What we have been watching unfold today on the national capital is a national disgrace. It should be a wake-up call to all of us that it is time to grow up. I am tired of seeing some of the wisest, smartest, and most otherwise kind people (often including myself) become pedantic children when dealing with the political arena. This terrible drug of politics is corrupting our individual souls and our collective soul. That deep soul-level depravity is what we are seeing played out today.
We need to stop demonizing and hating those who disagree with us.
We need to stop justifying political violence, no matter what the cause.
We need to stop defending our own side’s misdeeds by immediately pointing to the other side’s supposed misdeeds.
We need to stop purposely feeding our brains only news that conforms to our preconceived notions of what is right and believing only that facts that are convenient for our worldview.
We need to stop justifying the character flaws in people on our side because of the other side’s character flaws.
We need to stop believing that our opponents are beyond redemption.
We need to stop seeing tragedies as an opportunity to dunk on those who disagree with us for their past misdeeds or opinions with which we disagree.
We need to stop trying to unilaterally change “the rules of the game” every time our side does not get our way.
We need to stop electing leaders who see their role to be troll on social media
We need to stop thinking that “owning” the other side is worthwhile behavior.
We need to stop aiming for the “Complete and utter defeat” of our political opponents.
These are all the behavior of children. But as the Apostle Paul once said, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
It’s time to become political grown-ups. If we cannot commit to that, our nation has no hope for the future.
I think the Words of Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural are as precinct now as they were in 1865:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
You may disagree, and that is your right. I just don’t see any other way forward for our nation.