“We owe the American people to be there for them, for their financial security, respecting the dignity and worth of every person in our country, and if there is some collateral damage for some others who do not share our view, well, so be it, but it shouldn’t be our original purpose,” said Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi during an interview with 92nd Street Y. Recently, politicians have been calling for people to act on a mob-like mentality. “And if you see anyone from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they are not welcome anymore, anywhere,” said now-infamous Maxine Waters during a rally in Los Angeles.
Is this where politics has ended up in 2018? Mob mentality? This is exactly what our founding fathers were worried would happen if we had a two-party system. They did not want the United States to have any parties to speak of. John Adams summed up the issue with the statement, “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
Do not get me wrong, I think that the Republican Party has done its fair share of inciting mob mentality, especially with Trump at the helm. If you would like to see an example of this, I would urge you to look up the video in which Trump supporters surrounded Nancy Pelosi and forced her to hide from them as they pounded on a door while yelling profanities.
If you have been reading my opinions so far, you will have picked up a foundational theme that I am against political parties. I believe that they are ultimately only for their own gain and will use supporters to get what they want. These events only cement this in my mind. Political parties are actively turning us against each other when we should be trying to connect with people we disagree with and learning from them, not despising them.
One of the main reasons this happens is because people find their identity in their political party. I see this very often, especially in young people. They get railed up for their political corner of the boxing ring; then, they end up being lost in the crowd of people and lose the individuality of thought they might have once, or maybe never had, but now have no chance of finding.
This is not exclusive to one side, and I think that the second- biggest mistake one can make is assuming that they are an independent thinker when, in fact, they may be nothing more than an echo chamber for their political party’s agendas.
I am aware that this is a strong opinion. I simply think that there are not enough young people fully aware of this issue. We have become so dependent on the media to tell us what the issues are that we miss the largest one we face.
The root of the issue I find in our view of politics is the search for Truth. I would argue that we all know in the back of our heads that there must be a Truth, and with the way that we are going with our political views we are liable to end up with the logical end of civil war. Red vs blue, Republican vs Democrat. I am legitimately afraid of what might happen if we do not address this issue and tensions continue to rise.
It is time for the people to stand up and begin to hold ourselves to higher standards that beg us to be civil adults and to stand against the political parties that aim to divide and subjugate us.
P.S. I am not calling for Communism.
