Of politics and going dark

Luka: She might not know the price of eggs or the implications of tariffs, but she's pretty cute and will continue to be on my social media feeds.

If you read the headlines, you know it’s been a tumultuous few days in the land of the red, white, and blue.

Talk of trade wars.

Repatriated citizens caught in limbo.

An announced pause to federal grants and loans.

The apparent knee-capping of federal science research.

The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico/America.

Not to mention a certain celebrity/businessman/presidential advisor’s incendiary remarks to a German far-right party days before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

I could go on, but it’s already been a bit much. Rehashing it in my writing makes my stomach hurt. As someone who doesn’t do well with change in general, the past week has me questioning so much about people’s values and willingness toward humanity.

I have friends on both sides of the aisle in U.S. politics. Some have conservative, faith-based beliefs. Some are pretty liberal and tend to take a worldview of today’s issues.

When my father was alive, his cowboy conservatism and watching of Fox News often led to many heated discussions with me.

Now that he’s gone, I think back to how deeply he felt those convictions, his reasons for his beliefs. I don’t relate to most of them but seeing how deeply he felt what he felt, I can understand why we have such polarization in this country and around the world.

I’ve been told: ‘We’re not as divided as we think.’

I’d like to smile and nod at this notion. However, as Barbara Walter, an American Civil War historian, wrote in her book, How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them, when measured against a checklist of factors that can lead to war, “The United States … has entered a very dangerous territory.” She added: “We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe” because of political extremism, cultural tribalism, the acceptance of conspiracy theories, the proliferation of militias, and the erosion of faith in government and democracy.

That’s a real bummer of a checklist but bears out my point that we are a deeply divided country waking up to the headlines I mentioned earlier.

Days before the 2024 election, I listened to former Rep. John Kasich of Ohio tell a news reporter: “Our country is very strong.”

I sure hope he’s correct but I’m already seeing a change that frightens me.

People leaving social media platforms rather than engaging in conversations that might bring us a bit of clarity for one another. In essence, people shutting down.

I know it can be daunting, no matter which side of the political fence you’re on, but please don’t go dark.

A December 2024 AP poll found that about 7 in 10 Democrats and about 6 in 10 Republicans say they are stepping back from political news following last year’s election.

For me, a former journalist, those are some stark numbers.

Change is frightening. Change we don’t understand or endorse can be doubly so. Still, I’m going to keep reading those headlines and talking about what I care about.

I’ll also post a few photos of my dogs now and then when I just can’t talk about what’s happening around us.

My sweet monsters are blissfully unaware of the price of eggs or the implications of tariffs. That said, they also don’t have thumbs. They can’t cast a ballot.