Finding common ground in a hyper partisan America

There’s a lot of public conversation today about how to deal with crime. President Donald Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops into Washington, D.C., seems to have worked to arrest the rise of crime in one of our nation’s largest cities ― the Democratic mayor of Washington has publicly praised the action.

But there has still been a lot of criticism of his action from the left.

It has made me try to remember the last time when there was universal agreement among Democrats and Republicans on what a particular public policy problem actually was, not just how to solve it. Times change and political positions evolve as both parties pick up or lose members.

Through the 1970s, curbing crime seemed to be generally supported by the majority of both Republicans and Democrats. Granted, many in the Democratic Party were Southern Democrats, who were generally far more conservative in their political outlook on social, fiscal and foreign policy issues than socialist progressives in the Democratic Party today. Many of them were not too far from the political views of most in the Republican Party, and many were in leadership positions in the Democratic Party for decades.

But even going beyond those parameters, most Americans have always wanted their streets and neighborhoods to be safe for them, their neighbors and their children.

When did this all seem to change. Perhaps with the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, far-leftist social progressives saw their chance to push for radical criminal justice reform as well as urge the new president to appoint far left liberal judges nationwide who would support the early release of dangerous criminals under the name of racial justice and equality.

However, when video of mobs of people ransacking Walmarts in California and other department stores nationwide hit the news and social media, people of all stripes and backgrounds were horrified by the lack of police protection and the failure of the judicial system to mete out any sort of reasonable punishment for people who willingly destroyed the property of other people without any fear of suffering any substantial punishment for their actions. Only then did a working majority of constituents seem to start to come together to demand their elected officials take action to against such wanton violence.

After all, the people most affected by the closing of grocery stores and pharmacies in downtown big cities are the very constituencies liberal Democrats always purported to say they were working for and trying to help. It makes no sense to encourage violence against anyone really, but certainly not against a political base one has to have to be elected and reelected.

Only now are we seeing the results of their anger in the actions taken by Trump to send National Guard troops into Washington, D.C., — and perhaps next, Chicago — to take the decisive action local authorities have not been able to force themselves to do for decades.

Aren’t there some very general values and attributes we can all agree upon that we want reinforced and supported by every elected official, regardless of political party or opportunity, in the next election? The very basic we should have all learned in kindergarten: Don’t take what is not yours; don’t hurt anyone physically or verbally. If you violate such basic values and rules, there will be a penalty to pay. In kindergarten, it may be no recess.

But in real life, those consequences are multiplied, sometimes exponentially.

What are some other big issues everyone should be in full agreement or have been in recent memory?

9/11 seemed to be the one big issue where everyone at least said they wanted to come together as Americans and support the decisions of the president and Congress. That all stayed pretty much together until President George W. Bush made the decision to invade Iraq and attack Saddam Hussein. Many on the left and the right thought it detracted much-needed attention from taking out al-Qaida, the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and Twin Towers in New York City, which turned out being the case now looking back over the past two decades.

COVID-19 was another big issue which could have forced all Americans to come together, but massive disagreements over the efficacy of the vaccines as well as the decisions at the state and local levels to shut down businesses and schools pushed citizens back into their corners of the boxing ring where many to most people still reside.

As you go about your daily life, ask people around you if there are solutions to some massive, pressing issues they believe everyone can agree upon because it will help everyone and not just a few selected sectors of this country.

It will be a sad day if and when America degenerates into a nation of embittered, fragmented sectors of angry people who cannot or will not ever see themselves as part of a nation of Americans dedicated to freedom, safety, prosperity and success for everyone.

Nations throughout history have torn themselves apart with internal strife, dissension and, ultimately, civil war if accommodations and compromises were not made by mature, sane and civil public leaders in government, business and civic life. Each of us can do our own individual part toward restoring civility to our common life together, no matter how large or small we might think our contribution might be.

It is something important to contemplate in the coming days, weeks and months.