It’s not only the fault of the people who post insults on social media, who embrace the politically inspired lies and accept the politically driven threats of violence as a necessary means to the end they favor.
Nor is it only the fault of people on the other side of the political world who lecture but don’t listen, who can’t understand why so many Americans are drawn to the ever-expanding lies and ever-cruder insults yet sit by all too quietly, waiting for the turmoil to pass.
It’s like the entire nation is living through a Florida hurricane, with far too many people ignoring the warnings, figuring this, too, shall pass. They board up the windows but don’t do enough to strengthen the foundation.
But the storm may not pass. It could park itself over the country, building up strength until it does so much damage that it will take generations to rebuild our democracy and recover.
America is not immune to civil unrest, the breakdown of order and the subsequent economic pain. We may think we are better than the rest of the world but we are just as vulnerable. Even worse, it’s our own fault.
It has happened before and could very well happen after the Nov. 5 presidential election if we don’t acknowledge that the country is in trouble. The Civil War was more than 160 years ago, when one side believed so strongly in slavery and their way of life that they went to war.
Or look back less than five years ago to Jan. 6, 2021, when a couple thousand Americans stormed the U.S. Capitol, looking to overturn the presidential election results. Sadly, many elected officials continue to make excuses for the rampage, essentially handing out permission slips for violence the next time they don’t like the election results.
In between the Civil War and the 2021 political attack on Congress, the country has suffered assassinations, riots, violent protests, demagogues and corruption. We bent but did not break. This time looks like it could be worse.
It’s not immigrants or government spending, foreign aid or federal regulations, the price of eggs or the cost of a home that is tearing apart America. It’s our increasing inability to accept differences of opinion. It’s our own self-inflicted divisions that are splitting the nation. It’s our refusal to compromise for the good of the country.
It’s our own growing acceptance of easy but deceitful answers. Scapegoats are becoming the national pet.
It’s our political candidates and their parties, the excessively funded political action committees — essentially rich people — that have raised dishonesty to new heights in pursuit of votes. They thrive on controversy, without regard to the damage it causes. They have turned compromise into an obscenity in their world.
And it’s all stoked by candidates, social media influencers and self-anointed rulers like Elon Musk who put their ego and political and financial gain ahead of the country.
There is not much any one person can do to heal the country, though voting next week against lies would be a good start.
We need to do a better job of governing with justice for all. The alternative is letting ourselves be governed by leaders who care more about themselves than the country and its people. Selfishness does not bind a nation; it drives it apart.
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