Complex question, simple answer: Why have our politics gotten so personal, more about vitriol and hating our president than rational dialogue on things that matter?
One perspective is that we are not, as a society, any longer cohesive. A thousand television channels, million online videos, billion social posts daily – has eroded the understanding we once shared about what actually make us great, has long held us together.
Lack of cohesion – whatever the source – creates downstream effects. For starters, it becomes a way for adversaries to divide us, a national, local, and personal security threat. More personally, it creates – you see it around you – distrust, unease, high anxiety.
Whether in California or Maine, the sense is that we have cracked our foundation, forces at work we hope are reversible when we think about them, but that threaten our future.
The response by traditionalists, those who are Trump, Reagan, Bill Buckley, Russell Kirk, or Edmund Burke conservatives, who rely on faith, family, freedom, and history for compass – is to trust in those exact things, faith, family, freedom, and history, ever more.
The response on the other side of the spectrum, the unanchored, less grounded, and those who are without faith, solace in family, fear of freedom, and misunderstanding history – is to seek security in ideology.
Old definitions of ideology are themselves getting old. If some of the lost, uneasy, and ungrounded crowd go for Marxism, more state power to make them feel better, others are not even that clear. They push with religious fervor single-issue concerns.
Into this pool of modern ideologies, based on abandoning reason, are unhealthy preoccupations or distractions, transgender promotion (no historical precedent), climate hysteria (oscillating between fear of freezing, boiling, and drowning), panic over measles, bird flu, plastics, UFOs, asteroids, closed borders, too little fraud, and too much freedom, now ironically called fascism.
These new ideologies, with the old ones, create zealous devotees, religious in nature. Absent faith in a loving God, focus on family, freedoms, and history, they tend to madness.
So, the main point: Lack of cohesion creates unease, taking people back to their faith or pitching them into this bucket of crazy ideologies, which are in evidence all around us.
Those without critical thinking, self-awareness, reflection on their many blessings, and trust in logic, default to ideology. Feeling they cannot control things, anxiety can evolve into hate.
While some might say that explains extremist behavior on both ends of the political spectrum, the rise of an increasingly violent left is far more common, now dangerous. A leftist is against all traditions, from faith to the rule of law, and anyone who abides by them.
The danger now is that, as the greater population returns to “normal,” wants an accountable, solvent government, secure borders, security, and peace of mind in faith, family, and limited government, ideological devotees get more radical.
They feel a compulsion to defend the ideology, especially if guilty of irreversible damage – such as hurting a child with transgenderism, terrifying children over climate, or the like. Backing them up, in some cases, can be close to impossible. That is dangerous.
Where does all this lead? How do we fix this? To get back to cohesion, a healthy, educated, self-determining society with compassion, resiliency, and mental health, we need to go back to the source – faith, family, freedom, and history.
Thoughtful, grounded, well-educated social cohesion, where individuals are self-determining and self-reliant, is comforting, offers confidence, not fear, affirms history, and produces far less anxiety. Unease is replaced by restored confidence in neighbors.
Social cohesion, built around limited government and constitutional freedoms – is actually enormously comforting. It is also a politically stabilizing force, highly so.
Put differently, if people will return to what really matters – not social media obsession, personal jousting, comparative superficialities, but faith, family, and history, things stabilize. The question is: Can we get back there?
For me, I think we can. Our Founders believed we would get lost, need to occasionally find our way out of the forest to light, so gave us a flashlight: The Constitution. We need to teach respect for it, go back to it for guidance, and then live it out, teaching in the process.
Some try, others resist the light. They prefer dwelling in a dark spot, adhering to one or another corrupt, anti-individual, anti-liberty ideology. Education is surely needed.
Can we survive this storm? Yes, if we can get back to faith, family, and appreciation for America’s liberty-loving history. Then, social cohesion and sanity return. Can we do that? We have to. Liberty binds us, protects us, and keeps us cohesive. Complex thought, simple answer.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
Read full article here