As much as I would love to see the American political parties meet in the middle and choose compromise, I’m afraid we are in a political abyss. One in which we may never get out of.
Polarization has a grip on the people of America like at no other time I can remember in my 65 years. The country is clearly split down the middle with a small faction of independents and disgruntled party constituents deciding the outcome’s of our elections.
Although the process has been ongoing for many years, I truly believe that the biggest culprit of our current times is the advent of social media as well as the partisan television media .
Social media and the internet have changed our world and our society in ways that are contributing to the unrest and instability of society based on spreading fear and hatred.
The television and radio media are driving the misinformation machine based on party affiliation and demographic location.
Things will only continue to get worse unless we as individuals do all we can to hear and see both sides of the story.
You can not make a educated decision about the truth or lies of who is doing what and why based on singular information intake.
I am an independent and more liberal as opposed to a right wing conservative. Therefore I was more apt to take information in that only reflected my views.
I have to actively and constantly force myself to watch all of the cable news shows. Believe it or not it gave me a more balanced and fair idea of what was being pushed by each outlet.
If everyone took an interest and honestly used this approach it would at least give people both sides of the story and not just the constant beat of a singular drum.
Only then can we become united again.
Only then can we demand that all of our representatives have our best interest in mind .
Charlie Rudy
West Milford