The American body politic is tearing itself in two over the federal government’s efforts to rid the country of illegal aliens who are engaged in criminal activities. (The body politic is also tearing itself in two over a multitude of other issues — and the correct approach to those issues is exactly the same.)
Our politicians would have us believe that whatever the problem is that we see can only be solved by voting the other party into power: if you think the problem is open borders and lax law enforcement, vote Republican; if you think the problem is inhumane treatment of innocent people and the establishment of a police state, vote Democratic.
This sort of polarization won’t solve anything; all it will do if our current game of political brinksmanship plays itself out is guarantee universal discord, misery, and oppression.
Think about it this way. Suppose I came over to your house while you were out of town and trashed it — took an axe your furniture, burned you photo albums, stole your jewelry, etc. You come home and your spouse takes the lead in putting things back together and makes a complete mess of it. Are you going to be mad at your spouse, or me? You would probably be angry at both of us. And perhaps the only reason I got into your house in the first place is because you left the door open and the alarm system off when you left town.
The point is, one side is never fully to blame, and no side is ever fully innocent.
The unmanageable flood of illegal aliens that came to America was caused by Democratic policies — and also by the indifference of the Republican Party and many among the citizenry. The excesses in ICE’s response to this problem is caused by Republican policies — and also by the interference and resistance of the Democratic Party and many among the citizenry. Plenty of blame to go around.
Our problems will only be solved when the American public demands that politicians work together in a spirit of cooperation, rather than grandstanding, hurling insults at opponents, ignoring our laws and traditions, and forcing constituents to accept more and more extreme and dangerous policies.
We begin not by pointing our fingers at the other guys, but by looking in the mirror.
Fundamentally, issues relating to immigration are not political, but rather, attitudinal. Many cultural factors contribute to our tendency to become polarized. To cite a few that seem to me particularly significant:
- Most politicians are lawyers, so it is not surprising that an adversarial system predominates the political and legislative atmosphere: do whatever it takes to undermine the position of your opponent.
- Our long tradition of management versus labor in business affairs conditions us to view issues as being us versus them, rich versus poor, haves versus have-nots, winners versus losers.
- The human tendency to form tribes is fully exploited by the news media and social media to provoke clicks and conversations. Tribalism splinters the common good into pockets of special interests, all with competing values and agendas.
- Moral relativism, the idea that right and wrong are whatever a person thinks they are, almost completely undermines our willingness to compromise or even consider other points of view that threaten our own. And even if the willingness to compromise were there, the lack of a shared moral standard makes agreement pretty difficult to reach, which is why so many arguments these days end with the words, “Well, that’s just the way I think!”
- The erosion of common courtesy and respect in our society worsens by the hour. We are almost to the point where the norm for anonymous trolling on social media as well as political rhetoric is to be as abusive as possible — and at times, violent.
How can the pursuit of the common good exist in an atmosphere like this? It cannot. So once again, we must change our attitudes before we can hope to solve our political differences.
