Approaching the End of Impeachment: the Inevitable Polarization
As a ten-year old desperately seeking some form of escape in 1968, I poured myself into the 1968 presidential campaign and the interest it sparked in me led to a lifelong study of national politics. Ever since, the study of national politics has been an avocation which resulted in numerous editorial columns, letters to newspaper editors and, in the last decade, a published book Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times, along with some 450 essays on contemporary political issues which have been posted on Facebook and other social media sites. I always take great interest in the reactions and in the replies to these posts, which gives me a greater “feel” for the national electorate in a way that statistical polls never will. Aside from writing about national politics, I have also engaged in all levels of verbal political discourse with those who agree with my own views and with those very much opposed to these views. Like many of you, the discussion of national politics has unfortunately resulted in the loss of some friends- personal and otherwise. A half century of studying the subject, and a decade’s worth of seeing the reaction to what I have written has taught this 61-year old a few things…and here is what I have learned:
- People first learn their political leanings from their parents. but these political leanings can radically change as the result of academic education from primary through university years;
- When leaving whatever level of formal education one attains, entry into the real world of working, drawing paychecks, paying taxes as well as other elements of adult life can also refine and, in some cases, even re-define political views;
- The sources of information which people utilize to learn about what is going on in the world can very much affect their opinions on given issues, as well as other non-political elements in their daily lives;
- People will believe what they are absolutely determined to believe, even in the very face of empirical evidence to the contrary- and will not be swayed away from their own core convictions.
In the first three of these instances, we see that external entities- parents, schools and universities, and what I will call the “stressors” of adult life can and will shape political beliefs. In particular, the education and mass media entities know this…all too well. The baby boomer generation witnessed only the beginning of “outlook-based” education (read indoctrination) that has firmly and inexorably taken hold in the two generations which have followed. This explains the unusual attraction of younger voters to the oldest man currently running for president- Bernie Sanders. Add to this the century-long bias of most of the mass media, which has consistently favored Democrat candidates over Republican candidates, and it is no wonder that there is such an enormous divide between liberal and conservative voters- and this shows in their attitudes about the impeachment of President Trump.
In the last of these instances we see that there are also inherent core beliefs which are the only bulwark against the intrusion of these external entities- and the degree to which they are effective varies from person to person. It could be argued that one’s character and conviction can be measured as to how strongly one’s inherent core beliefs stand against the outside influences seeking to alter them. Consider the reality that many students who enter university with religious convictions, exit the university with agnostic or even atheistic beliefs about God, faith and redemption. By the same token, many students who enter university with conservative political beliefs gain their degrees and exit university with “progressive” (read “socialist”) beliefs. This is what indoctrination looks like.
That is why people today are more polarized and more divided than they have been in the past 160 years, and the presence of social media and bias of mass media does nothing to ameliorate these divisions. In fact, these division are inflamed and encouraged by the mainstream media and by politicians who drive, and are driven by, the political press…that’s the bad news.
The worse news is that we are slowly but surely losing the skills required in conflict resolution. As children, baby boomers who spent afternoons playing outdoor games like kickball and tag learned first-hand how to resolve conflict. Can the same be said of later generations who spent their afternoons playing video and computer games, where any conflict which arises can ultimately be resolved by simply selecting a “reset” or “restart” button? Even the abundance of supervised sports and other activities available today don’t help youngsters in these regards, because conflicts which arise are resolved by parents, coaches and referees- not the kids, themselves.
Those who wish to place the point of this polarization on politicians and politicos in the media would be far better served to look within themselves and consider how the effects that these external influences stoke the flames of our own division…for ourselves, for our progeny and for our posterity.
Otherwise, we as a free society are headed into the abyss.
-Drew Nickell, 1 February 2020
© 2020 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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