Needless to say, our country is in a mess. From Washington to Elizabethton, government officials are belittling each other and pointing fingers. We have a president, who doesn’t know how to act presidential. He revels in causing division and strife by his tweeting and knee-jerk reactions to events and what others say.
At the same time we have lawmakers, who were elected to be policy makers, but work hard at being partisan politicians.
Congress and the White House seem incapable of working together on anything, even when their interest align. With lawmaking at a standstill, the president’s use of executive orders and regulatory discretion has reached a level that Congress views as dictatorial.
According to registration records, since 1987 Donald Trump has been a Republican, then an independent, then a Democrat, then a Republican, then “I do not wish to enroll in a party,” then a Republican; he has donated to both parties; he has shown loyalty to and affinity for neither.
President Trump is his own brand. No one has been able to figure him out, and quite often his troubles are of his own making. He does a good job of shooting himself in the foot by shooting off at the mouth.
We would do well to pause and heed the words of President John F. Kennedy: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek the blame for the past. Let us accept error, responsibility for the future.”
Even the president’s own son, Eric Trump, entered the fray this week by saying, Democrats are “not even people.”
“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said on Fox News’s “Hannity” Tuesday night. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country.”
Some of what Eric Trump said is true, but Democrats are people, who have a vote, and have a right to express their opinion just like Republicans.
Being a Democrat does not make a person bad, no more than being a Republican makes a person good. There is some good and bad in all of us.
Earlier this year a Republican congressman suggested that poorer Americans do not deserve affordable healthcare because they have not led “good lives” and so bring it on themselves when they get sick. Wrong. Sickness is no respecter of persons. Good people get sick as do bad people.
Whether a person chooses to be a Democrat or a Republican does not give any of us the right to make assumptions about that person. It is not OK for anyone to group a person whether they be a Republican or Democrat with some stereotype group or condemn them for what they feel and believe. Not all Republicans tote guns, and not all Democrats believe in abortion.
There are a lot of good Democrats just as there are Republicans. We must be more tolerant of each other and be more open-minded. If you only befriend or hang out with people who belong to your own political party, chances are you’re missing out on some great people.
There are some things that our Constitution has decided for us, and they are worth standing up for. The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.
And then there are some things that the Good Book demands: Love thy neighbor, which means championing the vulnerable, the sick, the poor. These are causes that must be common to all. They’re not Republican issues or Democrat issues. They are the right things to embrace.
And, until we do these things, we will oppose each other and be a divided community and nation, and in an ugly way. We agree with former President George W. Bush, when he said, “At times, it seems like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together.”
If we truly want to move beyond the political narrative of us versus them, we must begin by listening, identifying common ground, and speaking to shared values. We must see people as individuals, not as Democrats or Republicans.