Quick question – Do you agree with everything your party does and think that anyone who doesn’t espouse the same ideologies as yourself is evil, wrong, and shouldn’t exist? Then you might be living on the far side!

The far left and far right of the political spectrum is why nothing can get done today to better anyone’s situation in life, and those on the far left and right are to blame. While democracy is in fact, a good thing, it is horrific when you think that 51% of a country of three-hundred-million people, control the other 49% with their own ideologies, opinions, and thoughts. Meanwhile, neither the left nor the right will acknowledge a genuine problem with their far-end fringes, just each other. 

If you drive too far right, you go left, if you drive too far left, you go right!

This is partially due to people treating their political parties like favored sports teams, whereas their team is their team and can do no wrong, while the other team is full of cheaters, who exploit what they can to push their way to victory. Evidence of their political “team,” is tossed away and ignored, while the opposing team couldn’t breathe properly without it being exploited as much more than it is/was. 

Meanwhile, those who are mostly centrist and who lean slightly left or right, are seen as fence-sitters, insignificant, or like they are single-handedly destroying elections.

You MUST agree 100% of the time with everything your party/team does or says, or else you’re not really a part of that team. Take Bill Maher for instance, he’s a lifelong democrat well known for lampooning republicans in his comedy, but the minute he disagreed with something his own party said or added to their agenda, he was immediately labeled a republican shill. If you vote one way, you’re a racist xenophobe and if you vote the other way, you’re a Marxist communist who wants to destroy America… that sound familiar?

Politics used to be “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death Your right to say it” but now it’s “If you disagree you’re blocked, excommunicated from all friends we share, and will be canceled.” The echo chamber ensures no dissenting argument that might sway an opinion can be uttered and that everyone remains in their comfort zone, ungrowing, like a plant kept in darkness. Don’t get me wrong, hate speech, racism, xenophobia… those things genuinely expressed should be considered deplorable period, but today those words are losing their meaning from being flung towards anyone with a different viewpoint.

Everyone is a commie or fascist, everyone is seen under the guise of black or white, left or right, right or wrong, and compromise for the sake of everyone and not one side or the other, is seen as impossible. In reality… everything and everyone comes in various shades of grey with very few absolutes, albeit for the fringe ends of each political spectrum. If you wholly agree with a political figure and or party, without wavering, and you refuse to have friends or even basic discourse with those who stand opposite that ideology… I regret to inform you, that you’ve been indoctrinated into a political cult. 

American society sadly falls under the cult umbrella, where in every aspect of life, it’s my way of thinking, or the highway. I have seen literal ten-year marriages end in the last five or so years, parents and children refusing to speak or acknowledge one another’s existence, all due to politics. As adults, we should be able to entertain an idea, while not accepting it, we should be tolerant of all but the intolerant, and we should be able to have friends and family with views outside of our own.

How narcissistic does one have to be, to believe their own thoughts are absolute and finite regarding life and politics? How utterly inhuman does one need to be to demonize someone else, simply for having a different opinion or perception of the world? How self-centered are we as upright walking mammals, to think that because someone simply thinks differently, that they are wrong without a second thought?

Is this what everyone truly wants? Us versus them, our neighbors being the enemy, our family, and people we once cherished as friends, as our opposition? Can human beings as a species continue to thrive and evolve if we hate much more than we love?

… and what are we fighting over? A vote for one of two parties and which spokesmen of those parties want to screw us over less? In the end, we all get screwed over alike; black, white, yellow, brown, Jew, and gentile alike… because it isn’t us vs. them, this is a socioeconomic problem, not a neighbor problem. If the choice is to choose the lesser of two evils, I refuse to choose evil at all and instead I choose humanity, I choose my friends and family, my synagogue, and my neighbors.

I choose to help those in need of help, I choose small business over a conglomerate, and I choose to make life around me better, my community, and my neighbors, and to build up instead of punching down due to differences. I choose to feed a hungry child over a candidate that promises to do so for me, I choose to give to the homeless instead of hearing about future plans to help them for a vote. Make no mistakes, there have been few politicians in America for and of the people and many more for and of themselves!

So the next time you think about hating someone because they are different in thought or perception, ask yourself if you’d help them if they were dying or if you’d accept their help if you were dying. In the end, we are all we have, not the government, not your party, not your indoctrination… us… we, you, me, us. We are so much stronger together than we are apart…