The Other Side Isn’t Going Anywhere
Like it or not, the country is never going to be politically homogenous; we’re going to have to make the best of it.
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It has become a sort of purity test put forward by the extremists in both parties: They attack moderates for working with the other side because the other side — home to either socialists and anarchists or racists and fascists — is irredeemable, crazed, and evil.
I continue to hear from people in my personal life, on social media, and in the mainstream media, all my fellow Biden supporters, that we have no reason to feel sorry for Trump supporters or even to show grace in victory. There is dignity in being a graceful winner, but we can put aside all high-minded reasons for being conciliatory.
Right-wingers have taken far too many opportunities to “stick it to the libs” and many an opinionated leftist is ready to get their revenge for an interminable list of grievances. What all those who seek to inflame political tensions fail to realize is that the other side isn’t going anywhere. We should always work to highlight our commonality, and to be agreeable despite our differences, because in this democracy we all share the power.
We should treat our fellow citizens like members of our family. And I don’t mean that we should love them; I mean that we need to put up with them. We go to the farthest extent possible not to get into shouting matches with friends and family, even when we think they’re being ridiculous, because we are going to see them again. We don’t want to inconvenience ourselves by having a long running feud, and it’s simply not worth it to be at each other’s necks for the rest of our lives. It works the exact same way with our fellow voters!
Trump supporter or Biden supporter, conservative or progressive, we share our home with one another; we also share our government. We can’t simply say, “They’re unforgivable, and I’m done with them.” We are eternally bound to one another, so we need to learn to get along. Otherwise, we can continue to wrest control of the government from one another — every two or four or eights years — and mercilessly weaponize it against the opposing side, undoing whatever the other has done, and reveling in their frustration. We’ll continue to escalate and divide, attack and retaliate, so that nothing is ever done and the country winds down to a slow demise.
Being nice to the opposing party isn’t even about being nice to the opposing party — it’s about being nice to ourselves. It is about pragmatism. Let us be selflessly selfish and show a little kindness to our fellow Americans, of all political persuasions.