Original article from The Atlantic

Being as connected as I (unfortunately) am, it’s become almost impossible to not notice how damn apocalyptic the current political situation is sounding. Increasing alt-right violence, the internment of immigrants and increased raids on their homes, income inequality and general despair all appear to be hallmarks of the current generation. While this piece isn’t really different from that tone at a glance, there are some really interesting arguments to be gleaned. 

At its core, it’s about the death of the Republican Party, and whether or not it will take democracy with it. The idea sounds preposterous, but as noted in the piece, the political conflict up to and including the American Civil War strikes a harmony with some of the things that we currently see. The piece continues to argue that to head back to normalcy and avoid destruction, Republicans in Congress need to accept some Democratic demands rather than moving farther to the right. The author cites several moments in history when it was the center, the center-right specifically, that pulled America back from the brink. Also,  I think it’s a good time to point out here that parties shift over time. Democrats formerly were opposed to the abolition of slavery, and were very anti-immigrant during the early-20th Century. In fact, the name “Dixiecrat” referred to a short-lived secession from the Democratic party in 1948, long after the Civil War. It was only recently that they became staunchly liberal and largely progressive. 

I really like this argument, with the exception of a few caveats. I think it’s fairly obvious that Conservatives in general feel like their way of life is threatened by a lot of external forces. I think that the author is spot-on in pointing out that moving further and further to the right is a losing strategy for the GOP. The further they alienate the general populace, the less support they will find as time passes. There’s no doubt a place for Conservatism in politics. It’s the American way to press forward, in a manner that makes sense. If the center-right can indeed prevail, we may be able to come back from this. 

However, I think it would’ve been important for the author to talk about the increasing polarization of Americans, and the moral dichotomy that is resulting. I would argue it is perhaps a more precarious position than is suggested, due to the attitudes of the left and right wing that are quite literally morally opposed to each other at this point. Whereas Conservatism and Liberalism used to be tendencies of thought, they’ve now become more identities than anything else. You could argue that the abolition of slavery had a moralistic conflict to it, and that would be true. However, more Americans than ever are involved in political discourse due to the influence of the media and the evolution of social media. This is causing a greater amount of people to be in strict opposition to each other.

I, frankly, don’t believe that the center-right (see Mitt Romney apparently) has the capability to bring the two sides together at this point, until both sides are able to see some sort of common ground. Another thing worth pointing out is the harsh near-authoritarian reaction to progressive policies. The author pointed out that some of the worst violence and events carried out in the 20th Century were caused by totalitarian left-wing regimes. And while that is no doubt true, the reality is that the American left-wing is barely even Socialist, much less full-blooded Maoist. 

At the end of the day though, it’s important to remember that “The American system works more often than it doesn’t.”. If we learn to work with each other a little better, on issues that we share in common (of which there are many for those who profess themselves both diehard Democrats and Republicans), we can learn to move forward. Ezra Klein, editor-at-large of Vox, stated in a podcast I listened to recently that the best thing we can do to combat this polarization is to get involved in local and state politics. That, I think is a great thing to end this with, because the things that are happening at that level are the things that impact us and our communities in the most direct way. If there’s a greater amount of involvement in our communities, we can prove exactly what we have in common, and really start to get some stuff done. And with that, go read this article, because it explains a lot of what’s going on in America today.