To win an election, you must cater to the extreme views of your political party. Otherwise, you will be primaried. Being primaried means you are too moderate and will be replaced by a party loyalist.

Failure to Govern Ourselves

Strong leaders force the government to change when the people fail to govern themselves. This has happened throughout history and is happening now in the U.S. Each primary and general election cycle, the president executes more executive orders, more politically motivated pardons are issued, the Congress becomes more intransigent. Judges become activists pushing back on the power of the executive.

Weak leaders are no better. They allow government bureaucracies to run the show without accountability to budgets or the electorate.

This Story Doesn’t End Well

Very recently, Democratic Party Senators held town hall meetings around the country to quell fears about the dramatic changes President Trump is making through executive orders. The attendees were not bipartisan constituents. Instead, they were party faithful who were angry that their elected officials were not fighting Republicans more. Frankly, it was a good thing that Republican constituents didn’t attend… or brawls would have broken out.

You see? This is how our failure to self-govern will end. We will either have a civil war, and one side will get its way, anarchy with cars on fire and subjective law enforcement, or a dictator who controls us by force because we cannot control ourselves.

Collaboration is the Answer

The way through this time is not to create more fights and resist. If we want to self-govern, we must change how we see our fellow Americans. These folks are not your enemies. They see life differently than you, meaning collaboration is possible.

To collaborate, you must de-polarize yourself. Stop voting for extremists, thinking they will help your fight. Stop encouraging fights and start encouraging collaboration. Understand that cable news outlets rely on your reaction to the other side to earn profits. Realize that you are rewarding partisan politicians by focusing on ideals instead of solutions.

The truth is that most Americans are not what you see on television. They are not the extreme left or the extreme right. There are viable middle-ground solutions that allow you to yield to personal ideals that you have been indoctrinated to hold as non-negotiable. If you’d like to see my middle-ground solutions on fourteen issues where the left and right are divided, I urge you to read my book, Engineering Unity. Recognizing logical ideas makes you much more likely to elect politicians who collaborate instead of fight.

We Have a Choice

We do have a choice. We can either learn to collaborate, swallow our pride, love each other, and grow the idea of America… or become further divided until America is no more.

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About the Author

Jeff Schuster is an accomplished businessman, engineer, and writer. Jeff's latest book is Engineering Unity which addresses political polarization on wedge issues that politicians use to divide us. Jeff creates weekly videos that highlight political topics and insight designed to highlight truth and reunite our divided country. You are welcome to join our private Facebook group called Reengineering Politics, where we discuss politically polarizing topics in a civil manner.