Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly. Relax.
Election Day has come and gone, and as results trickle in we can hope that the tension eases — at least a little. Because when the tally is complete, we will be left with one immutable truth regardless of the outcome — we are all Americans.
That fact is easy to forget during these polarized times. And it is skewed by the contentiousness of modern politics and modern national media.
But in the end we all want safe communities and good schools and an efficient economy that fosters upward mobility. We might disagree on how best to get there, but the goals are largely the same.
Despite those shared desires, both Republicans and Democrats tend to view the other side as a danger to the United States. Not just as being misguided on policy, but an actual danger. Polling last month from NBC News found that more than three-quarters of self-identified members of each party agreed with this statement: The other party “poses a threat that if not stopped will destroy America.” That echoes similar polls from recent years.
Such strident opinions are far different from American politics of the past. As President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, once said: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
Such conciliatory language has been lost. While Donald Trump did not create the enmity of today’s politics, he certainly exacerbated it and exploited divisions among us. The culmination was an attempted coup in which his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol while Trump spent hours watching on television and doing nothing to quell the violence.
Some members of one party did, indeed, pose a physical threat to the nation. That should not be forgotten nor forgiven, and The Columbian’s editorial page has frequently reminded readers of that while calling for accountability. We also have offered no quarter to those who repeat lies about election fraud.
But when it comes to matters of policy, Americans must come together. Suggesting that a difference of opinion regarding border security or tax policy or abortion rights is a threat to the nation is hyperbolic at best and dangerous at worst.
Indeed, the standard strategy for demonizing a political opponent is to portray them as a “radical,” but when it comes to policy there is little that is radical about American politics. In the broad political spectrum, Republicans and Democrats are not far apart; the most extreme members of Congress might generate headlines, but they are not the ones who get legislation passed. For a vast majority of lawmakers, labels such as “socialist” or “fascist” are far from the truth; we trust the centrists to temper the more extreme predilections of their party.
In that regard, the political parties reflect the public. As tempting — and simplistic — as it is to label “the other side” as somehow un-American, most citizens simply want what is best for our nation. That we disagree on how to achieve that is a strength, not a weakness.
Votes from Tuesday’s election are still being counted; many results remain unknown. But once the votes are tallied and the winners are determined, one thing will remain unchanged — we still will be neighbors with many shared goals. The hope is that we can relax long enough to recognize that fact.
