Intentional Polarization
In most efforts undertaken by us common folk in the arena of politics, we’re either drowned out from all of the noise or amplified in an echo chamber of like minded memesters. I hope this hits different. Call me a romantic or even ignorant, but I passionately believe there is unity to be found if we all take a deep breath and evaluate ourselves honestly from a birds eye view.
I began this project for fun, admittedly. I had zero intentions of publishing it and only sent it to a few people for feedback. But the more I thought through it, the more I came to admire those that find themselves directly across the political aisle, and also feel frustrated for the radicals on “my own side.” I was surprised by some of the correlations not only within parties but also within the far right and far left.
The goal here is not to demonize nor glorify. I don’t want to demonize anyone who thinks differently than me, but I do want to point out the polar opposites in order to understand where we’re being pulled. If we arrive there, demonizing is all we will know. I don’t intent to glorify one side over the other either. If anything my hope is to glorify the middle ground taken by liberals and conservatives, and ostracize each of our embarrassing party members.
To begin, I want to point out right at the front that both sides have core ideologies that we believe should be forced. That’s not to be taken as invasive, it’s honest principle and no one is guilty here. For the Republican Party at large, they stand by a commitment to objective truth, whether that be the Constitution or the Bible, they traditionally believe that this is the rule book for life. Democrats on the other hand, traditionally believe that a society’s prosperity is dependent on the federal government. While the degree of dependency may be debated, Big Government is a big deal for the Democratic Party. That is until it infringes on Big Autonomy, which ironically bridges far left and far right radicals together. We call this libertarian.
And it’s here, that I would like to plead with both parties a very important message. I recently heard totalitarianism defined in a very sobering way; If you can convince people that there is an emergency looming over them, and that you’re the one to answer the call to fix it, history shows that people are quite ready and willing to hand the power over to you. So, To those that see Trump as our savior, but also to the liberals who view the government as the savior; there is such a terrifying power grab there for both parties to seize in 2024 if we subscribe to the emergency they are selling. We are slowly slipping further in to the trappings of polarization. I propose that we make level headedness cool again and learn to point out radicalism within our own camp first before we point to the other side. That may be our only hope in stopping this intentional polarization.
I’ve selected 12 different issues to illustrate my point and if you prefer visual layouts as I do, I’ve attached the chart I created below. However, I encourage you to use this part as a reference as I will give more explanation for what are admittedly characterizations.
Abortion
I think both parties, at least in the middle (liberals and conservatives), begin most arguments with a foundational belief that shows up most explicitly in abortion. To steal from conservative language who knowingly or not references the Bible, there is a “sanctity” to life as well as the choice that humans have. Life is sacred for the Conservative and choice is sacred for the Democrat. “Sacred choice” is free will, a belief we all share, and if your rationalization is apart from the Bible then you have a fair intellectual argument here. Though Christians understand free will with divine boundaries and most of us with moral assessment, free will in itself is a starting line for new laws. If the government doesn’t align with the current will, then that democratic government doesn’t align with its constituents. Could both sides be on to something to here? If so, where is the agreement? Could there be a choice as well as a value on life?
Outside of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of choice, we slip into numbness one this issue. The far right loses its core conviction on the matter all together and the far left loses its understanding of what it means to think as a human. The left goes cold in the slide to zero regulation and dark ideologies of eugenics, while the right goes cold to the seeing any value in the fight. Stalemate in the middle, while the left wins on the edges. To reiterate, I think this one issue stands in a category all to itself. There are reconcilable similarities in our belief of something being held sacred, but for the radicals, you’ll see a trajectory begin that unites them in extremes and indifference more than us in reason. Them yelling on the peripheral can no longer be an excuse to not talk, we must begin passing notes.
The next category involves several issues under the title Lifestyle and Community Concerns; marriage and family, crime, social equity, and guns. Similar to abortion though, there is a distinction that is rather ironically what we deem holy- meaning set apart as a perfect and indisputable thing. I’m going to detail the conservative first on all these issues, and then I’ll do the same for the liberal. The conservative begins by saying that marriage and family is a holy institution given as the nucleus of any successful society. So, if there is a high crime rate, it’s likely due to a lack of family structure thus most efforts are pushed in that direction. In order to achieve social equity between minorities, conservatives would likely do so by again investing in those families first to raise up young people with unswerving resolve and the necessary support to succeed. When it comes to guns, similar to crime, the issue is in the core principles held by the people who own them, something that could be solved with perhaps better parenting, but realistically smarter background checks. For the liberal, they start the conversation with an understanding that love is holy and it is the most true thing within us. So when crime rates soar, the liberal response is empathy and fighting for the little guy with a belief that they can be redeemed. On guns the direct link is eliminating the one weapon that can inflict the most pain on victims. When it comes to social equity they might say “Of course, we need to invest in black owned businesses because they’ve been the recipient of inequity the longest.” Could both sides be on to something? If so, where is the agreement? Could there be something to family, and at the same time compassion for those dealt more difficult hands? Is this really crazy talk? Our political leaders are leading us to believe so.
