Christmas Cheer

Christmas is the holiday of love.  It is the time of the year when bygones are to be bygones and we are to join hands in shared amity.  But not this year!  Certainly not in the political arena—where the acrimony is greater than in decades.

Republicans are getting much of the blame for their expressed intension to roll back Obama’s immigration and health care initiatives.  Their unwillingness to be bipartisan is routinely blamed for the impasse in Washington.

My mother, however, always told me that it takes two to make a fight.  There is, in fact, a Democratic dimension to our current turmoil.  Indeed, if there is a prime aggressor, he lives in the White House.  Both before and after the election, our president has kicked his opponents where it hurts.  Now they are reproached for howling in pain.

If people are to work together, they must first listen to each other and second make adjustments.  How unwilling liberals are to do this was brought home to me during a recent trip to Florida.  Thus, many I encountered were liberals with unmistakable attitudes.

Let me make clear, I did not initiate our discussions.  More than once, while enjoying a friendly meal, I was initially thanked for not going political.  Then these others brought up issues about which they knew we disagreed.  It was they who sought to go on the record.

Nonetheless I am not shy about defending my positions.  Soon enough we reached a deadlock.  At this point, on several different occasions, I asked if there was any evidence I could adduce that would change my adversary’s viewpoint.  In each case, the answer was a clear and unambiguous: No!

What kind of discussion is it where facts have no relevance?  The answer is plain.  These typically concern moral controversies.  When people believe they are fighting for justice, they refuse to be deterred by pesky truths.  To the contrary, they insist on clinging to what are regarded as higher truths.

This then is where we are at as a nation.  We are morally polarized.  Liberals and conservatives are each convinced that they hold the high ground.  Neither is even willing to concede that the other is operating from “good will.”

Part of the reason for this antagonism is that accusations of moral turpitude have been escalating for years.  Protagonists on both sides consequently respond ever more vehemently to what they perceive as undeserved brickbats.

Do you remember when Barack Obama promised to bring us together?  Do you recall when he contended that there were no white or black, no red or blue states?  There was only the United States.

Those days are gone.  From the moment he took office, Obama has been telling Republicans their opinions do not matter.  As a result, they were not included in writing the stimulus or affordable health care acts.  Indeed, not a single conservative vote was cast for the latter.

Now Republicans are castigated for not helping make ObamaCare work.  They are similarly chastised for not concurring in a Democratic sponsored immigration law.  Apparently the only way they are allowed to compromise with liberals is by capitulating to them.

Obama’s has been the most divisive administration since the Great Depression.  He will not discuss; he will not adjust; he will not accommodate.  His much-vaunted willingness to listen to other ideas includes only those with which he already agrees.

If we are to have collegiality on the banks of the Potomac, this blame game must stop.  Too often we hear calls for bipartisanship in the abstract followed by partisanship on the particulars.  Brotherhood (and sisterhood) has to do better.

Actually I have no expectations of political comity.  The next two years promise to be exceptionally rancorous.  And so, despite my desire for an extended holiday season, I am girding my loins for spiteful conflict.  Moreover, if we cannot have civility, then I too will fight for what I believe.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw state University