How has America become so divided?

Now that the election has passed and either your guy won or he didn’t, there isn’t much left to do but celebrate or complain.

At least that’s what Facebook seems to think. Since I live in Texas, but am from PA. I got a ton of different responses on Facebook after President Obama won re-election on Tuesday night.  Ranging from “YES WE CAN… Moving Forward” to “America has been murdered and I’m going to stock up on ammo before this guy takes it away from me.”

Two sort of polarizing opinions and everybody is entitled to have one.

During this election year, which has been trying to say the least, for I feel like all of us! A lot of people on both sides have asked the question “How did America get so divided?”

I am SURE that some of you aren’t going to like this response but I promise you, as I at least try to do, it will not be as biased.  Like you, I am entitled to my opinion and also like you I am entitled to think you are wrong, maybe wrong is too harsh of a judgment. I don’t 100% think you are wrong. I think you are misguided. And you may think the same of me.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Lets get back to the topic. How did America get so divided? 

My first election as an adult was 2000, Oh yes, the good ole 2000 Election. Bush v. Gore, it was a doozy. It ended in spectacular fashion that really truly was revolutionary. It had and still has people crying foul and that’s ok. People are entitled to think what they want. 

If you are still crying foul after 12 years, you should probably let it go though.  History has. Even if it was foul. Bush served 2 terms AND Obama has served one since then. It’s time to move on from that bull crap.

But even during that time, I don’t remember this much animosity. Even during 8 years of President Bush, and his woeful unpopularity I don’t remember such animosity from the left to the right. Of course there was some. I can honestly say I wasn’t a huge fan of him as a President. He seems like a nice guy, I certainly don’t have disdain for him certainly not for a job that to be honest. I don’t think I could ever do.  But I think even 8 years of President Bush would not answer that question.

This has been going on for a very, very long time.

You can tell me it started in the 20’s or 30’s. In 1936, businesses hated Roosevelt but yet he was re-elected in a fashion that hasn’t been seen since.  You can even make an argument that America has always been divided. We did have a pretty bloody Civil War less then 100 years after we became a country. But I’m going to make it easy for you.

Vietnam, Vietnam happened.

It ripped America out of its very core and turned us into something much more like what we see today. Vietnam divided this country in a way that it hadn’t seen since the Civil War.  It took 18 year old kids who had no interest in serving their country and threw them into an incredibly unpopular war that had no end in site. It turned families from the 1950’s and 60’s into parents who lost their only child to a war he didn’t want to go to, or did want to go to. It returned soldiers home to a place that didn’t support them, that didn’t care about them.

It essentially took the 1950’s and 60’s middle class American Family and turned it into a joke. The family dynamic changed. It progressed, for whatever reason you want to believe it did. There is no denying that it did in fact happen. 

The hippie movement, which started in the 40’s and 50’s with Beatniks, and became a culture that is still incredibly active now, as are Beatniks, or Hipsters are you would call them now, basically anyone that is trying to fight the man.

They essentially changed the dynamic of the nuclear family. They made it ok for divorce, ok for women's equality, ok for abortion. They also made it ok, to question authority. So maybe you hate hippies for ripping the nuclear family apart, but before hippies, protestors were met with a lot more violence then they are today, regardless of what our constitution says. If you have the time, go ahead and look at how Blacks were treated in the early 60's when they protested civil rights. 

So regardless of who you are Hippies and Beatniks changed America. Maybe good, maybe bad, mostly both. They also did something crazy, most of them grew out of the faze. They got married, had kids, and probably raised you. They run major corporations. Mostly technology. One crazy hippie started this company about fruit. Perhaps as you read this on your iPhone app you heard of it, it's called Apple. 

In the mean time, they never left the 60's and 70's behind. The forward thinking of the 70's has stayed with us. Mostly liberals admittedly. But it's still everywhere we go. It's in TV, film, the office,  your house, your car, literally(yes I mean it) everywhere. It's embedded into America. 

Politics has also evolved, mostly negatively.

President’s like Nixon betrayed our trust. Carter, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, W, and Obama. They have all lied to us. Broken promises here, broken promises there. None have left office at the end of their term truly believing that they made everyone happy. If Bushes term would have ended in October 2001, he still would have had people who were unhappy with him with his historically high approval rating. 

But that's the point. No one is ever happy.

America started as a way to protect the people from religious persecution in Europe. As politics began, people have been divided. That’s not going to change. You can’t please everyone. That’s politics rule #1.

