By TYLER GREGORY, Guest Collumnist
Today’s political climate is a result of decades of demonizing the other side.
Everyday Americans on both sides of the aisle are now constantly embroiled in the muck of politics, and it has had catastrophic effects on relations between neighbors.
Politics and news used to be something people saw on the evening news, thought about for an hour or so and then went to bed. Today, however, people are in the stream of information almost every waking minute.
This stream is hyper-sensationalized by news media and begins to bog down the average citizen.
Most people that I know have gotten to the point where they no longer watch the news, as it only serves as a tool to divide Americans who otherwise may be friends.
The use of words like “Stalinist” or “Nazi” have become commonplace. Sure, they work well in a political argument to gain the upper hand temporarily. But when you take a deeper look, these names we call each other do not stick.
I personally do not think people who advocate for healthcare reform are equivalent to the Soviet leader responsible for the gulags and the Holodomor. I also do not think people who advocate for curriculum transparency from schools equate to Nazi book burners.
Another issue that I see arising from our political climate is the need to “win” arguments or discussions.
Not every single belief or view one holds has to be held to the fire in the crucible of debate.
For centuries, we’ve used religion to defer to when we are unsure on what we should think. Catholics may defer to writings of prior church leaders; Protestants may defer to writers like Calvin.
For every other religion, the general tool when somebody is unsure of how to justify their stance is to defer to their religious teachings.
This brings me to the final issue, which is the fact that government and politics have become a surrogate religion for some. The nature of the ever-shifting Overton Window makes this a problem.
When discussing issues with people who have picked this secular religion, there is no deferment to a prior writer; there is no looking back to historical precedent.
This is because of the fact that some of these things people advocate for today were almost universally blackballed five years ago.
The most common tool these few choose to utilize is either name-calling, similar to what was mentioned above, or any of the newly recognized “phobes.”
While Americans are always being submerged in the muck of everything we deal with today, I encourage people to look what our prior presidents have done. Presidents like Washington or J.Q. Adams were above the fray of politics and the arguing tied with it.
They were not ignorant to issues, but they had enough grace not to be engulfed in these debates non-stop.
Tyler Gregory is the vice-chairman of the Northwestern College Republican Club.