The Great Divide

“Obama ruined the economy, gas prices doubled over the past 4 years!”

“It’s Dubya’s fault, he left Obama with the worst economy in history!”

“Well… YOUR MOM IS UGLY!”

Sound eerily familiar? This is the climate of the new America. With each passing year, the right and left divide becomes bigger. Any chance of “reaching across the aisle” seems to have disappeared. Any disagreement about politics, social issues, or faith seems to land in another right vs. left battle.

When I made a brief statement on my Facebook about the fruitcake ad from a local Chick-Fil-A and how distasteful it was, two friends began brawling almost immediately. It became the Dan Cathy debate all over, even though my comments had nothing to do with Chick-Fil-A corporate. Soon, though, I was sucked in. Then I realized how ridiculous it was, deleted the debate, and unfriended one of the guys in the argument because of the hateful things he was saying.

After deleting him as a friend, I got this message:

Whats wrong Justin? Get underneath your skin? You realize you are just as hateful as Dan Cathy and you run away from it and delete the big bad ****** as one of your “friends”. I guess you are the only one allowed to say hateful things on your posts right? Grow up, and while youre at it, grow a pair of balls. People like you and Dan Cathy and every other hate baiter are whats wrong with this county. One day, when people like you stop acting so god damn self righteous we might actually be able to achieve equality and compassion in this world. But, until assholes like you stop running your ignorant mouths, we are hopeless.

Needless to say, I don’t count this person’s opinions of me as worth much and I don’t consider the “unfriending” any type of loss… today, about a week later, I have begun to notice time and time again how people have been broadcasting their “your candidate sucks and my candidate rocks” opinions, without so much as an actual talking point. And, really… THIS IS THE PROBLEM.

I am an Obama supporter. That doesn’t mean I have blanket agreement of his policies, but I’ll be voting for him nonetheless. This really isn’t the issue for me, though… the issue is that it doesn’t matter who is in office when Democrats refuse to support Republican policies and vice versa. There are very few John McCains and Arlen Specter has passed away. Republicans aren’t going to support Obama’s policies if he’s back in office and Democrats aren’t going to support Romney’s if he wins. And, what’s worse is that the best interest of Americans won’t be served with these stalemates.

So, my prayer for this upcoming election is that somehow the results lessen this divide and those who win their offices begin to remember why they got into this in the first place. If the left and right won’t start working together, they need not look far at who’s to blame for the economy and every other ill of this nation… a mirror will suffice.

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~ by thepaintedman on October 26, 2012.