The Chasm Between "Us" and "Them"

[kentuck]

Is there anything we agree upon? We tend to believe in the ideals of world peace and a United Nations. They tend to discredit the UN and believe that power makes right.

We tend to believe in the equal rights of women in a constitutional sense. We tend to separate the religious context from the constitutional context. They tend to discard the right of women to choose in an equal way with men and put the issue into nothing but a religious context.

We tend to believe in the idea of public education. They tend to discredit the idea in favor of vouchers and private education. They believe NEA is nothing but a political wing of the Democratic Party.

We tend to believe in the teachings of Jesus as spoken at the Sermon on the Mount. We believe we should help those in need. They tend to believe more in the idea of "pulling oneself up by the bootstraps" and would do away with just about every social program if there was no benefit for the wealthy. They would do away with Social Security. They would do away with food stamps.

We tend to believe in the idea of free speech. Ideally, we would prefer that ideas be put forth on an equal footing. Every person would have a right to speak and every person would have a right to disagree or rebut their argument and let the arguments stand on their own merits. They tend to believe in control of the message, "fake" town hall meeting, media propagandists, and manipulation.

We tend to believe that all citizens should have access to healthcare. They tend to believe the market will take care of such problems, even as the uninsured have grown to 45 million people. And so forth and so forth....

The gulf between "us" and "them" has grown so wide that it seems it is now impossible to bridge the gap. Where does it go from here? Where does it all end?