Outraged

Red Fish, Blue Fish

About 6 in 10 Americans accept the idea that “humans and other living things have evolved over time”; but as with so many other issues the answers to even this question have taken on partisan colors. According to a survey released by the Pew Research Center in the spring of 2013, 3 in 10 Americans say that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time”.

 

This division of American views was staying fairly constant until recently, but over the last few years the gap between Democrats and Republicans has widened. In 2009, a majority of Americans accepted the evolution side of the argument, with 64% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans agreeing that humans have evolved over time. However in this recent survey Democratic belief in evolution rose to about 67% while Republican support fell to about 43%. The previous 10-point gap between the parties has grown to a 24-point gulf.

 

What’s most interesting is that the growing partisan gap seems to reflect politics itself, rather than other factors. Although Republicans include a high percentage of evangelical Christians and Democrats attract many secular voters, religious differences don’t explain the gap between the two parties. Even when the Pew researchers factored out race, ethnicity, and a person’s level of religious commitment, partisan differences on evolution remained.

 

The differing views of Democrats and Republicans, even on this question about evolution, are part of a consistent pattern. People who identify themselves as Republican have become significantly more conservative on a range of issues in recent years, while people who identify themselves as Democrat have become somewhat more liberal.

 

As you’ve no doubt noticed, this trend of the two parties moving away from each other is negatively impacting the proper role of government and solving national problems is becoming an impossible task. The major obstacle to progress in America is that we're losing our ability to cooperate with one another. Republicans are saying, “We will never raise taxes”, while Democrats are saying, “We will never reduce benefits”. Actually they are not just saying it, both sides are now yelling it across the aisle and waving their arms at each other.

 

When it comes to American politics the pace of the gap is widening as well, like our universe both sides seem to be accelerating away from each other. According to the Pew Research Center poll, the ideological gap between the right and left is a chasm that separates most American voters (no surprise there). However, over the last 25 years common ground has eroded even on issues that once had strong support in both parties. It seems like everything, including the role of government, is becoming deeply partisan.

 

In this great divide I see old ghosts. In the town squares and cemeteries found in the Eastern part of this country, memorials to Union and Confederate soldiers are ubiquitous. In Boston Massachusetts, a towering column stands topped by a goddess of democracy. This memorial gives tribute to the soldiers who, as the inscription declares, “kept the Union whole, destroyed slavery, and maintained the Constitution.” In Charleston South Carolina, a similar goddess stands behind a muscular male figure carrying a sword and shield. This memorial is dedicated to, “the Confederate defenders of Charleston.”

 

These two statues, with their 180-degree difference in perspective, currently symbolize the state of our nation. One side is fighting for change and the authority of federal government, while the other side is fighting for liberty and limits on federal government. Once again, a century and a half after Americans slaughtered each other by the tens of thousands; a similar philosophical divide defines the American people.

 

No matter who wins in the next election, nearly half the electorate will feel the country has been stolen from them. It's no longer blue versus gray, or North versus South, it is blue states versus red states. Now it is Vermont and Massachusetts versus South Carolina and Kansas, San Francisco versus Birmingham, and Seattle versus Dallas. Regional differences are tolerable and charming and rivalries between sports teams are fun, but political differences are running so deep today that the people on the other side are beginning to look less like countrymen and more like the enemy.

 

Our politicians continue to behave like a bunch of arguing children on a runaway train, so focused on supporting their side and converting the other side that they don't see the danger outside their private railcars. They are unaware that the bridge ahead of them is gone. Unfortunately, We the People, trapped in the boxcars, are so distracted by our own red and blue ideologies that we can’t cooperate long enough to stop the train either.

 

This country is in deep trouble! As long as we allow reckless political behavior to be rewarded with re-election, politicians will always vote to protect their own jobs; regardless of what it will cost you and me. The time has come for us to insist that politicians never say “never”, and learn to cooperate again. We the People can't allow our politicians, or ourselves, to continue accelerating away from each other; because if we don't get our act together and behave as countrymen, this train accident and the blood shed it causes will be inevitable.