Back in 2000, I was at a meeting in Providence, RI when the news channels were live with showing post-election confrontations over the vote in Florida. I was horrified and said to the people I was with that our country was as divided as it was during the Civil War. Strong statement. The people I was with thought I was overstating things. After watching this campaign season and the aftermath of this election, we are certainly more divided as a country than we were sixteen years ago and we are heading down a dangerous path.
There is a complete breakdown in trust and respect. Start with our view of the news media. MSM (mainstream media) is the pejorative that is used by conservatives for the longstanding outlets of journalism, be they newspapers, radio or television, that are the longstanding reporters of news and information. Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart and other organizations have grown out of this distain for traditional media and are looked down upon by liberals. All of these outlets need to be more transparent and show how they gather and edit news. All would be wise to follow the adage of Roger Kahn that journalists only have to follow one side of the story, the truth. That means not reporting false statements in the interest of fairness or simply going after ratings by airing the latest person to yell fire in a crowded theater.
This lack of trust and respect goes to a number of institutions as well. Ratings of congress are at an all time low. Both of the presidential finalists had high negative ratings. Our distrust of and disrespect of our opponents is so high that either candidate, including the President-elect, will have a hard time governing. We see protests in the cities from the opponents of the President-elect. Given all the talk about a "rigged election" system from the right in the days leading up to the election, had the result been different, I guarantee the losing side would be out in force protesting as well.
Frankly, the results of this election show that the system is not rigged. The chicken littles were proven wrong and need to go out to the public and say a huge mea culpa. This talk was dangerous and only added to the incineration of trust and respect in this country.
There is raw, visceral hate right now. We cannot survive this kind of strife as a nation. Waiting around for one person, some kind of savior, to lead us to the promised land is not going to heal this country. Nobody, including any of the candidates for President or the currently elected congress, has the capacity to be the bigger person, acknowledge the deep divisions and reach out to opponents to fix the fissures. That leaves the task to us.
What I mean is that, regardless of interest group or political slant, you are going to have to get outside your bubble, your interest group and state your case. You are going to have to do so by logically explaining your view, citing facts and sources and not defaulting to some amorphous "They say..."
You are going to have to do so to people who do not agree with you and who may be discourteous. It means not "unfriending" people who do not share your political views on social media. Also, it means walking in the moccasins of your opponent. Trying, however difficult, to see their point of view. Don't wait around for someone to get elected president four years from now.
This breakdown in trust and respect is not just happening here, it is a world wide issue. Brexit, the defeat of the peace treaty with FARC in Colombia and the bombastic government of the Philippines are examples of how far the disease has spread. In the first two cases, the electorate did not feel leadership had the citizen's best interests at heart. Perhaps all of this is the unforeseen circumstance of the interactive era. Worldwide, we have all just built our own bubbles.
All of us, as citizens of a great country, have to do a lot less yelling, eye rolling and exclamations of "whatever." We need to get outside our comfort zone, understand that people do not take what we say at face value and build our cases. If we do not take personal responsibility for elevating the discourse in our country and building bridges of trust and respect, we will deserve our doomed fate.