The far right within this category begins it’s dark decent into selfishness, making marriage and family mans abusive institution, social inequity isn’t really a thing, police need to “get off my private property,” and “ain’t no one touching my guns.” For the far left, they begin the deceptive decent into delusion that mankind and governments will make good decisions for the masses rather than serve their own self interest. Marriage and family aren’t really an equitable thing because love is fluid and white people have benefited most from this. The answer to crime is similar to the far right in less police but their reason is more naive than selfish. They believe guns are the devil and when it comes to equity- there needs to be a complete redistribution of power. The left is slipping into the belief that we can all sing kumbaya and the right is crafting the belief David Allen Coe might be god incarnate.
Which leads us to the next category; Business and Responsibility. The economy, welfare, healthcare, climate change, our foreign policy, and immigration crisis are all outlined here. This one I won’t detail too much beyond the chart below, but I will expand on a few. Climate change is one we often throw stones over. And because there are Christians on both sides of the aisle, I tend to believe this divide comes down to our belief in the 1000 year reign as described in Revelation. Now there are basically two schools of thought here; Christ will return before or after this time period. If you believe that he will return before and essentially initiate this deal, then you are likely to believe that God will renew all things in that time. It’s not that you don’t care about changes taking place, it’s that you trust that He won’t fail, and furthermore He will renew. If you believe that he will return after the thousand year reign though to a unified and healed earth, then your responsibility to partner in earths daunting crisis is inescapably significant. .. to put mildly. If you don’t believe in the God of the Bible at all, then you’ll likely either slip into complete carelessness on the far right in a narcissistic stupor or complete bitterness on the far left in complete disgust of mankind.
Lastly there is the action associated with all this, how are we to respond? Because all of these issues demand an action, and that’s something that we should at least recognize in the middle. Liberals and conservatives alike have the right to take honest approaches to fixing life’s toughest issues. The correct response is to vote and continue voting the beliefs you hold so dearly. Ground them in evidence beyond yourself and be ready to talk civilly with those you share this wonderful life with. Not on the internet, but in person.
But if you find yourself flirting in the left or right columns, notice the only reasonable action left for you will be what we see in Antifa or self proclaimed Nazis. Nazis are here to claim superiority and Antifa’s here to disrupt superiority (ironically in order to gain it). When we fight over power, and lose sight of our principles, we’re doomed. Again, If people are convinced that there is an emergency looming over them, and that there is a party or person finally able to fix it, history shows that people are quite ready and willing to hand the power over. The Democrats aren’t stupid for placing major stock on the government, the left is. The Republicans aren’t stupid for placing major stock in Trump, the right is. Liberals and conservatives should talk more about that.
Chart:
One more observation… In the chart above, if you were to pick four items each side would characterizes the other as, which would you choose? This is obviously subjective, but I would say that Democrats talk most of Republicans as Pro-Life, “marriage restrictive,” “climate deniers” and racists. 50% of these arguments are in the far right column. Whereas Republicans portray Democrats as baby murderers up to 20 weeks, fluid love, zero guns, and socialists. 100% of which are in the far left. I’ll make the note that it’s the Democrats that are actually more intellectually honest in their assessments by calling out conservative issues, while Republicans tend to make enemies over far left ideologies. I say that, and I say all of this, to hopefully produce some introspection before we begin casting stones once more. We both want so bad to be 100% right, and we simply won’t find it in politics. There is a power struggle happening right before our eyes. If we don’t learn to recognize the dangers on both sides, the ones in our own camp, we will willfully abandon our pursuit of happiness in the name of being right, accidentally lose our liberty in the disguise of a savior, and ultimately give our entire life to a kingdom that is mortal.
Could both sides be on to something? If so, where is the agreement? Here it is- when your neighbor puts out a sign that’s different than yours, cook them dinner and love on them. That’s it. Don’t try to convince them or even understand their vote, just love your neighbor, the way Christ first loved us, and unity will be restored and level headedness will be made cool again.
