divided America – Symphony

Encore of Revival: America, January 10, 2022

SymphonyJanuary 10, 2022

At 65, actor Bob Saget is dead. He was known for is role the sitcom Full House and will be dearly missed.

America is on edge and no one seems able to figure out why. Experts say that Trump was divisive, but the nation was already divided. Biden hosting a speech in the Capitol—with partisan attendance—will not help unify a divided America. Unity is no more Biden’s goal than it was Trump’s. Everyone pushes forward with what they view is best for the country. And, “what is best” is something over which the country itself disagrees.

With the pandemic’s quarantine rules, homeschooling rises. This runs contrary to the political ideals of those pushing quarantine rules for the pandemic. Democrats want everyone to stay at home, but children to attend school. More importantly, Democrats believe that school curriculum shouldn’t be decided democratically.

Let’s look past the obvious contradictions in our political ideologies. And, let’s not start on ideologies that are “Pro-Life” while being in favor of the death penalty, or “Pro-Choice” opposing school of choice. Just look at the stark contrast in the mindset of Americans.

The Pilgrims founded the North based on the idea that parents know that everyone can learn and read and write. Families controlled what their children were taught. That built a powerful nation and a free-thinking, slave-free North. Relegating control to supposed “experts” can be debated as good or bad, but it is certainly a digression from the good path that brought us here.

Some want our path to continue; others want our path to change. That difference is why people voted for Trump or Biden. Trump had time and we saw many things happen. Now, history will put the popularity of the Biden ideal to the test.

In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, December 20, 2021

SymphonyDecember 20, 2021

America is clearly divided. Democrats get vaccinated, Republicans don’t want to. Now, vaccine demands are rising for a virus clinically proven to cause no harm 40% of the time. Two in five people with the Omicron variant of COVID won’t have symptoms. When Democrats hear that, they fear the virus more because lack of symptoms makes it more sneaky. When Republicans hear that, they fear the virus less because lack of symptoms is lack of real threat. The same virus invokes opposite reactions.

Republican states argue to block vaccine mandates over technicalities. Democratic-controlled governments argue “science”—when “40% asymptomatic” means 40% zero risk of harm. Neither side presents the strongest case in their own favor. Republican states should argue lack of symptoms and Democrats should argue that workforce hubs do matter.

Our response to the virus is not the problem; our polarity over any response is devastating. The virus hasn’t torn the country apart; our division has. As the saying goes, it’s all in the mind. The strange part is that a billionaire’s daily 40 minutes of meditation is making headlines in a nation that mostly doesn’t see the contradiction of its own thought life. But, some do, enough to make headlines about mind time worthwhile to the ever changing news industry.

In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, June 15, 2020

SymphonyJune 15, 2020

America faces a new kind of reconciliation. Democrat voters in Seattle have decided that government can be overbearing. Usually, that was a patent held by Republican-voting Conservatives. A group of citizens expected the government to obey their desires, another idea Conservatives faced opposition for. And, the news media falsely claims that this group in Seattle wants to become a separate nation and erase all borders. Usually, slander from the media was an honor reserved for Conservatives.

Things have reversed.

If a group of people have bad beliefs, the best way to survive those beliefs is to have those beliefs known so they can be rebutted fair and square. Listening is a vital part of proving someone wrong. The nation has a lot of growing up to do.

Democrat voters and Republican voters hold this in common more now than ever: refusal to listen. Republican voters believe that if a group in Seattle has an opinion, they are automatically wrong and therefore shouldn’t be heard nor should any claim of what they say be confirmed. Likewise, Democrat voters think if Trump says something, he is automatically wrong and anyone who says otherwise should be ignored without checking facts.

We have much more in common than we thought. But, the mutual refusal to listen tells us that fighting will only increase. Peace only comes to those who want it. Perhaps, the troubles our voluntarily deaf ears create will drive us to want to not fight more than we want to not listen—maybe.

In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, May 4, 2020

SymphonyMay 4, 2020May 4, 2020

America is furious, both of them. Conservatives are fed up with restrictions against a virus that has no symptoms. Liberals are fed up with Conservatives not entering panic mode with them.

If you don’t believe in God, you will believe in anything. For some, it is the belief that animals will live as if forever if we are all vegetarian. For some, it is the belief that crashing economies and avoiding other humans is the only way to survive. For some, it is the belief that outbursts of rage are the only way to become happy.

Neither of the Americas seem willing to give up their respective beliefs in whatever they hold most dear. The only changes are the removal of ambiguity and the level of rage that follows. There is no “moderate” politician anymore. There is no “gray”, only monochrome vision which will only find a way to gain evermore stark contrast.

They myth of people with different ideals living side-by-side is debunked. Maybe some ideals can live in a mixed society with one person living next to a neighbor who disagrees without being disagreeable; but not with Liberals and Conservatives. It’s not that the Conservatives don’t want it, but the Liberals won’t allow it.

Our different views must not mix, they can only be partitioned with Liberal in one city and Conservative in another. That’s the only way forward and it will happen because both will become too extreme for the other.

In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, February 17, 2020

SymphonyFebruary 17, 2020February 17, 2020

Democrats and Republicans are working in evil tandem. In a sense, Republicans have no choice. The attacks against Conservatives in America are so extreme and unfair that our laws might not be suited to defend us from them. Going easy on Roger Stone in his punishment for something that wasn’t wrong seems like playing favorites, from more than one angle. It’s okay when Democrats do it, but when Democratic Washington attacks men for less than John Brennan has done wrong it seems like those men must be unfair in order to receive justice.

We are in a spiral of decay.

Pure democracy is sheer tyranny of the masses, allowing the 51% to gang up on the 49%. But, a Democratic Republic, like the USA, doesn’t—or shouldn’t—allow the 99% to gang up on the 1% because every single person has rights that no one else can take away. But, in attempts to punish famous people for supporting a candidate in the “other political party”, and in LGBTQ trying to change the rules of restrooms and use prison to punish people for grammar rules without classic literature, we are seeing the 1% try to gang up on the 99%. Some, not all, of the Left want an aristocracy that they steer.

But, it doesn’t stop there. While a few in the Left try to gang up on the ever-less-so-silent majority, huge backlash is coming even against more moderate Liberals. The public-funding-driven Liberals, different from the social-driven Liberals, are getting a bad wrap from the Right. People are being hated for believing things they don’t believe on both sides of the political spectrum. While the Right is rising up against the Far Left, another backlash is coming back against the Right in the more distant future. That will be when the nation’s institutions are shaken, in the days when we all are forced to listen to each other—in the days when the nation’s inner turmoil sees daylight and we find our hearts.