I was just riding in my car heading to work, listening to talk radio. As I listened, two callers from the country spoke, taking diametrically opposed stances about how best for the country to proceed. The first caller spoke about the need to find compromise in the determination for a best path forward in the nation’s decisions. The second caller then came on and promptly took the first caller to task. Both were men and both proclaimed themselves as conservatives. The second man’s point was that if compromise on something like immigration meant working hand-in-hand with Democrats to take, from his point of view, a more liberal position…then the more courageous act would be to NOT compromise.
As the show went to commercial, I could only sadly shake my head. These two men are examples of the philosophical division that has taken our country to the brink of the coming Great Crisis. The sentiment in the second man’s comments is one that I have heard and read from my liberal and conservative friends alike. The thrust is that no compromise can be given on any issue, that “my view” is the only one that is moral, logical and right.
Once you go there, and so many have, then the only conclusion about “the other person” is that their views are immoral, illogical and wrong. There is no room for any compromise. Thus, the only solution is to silence, or maybe worse, remove “the other.” This simply cannot be our solution. You must make the choice now to be open not only to listening to the other side, but engaging with them in dialog to attempt to find a solution that both sides can accept.
What people like this second man and many I hear chanting the name of Sanders or Trump are playing is a zero sum game. “I, and my views, alone are right. There is no room for you and your views. Your views, and by extension you yourself, are wrong.”
You can see this wrong-headed and ultimately disastrous position in how Democrats have cheered—or if not cheering, then giving silence acquiescence—to President Obama’s recent Executive Actions. The President, clearly frustrated by a lack of action from Congress—doing exactly what Congress did to President Bush during his two terms—stonewalling, refusing to take up action and pontificating, just chooses to write his own laws on various issues.
Democrats should have spoken out in outrage against the President, strongly condemning his choices to act in such a Zero Sum game manner—“I, and my views, alone are right. There is no room for you and your views. Your views, and by extension you yourself, are wrong. THUS, I as President, will just make up my own laws.”
Moreover, Democrats should be afraid due to the precedent set. Don’t be shocked when a future President, probably a non-Democrat, also rules alone and passes Executive Actions undoing the very things President Obama set in motion…or worse (from a Democrat point of view). And it is no better for Democrats to suggest that President Obama’s actions are fine because previous Presidents did the same sort of thing. President Bush’s errors in choice do not make President Obama’s actions right.
Look, I get how frustrating it is. I have some issues as well that I believe are moral imperatives such as the fact that we should stop killing babies. And yes, we should do more as a nation in our communities to stand with women who are uncertain how they will raise their child. I see no way to really compromise when the choice is either a live baby or a murdered baby.
So, perhaps in this post, I am once again merely tilting at windmills, and am just as guilty. I just know where this is all heading. We’ve been down this road before and it rarely ends well. Of the four previous Great Crisis (coming once every 80 years of so), two of them ended in a bloody civil war. And while the other two were less combative, one clear result was that the losers, the “other persons” were largely banished from the society, certainly silenced.
We are better off as a people when we determine to listen well to one another, and then work tirelessly to attempt to find some resolution that is plausible for all parties. Just realize when that happens, you will never be fully happy…compromise is just that, a willingness to accept the fact that your view is not the only one in the room. We’d all be better off if we remembered that.