Jon Reisman

The increasing violence, protests, and division in the country have created a dangerous dynamic whereby policy decisions and events are perceived quite differently across the tribal political spectrum. Division is both a cause and a consequence, and there is often an amplifying feedback loop that increases the division even more. 

The latest example is Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, but the same was true of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Recent flash flooding is another example. The perceived cause was climate change, government inaction, Republican obstructionists and flat earthers, and/or Providence, depending on political tribal membership and media consumption habits. Pick and endorse as many personal truths as your oppressed status allows.

The divisions and differences are also amplified by the media’s increasing lack of credibility and the lack of a nationally shared narrative. There’s no respected, credible, and America-loving Walter Cronkite speaking to most of the country. A significant portion of the left hates capitalism and the U.S. as it is currently constituted. Sixty years ago, as the country writhed with similar political and demographic divisions over war, peace, drugs, the counterculture, and destiny, Barry McGuire released Eve of Destruction (https://youtu.be/qfZVu0alU0I) by P. F. Sloan. It is eerily relevant and on point:

The eastern world it is explodin'

Violence flarin', bullets loadin'

You're old enough to kill but not for votin'

You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'

And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin'

But you tell me over and over and over again my friend

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?

And Can't you feel the fear that I'm feeling today?

If the button is pushed, there's no running away

There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave

Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy

But you tell me over and over and over again my friend

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'

I'm sittin' here, just contemplatin'

I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation

Handful of Senators don't pass legislation

And marches alone can't bring integration

When human respect is disintegratin'

This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'

And you tell me over and over and over again my friend

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Think of all the hate there is in Red China!

Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!

Ah, you may leave here, for eight days in space

But when your return, it's the same old place

The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace

You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace

Hate your next door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace

And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Talking to my sons (both considerably to the left of me) has left me convinced that divisions are deep, dangerous, difficult to dismiss, dismantle, or deal with. Failure to deal with this dilemma could well lead to civil war, but dealing with it may do so as well. My best policy and political prescription: listen harder and with an open mind and heart to fellow Americans across the political spectrum, and demand and reward leadership that seeks to bridge our divides rather than magnify them.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].