One Country

Well think we have achieve a level of divisiveness now that is unprecedented, at least in this country.

The main responsibility for this would be the president who despite talking about uniting the country has engaged in a series of petty tweets and attacks.

This is troublesome not because it is amateurish and childish, which it is, but because as the sides become more antagonistic it leads to escalation which can in the end threaten our very democracy.

Don't say it can't happen here, there is nothing about us that is different than everywhere else throughout history it has happened.

When the opposition is considered so vile and so beyond approach, well then everything goes.

The general belief that everyone is working for the common interest goes away and political opponents become the enemy who must be stopped.

It no longer becomes an issue about different approaches to common goals, the goals themselves are in question.

How to secure the nation becomes not just a discussion about the best approach but an attack on one side or the other as traitors.  We saw this with McCarthyism. 

We have started to fall into the world of propaganda and we see lies repeated over and over again as the "real" truth.

We see a loss of faith in our institutions, and a distrust of public officials.

When democracy is considered to have failed, the alternative is never good.

The first thing that we need to protect is our society and form of government.

Fight hard over the issues, but realize we are still a single nation that needs to continue our great traditions.