I don’t usually like to talk politics, which is ironic in that I live in the Washington, DC, area. I find that these “discussions” often have a lot of heat, but very little light.
But I wonder–Has the world really changed so much since I was back in college? I had close friends I didn’t agree with about politics at all, but we could “agree to disagree.”
With all the recent talk about civility, where did it go?
We’ve reached such a polarized state that if someone disagrees, they’re “wrong.” It’s not that they have another opinion. If another political party wins an election, the end of the world is upon is. When did that happen?
Now the talk is about civility, and yet political figures are still compared to Adolf Hitler and accusations are made without any proof or basis in fact. The answer seems to be, “Everyone knows that’s true!” And I fear that “civility” has turned into a way to make certain points of view simply shut up.
My mother was so wise, and I’m glad I recognized it before she passed a few years back. When it came to politics, she used to say, “Well, (insert political party name here) won this time, but politics is like a wheel … sometimes you’re on the bottom, and sometimes you’re on the top.”
I think about that now when election results come in.
One of the most eye-opening events in my life happened when I was on a bus trip to a political convention in Florida. We left from the DC area, and we had rented the bus, so we took turns driving.
The convention was over, and we were driving north. The only two people awake were the person driving the bus and me. In order to keep him awake, I sat on the stairs so we could talk.
The topic of discussion jumped right to one of the most contentious subjects of the last several decades–abortion.
He considered himself Pro-Choice while I considered myself Pro-Life.
Things actually started to get pretty heated as we talked, but I was curious. We had many other political views in common, so what was it that made this a hot-button issue?
I started to ask questions, and we compared notes. After some time, it became apparent that the only place we differed had to do with parental notification. Other than that, we were on the same page.
I learned more on that bus trip than I had the entire rest of the weekend.
I still hold to my Mom’s wisdom. Even if the politicians I would prefer to see in office lose, there’s always next time. As long as the debate continues, I’m happy. I wish more of us could just “agree to disagree.”
I was recently heartened when a friend of mine (who I disagree with about pretty much everything) pointed out that we did agree on one thing–the right of the other to voice other other opinions. Made my whole week. I’m tired of hearing, “You can’t possibly think that way!” or “That opinion shouldn’t be allowed!”
The only song I could think of on this subject comes from The Carpenters, “Hurting Each Other:”