Depending on who wins the presidential election, immigration levels will rise or fall, tax rates will go up or down, and global conflicts may end, continue, or spread. But no matter what happens, retaining a degree of humility and grace about it is better than allowing political high season to destroy relationships with friends and family.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) reminded us of this last week after he was asked by News Nation’s Chris Cuomo how he would heal the country’s growing political divide. After mentioning the importance of talking to and taking questions from all audiences, including those that disagree with us, the Republican vice presidential candidate said, “If you’re discarding a lifelong friendship because somebody votes for the other team, then you’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake and you should do something different.”
“Whether you vote for Donald Trump, whether you vote for Kamala Harris, don’t cast aside family members and lifelong friendships,” Vance continued. “Politics is not worth it. And I think, if we follow this principle, we heal the divide in this country.”
Vance is right. If political parties and their adherents could cool their rhetoric and stop casting the opposing party as literally Hitler, there would be a better chance of achieving the unity that will be promised by whichever candidate takes the oath of office in January. To say so is an expression of continued hope, not something that can be expected with any confidence.
Vice President Kamala Harris and the Left call former President Donald Trump a “fascist,” and Trump calls her a “far-left fascist” or a “Marxist communist fascist.” It doesn’t help.
But neither does it help when former first lady Michelle Obama gives a speech filled with falsehoods about women’s health and suggests a vote for the Republican Party is a vote against all women. Former President Barack Obama said recently, “I just, I don’t understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter,” but if he is actually curious, he should read his wife’s speech.
Michelle Obama claims all of women’s healthcare has deteriorated significantly since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and she even cites one case of a woman who was arrested after her baby died. But the truth in that unfortunate case is that it was prosecuted by a Democrat who said it had nothing to do with abortion law.
“So to the men who love us,” Michelle Obama continued, “please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown a deep contempt for us. Because a vote for him is a vote against us, against our health, against our worth.”
Unfortunately, this sort of fearmongering seems to be working. Nearly a quarter of Democrats say they are not friends with anyone who holds different political views than their own, up 14 points from 2016. For Republicans, the number is just 10%. While over half of Republicans (53%) say they have some friends who are Democrats, less than a third of Democrats (32%) can say the same thing. While 10% of Republicans say they have ended a friendship over politics, the percentage of Democrats who have done so is twice as high at 20%. No demographic group is more likely to end a friendship over politics than liberal women, with more than a third saying they have cut a person out of their lives because they held the wrong political views.
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This Saturday in Houston outside a campaign rally for Harris, a Trump voter brought his daughter in a stroller while he protested the Harris event. In a video that has since gone viral, a young white woman bypasses the man, leans over, and yells in the small child’s face that is just inches away. The spectacle was a grotesque emblem of the condition of our polity. Fortunately, other Harris supporters helped separate the crazed woman from the father as he picked up his daughter protectively in his arms.
The winner of this election will have significant powers to change big policies that matter. But that does not mean we should let frustration boil over and lose ourselves. Instead of indulging ill feelings toward people who disagree, instead of shouting at their children, consider walking away and using that same energy to better your own life. If we continue to let politics ruin our personal relationships, our nation’s political divide will get worse.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
