I remember the first time I heard this mantra. About five years ago, I got into a discussion with a couple of co-workers about politics. Contrary to what many of you may think, I generally avoid discussing politics in the workplace. Not much good can come of it.
The reason I got into this discussion was what one of my co-workers said. He said “Republicans are evil”. I was taken aback by such a strident statement. Not that someone would be critical of Republicans. But that someone would use such moralistic language to not just criticize policies emerging from a political party or ideology, but to question motives.
So I asked one of my co-workers. “Wouldn’t you agree though that both Republican and Democrats, conservatives and liberals want the same thing? They just have different ways to get there.” I was expecting him to back down and agree and then explain why he disagreed with Republican policies. Instead he proclaimed again “No, Republicans are really evil. They only want bad things. They want to oppress people.”
Now I know that this phenomena of proclaiming one’s political opponents to be the spawn of Satan is nothing new. However, this attitude has waxed and waned during the course of history, especially American history. And I would argue that our country is at its worst when this view is in ascendency, regardless of the ideology that holds it.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.