Reconciliation: 13

Some days, any effort at reconciliation stalls at the starting gate. Some days, a primal fear that our very way of life is ending overpowers a wish for us all to “just get along,” as the famous line goes—the one that Tony Soprano attributed to Dr. Rodney King.

When a respected conservative columnist, with a sterling international reputation, describes the leader of one of the two primary political parties in America as a child, perhaps it is time to accept the fact the we no longer face simple political differences. Political differences, after all, are based on real issues, such as

- How much influence should various religious dogmas play in the exercise of government?

- What are reasonable limitations on freedom of speech?

- What powers of government should be left to individual states?

- What approach to criminal justice would best serve the country?

- Is individual health care a right or a privilege?

- Is what’s best for General Motors really best for the country?

- Do deficits really matter?

Whether it is proper for a foreign country that has been our country’s avowed enemy since the 1940s take an active role in electing our president does not a political difference.

Whether it is proper for a president of the United States to spend time on social media spreading falsehoods and ad hominem attacks on individual American citizens does not constitute a political difference.

Whether it is acceptable for a president of the United States to lie to the American public, whether it be about the results of a sexual affair or the results of an election, does not constitute a political difference.

Whether it is acceptable for a president of the United States knowingly to try and divide us in our feelings for our country by utilizing hatred, prejudices, and fears, does not constitute a political difference.

I think I’ll take a day off from thinking about all this. Maybe I’ll go somewhere private and practice my primal scream.

Ahh. That feels better.