Our nation today seems unnaturally divided, sometimes even at the dinner table. Over 163 years ago, we had a civil war, largely premised on the issue of slavery, but the nation ended that dreadful practice, although cultural differences persisted. What divides us today, often around the dinner table, is partisanship, which by some interpretations has morphed into cultism.
I liken this hyper-partisanship more broadly to a need to belong to something, like teams, cliques or even gangs. Policies have seemingly become less important in these circumstances. A well-known cliché reminds us of our possible foibles: “My team, right or wrong, my team.” In the upcoming presidential debate this week, we could see further evidence of unfortunate zeal overcoming common sense.
Both sides, in varying degrees, have tended away from specific domestic and international policies, sticking instead to broad-brush outlines or talking points. This could change in the debate, but it’s feeling more like it’s about the personalities of the candidates. Some say the Republican Party is now the party of Trump, not what the party classically epitomized. The Democratic Party, some say, in this election cycle is more about creating the historical occasion of electing a woman, and a woman of color at that.
When America’s politics are more about personalities or icons, or when elections are more about being blue or red than getting serious about solving our 21st-century problems, then the great American experiment, “the shining city on the hill,” grows dim. That allusion is attributed to Ronald Reagan, who also said in his farewell address to America in 1989, “We must also continue to work together to lessen and eliminate tension and mistrust.”
“I’ve spoken,” Reagan went on to say, “of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace… and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.”
Reagan continued, “The image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical one — a small story about a big ship, and a refugee, and a sailor. It was back in the early eighties, at the height of the boat people. (Here Reagan was referring to people fleeing the North Vietnamese invading Saigon in the late 1970s) And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. (This story came from one of the sailor’s letters.) The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, ‘Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man…’ We stood, again, for freedom.”
The American spirit, reflected in this message, is at risk in America today. That’s what worries me.
As I think about this, my mind wanders to find a place to start, the etiology of it all, what is it that is pulling us apart. I’ve lived in many places: San Francisco; Berlin, Germany; New York City; Washington, DC; Alexandria, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; Columbus; and now Hillsboro, Ohio. In all of these different places, I found things that everyone had in common. People want to be respected, not bullied, intimidated or demeaned. People want to be liked and appreciated for who they are. They all have ambitions to be successful. They all want access to good and affordable healthcare. They all want to have a job that pays a living wage. They all want to have the realistic opportunity to one day have their own home, even if it’s a modest home. They all want to live a life in peace and harmony. They all want to live with an independent sense of dignity.
America has plenty of enemies and adversaries in the world today, nations and global leaders who disdain what we stand for and what we have accomplished. The last thing we need is to be our own worst enemies, or more irreverently, our own circular firing squad.
Look, politics can be a rough sport, but we need to remember to keep it clean and truthful and within the “family.” When outsiders try to inveigle their way into our family business, it’s time to tell them to butt out, and not let them try to influence our politics and our family business. In this day and age, it’s not uncommon for our families to be of different political persuasions. We can agree to disagree, but at the end of the day, we aspire to love each other to keep the family together. That’s what binds us as a nation. That’s the principle that will help us to change attitudes away from self-affliction.
Since I’ve brought Ronald Reagan front and center in this column, let me end with one more of his related pieces of wisdom.
“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
Bill Sims is a Hillsboro resident, retired president of the Denver Council on Foreign Relations, an author and runs a small farm in Berrysville with his wife. He is a former educator, executive and foundation president.