However, politics is no longer about the people. Not you, you, you or you. Not even the very rich or the very poor. Both sides will suffer regardless who is in office. Businesses fail and houses are foreclosed on during all times of the election season.  We tend to forget that. A bad idea can make a business fail or a person fail.  Sometimes it’s really that simple. One thing can change your life. If a dominent good for the business republican is in office, businesses will fail the same as if a super crazy hippie liberal is in office, poor people will still be poor. Same goes for opposites as well. The poor are still poor under republicans and democrats, and businesses grown and fail under democrats or republicans, there is no magic science. It's reality. 

Politics is about money. It’s about how much can I get from big tobacco or Green Energy, or technology or government contractors, to make a little extra on the side. To get flown around in a private jet to Raleigh to meet with Philip Morris so they can tell me why voting against a cigarette tax can be in my be$t intere$t$.

This recent election proved that more then ever. Even as they talked about the economy neither side told me what they were going to do to help me. They didn’t really tell me how I could find a job. They just told me what the other guy was telling me and how he was wrong. They insulted my intelligence as a human being. Both sides did this. 

Facebook has made it worse. It has given people, a way to tell everyone who they believe is better or worse. Expose themselves, violating the basic rules we were all taught as young adults. You don’t talk about politics or religion because you are going to piss someone off, or insult them or most likely BOTH. I don’t care whom you voted for. I don’t even care why. No one else does either.

But this election has shown me something more. It’s shown me a side of people, some of them friends I’ve had for a while.  It’s told me that people are selfish. They don’t give a shit about you or me. How could they? They are too busy complaining about Obama or Romney, insulting those who support him.

“Why would you vote for Obama, he’s a socialist Nazi, fascist, Muslim, extremist Christian”

“Why would you vote for Romney? He’s a robotic, Mormon, spoiled rich guy who cares more about businesses than the people. He will raise your taxes and cut the 1% so all his buddies can go on holiday”

The media and Facebook have destroyed America. They have divided us. They have given us so much ammo to throw at each other that we have no choice but to listen. Sometimes I wish I was undecided and didn’t or couldn’t have an opinion.  Life would be so much easier then to listen to people I care about calling each other names because of who they support.

The question is why do we do it? Really. We do it to each other; we can’t blame MSNBC, or Fox News, or CNN or Rush Limbaugh. We can only blame each other. If CNN tells me that Romney is going to defund Planned Parenthood, thus eliminating good and bad things it stands for, why am I going to scream at the Romney supporter I know on Facebook and throw that in his face? Only so he can throw in my face that Obama wants to introduce a plan for ban assault weapons.

At the end of the day, there are a number of things that can happen because of this. A. I may have lost a friend. B. My mind hasn’t changed. C. His mind hasn’t changed. D. All of the above.

We are all Americans fighting amongst each other, blaming the other for our problems. I know, someone is going to tell me, that it’s because of something Obama has done. You’re wrong. This is deeper then Obama, this is deeper than Romney, this is deeper then our history.

This is it. We need to get along. We need to stand united. Again I don’t care if you voted for Romney, Obama, or Jill Stein. Stick to your guns, be active. It’s your civil responsibility. But we all get the short end of the stick sometimes. Unless, you only live 4 years, you are going to live through many Presidents. I’m 30 and I have lived through 5. Through that time, not every thing that has been passed has affected me or has made an impact in my life. Even negative things don’t always impact me personally. Maybe they impact you Maybe, Obama care will cause your premiums to go up and because of that something might go wrong in your life. Maybe it will change your industry. Maybe the war in Iraq caused a loss of a loved one. Maybe this and maybe that. But how is telling me my opinion is wrong going to change that? How is hate towards the other side going to change that?

Insults don’t make change. CHANGE makes change. Letters to Congressman and Woman makes change. Aggressive grassroots movement towards something you feel strongly about makes changes. It might not make waves, and maybe there is nothing you can do, but maybe there is. Sitting here and complaining I can promise you won’t do anything. Nobody likes a braggart or a sore loser. I have seen plenty of both. You wouldn’t walk into your co-workers office after they got fired with a smile on your face and tell them you just got a raise would you? The same way you wouldn’t want that co-worker complaining about how they were unjustly fired because they hadn’t made their sales goals in over a year. Perhaps that’s not the best example but you get the point.

In a Republic, there are winners and losers. The great thing about our system is A. it’s cyclical. Things change. B. Nobody is permanent.

In America, however we are still here, living our lives, some of us are happy, some of us are sad. But I consider myself an American regardless of who I voted for and I consider you the same. Our ancestors or parents worked their butts off to get us here. Because they knew that America is the greatest country on earth full of a diverse populous of people, designed that way.  To open itself up for you and me and close it self for no one.

That’s all I got. We need to get back to being Americans instead of Republicans and Democrats.