I haven’t written a blog in a month, because this nation has become deeply divided leading up to the Nov. 3 election and nothing much I could say would change anything. But there is a bigger picture, if anyone cares.
We should care. We have to care. Or we might perish as a nation.
The intentional political divide
The two major political parties not only compete with each other, they conspire with each other – that’s right – to keep everyone else out. Especially third parties and independents.
The parties have re-written the rules of Washington to keep their political machines operating at full speed. To do that, they intentionally keep us angry at each other, so that we remain fully engaged politically. To do that, they intentionally do NOT solve problems – because then partisan voters would lose their passion for political issues.
This keeps the extremists on both sides in power. Anger pays in politics.
I discovered these conclusions in a Harvard Business School report a friend of mine sent to me recently.
Neither party, for example, has strong
competitive incentives to solve the problem of immigration,
because a comprehensive compromise solution would
disappoint some of both parties’ most fervent supporters
and reliable donors. Additionally, once an issue is “solved,”
voters focused on that particular issue may become less
motivated to affiliate with and support the party.
Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America
The report, published in September 2017, says the parties target partisan primary voters, special interests and donors. Those are the folks who influence elections. For various reasons, such as gerrymandered districts – where politicians choose their voters, not allowing voters to choose their politicians, the report says – general elections don’t have nearly the influence on government than the primaries do.
Some 70 percent of Americans fall into two other categories – average voters and non-voters. The political parties don’t spend a lot of time pursuing these Americans. When they do pursue the majority, they offer no solutions – but just demonize the other side, even calling themselves the lesser of two evils or the preferable party.
Neither side offers answers that might energize most of us, because they don’t have to. Washington is not set up to serve the public interest. Its purpose is to serve “the political industrial complex,” the report says, and Washington does that very well.
One suggestion the report offers is to seek ways to include third parties and independents in the political process. For example, only the Democratic and Republican candidates are considered for presidential debates. No independent or third-party candidate, even if such a person would offer moderate views that a significant percentage of Americans might support, has any chance at standing behind a podium before the cameras.
This is just one example of how the Dems and the GOP hate each other, but join forces to keep all other voices out.
Good vs. evil – not
To take the political divide a step further, many Americans see our two choices – Democratic or Republican – as choices between good and evil. Both parties encourage this discussion, because it energizes the base and demonizes the other side. God is on my side, and you are taking the side of evil if you oppose me.
But is this really true?
The Holland (Mich.) Sentinel posted an article on Oct. 18 describing the painful process a local pastor went through before he resigned from his congregation – over presidential politics.
“There’s a quote from Martin Luther King where he said, ‘The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.’ That just hit me hard because I think, broadly, the white evangelical community in our country has abandoned that role.
“The question of the church largely and how it’s functioned in this moment has been really disturbing. That’s been troubling enough that I need to lay it all down.”
Keith Mannes, former pastor of East Saugatuck Christian Reformed Church
The newspaper quotes George Lundskow, a sociology professor at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., as saying the divide between conservative and progressive Christians based on their view of God is a point of division within the faith in terms of political support.
The professor explained that those who see God as punitive tend to support President Donald Trump, saying they see him as strong-willed for the way he attacks opponents and “punishes” people for being poor. Lundskow added that Christians who view God as loving and forgiving tend to be more liberal and progressive, welcoming immigrants and “seeking social justice” for the poor.
The divide in this country, then, is not only between Republicans and Democrats, but between “conservative” Christians and “liberal” Christians – both claiming the moral high ground.
Differing views of history
How did this happen?
Phil Vischer, of all people – creator of the Veggie Tales series of children’s Bible stories through the eyes of a tomato, cucumber and other personified characters – made a 15-minute video that describes the history of the Republican and Democratic parties.
Vischer describes how Blacks early in this country voted Republican, and how several events in the 1800s disenfranchised Blacks, who did not become staunch Democrats in huge numbers until the 1970s.
Vischer says that in 2016, 81 percent of White evangelical Christians voted for Trump, while 96 percent of Black Protestant Christians voted for Hillary Clinton.
All of us read the same Bible and worship the same God. How can our politics be so vastly different?
Vischer’s conclusion: It’s how we perceive the past. White Christians recall a simpler time when everyone went to church, abortion was illegal, children prayed in school and gender roles were clear. “Conservative” by definition means conserving the past.
But Black Christians view history very differently. Looking back, they see lynchings, church bombings, and politicians like Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who served in the Senate from 1954 to 2003, supporting segregation and “seeing White Christians applauding Strom Thurmond for saying that, and then re-electing him to the Senate for five decades, until he died in office in 2003.” Liberal, or “progressive,” by definition means looking forward, or change.
Vischer then says Whites generally see sin as an individual problem, with one person wronging another, while Blacks “also see sin as a systemic problem,” requiring broader solutions and broader confession and repentance.
A difference of good and evil? Not at all. Just different ways of seeing life.
If we can understand our true differences, then possibly we can work together to come up with some real solutions.
the liberal conservative 