Don't Believe Everything you Hear or Read in Political Ads, published in the Centre Daily Times, November 2010

Here’s a sample of our junk mail over the past few weeks, and some of the amateurish ads on TV lately:  “Joe Sestak voted to send your jobs overseas to China.”  “Pat Toomey voted to send your jobs overseas to China.”  “Joe Sestak voted to gut Medicare.”  “Pat Toomey wants to privatize Social Security.”  Are all of the candidates for major Pennsylvania offices really that heartless, clueless, and vicious?  Of course not.  Then why are these folks slinging manure at each other?

I believe President Obama got it wrong in his famous speech at the 2004 democratic convention, where he declared there is no Red America, no Blue America, only the United States of America.  There is a red and blue America, but until fairly recently, those Americas were small parts of our society.  Yes, about 70 of our population identifies themselves as Democrats or Republicans, but most of those aren’t the ones screaming at each other at increasingly violent town hall meetings.  The rest of us are more relaxed – call us ‘Purple’ America.  We remain friendly with each other at the office or at neighborhood and community gatherings even if we have different political views.  However, there are unsettling signs that the non-stop exaggerations, vitriol, and outright lies spewed over cable news and other media is starting to corrupt purple America, turning more of us into extremists.

More disturbingly, our leaders are fanning these flames, rather than trying to put them out, in order to win elections.  We must remember the only thing that motivates politicians – the fear of losing their jobs. This means any candidate in a tight election will say or do anything to gain an edge, even spreading half-truths and lies about their opponents (shocking, I know).  So, to get re-elected, the politicians continue to tear apart our society, and further polarize us.  Purple America keeps shrinking.

The potential outcomes of this polarization range from unpleasant, to frightening.  We’re already seeing the unpleasant – we essentially have only two entities in government, not 100 senators and 435 Representatives.  Each entity, the Democratic and Republican parties, casts one vote, with nearly all of their members in lockstep.  This means little gets accomplished.  Critical issues like balancing our budget, and even defending our country, are ignored as the politicians run home to pound their chests, wrap themselves in the flag, and demonize their opponents.

To see the frightening – open your history books.  The last time our country became even more polarized was the 1960’s, with history-changing assassinations, and police and soldiers beating and killing our angry young and minorities.  Other countries that became this divided have done unthinkable things.  Many moderate Germans in the 1930’s claimed they never noticed how radicalized their nation was becoming until it was too late.  Same goes for the Spaniards before their catastrophic civil war.

We cannot let our politicians and media take us down paths like that. We must regain control of our own views, and our own future.  Start by questioning everything you hear.  And, when something really bothers you, dig around until you find the facts and make your own decisions (factcheck.org is a handy website to start with).  Finally, we must remain tolerant of our friends and neighbors views, even when they disagree with ours.  This is, after all, what makes America the most open and dynamic place on earth.