Okay. I have a theory.
In the midst of all the political maelstrom that is daily life here in 2017 America, I am always searching for the underlying fundamentals to explain the phenomena I am observing. And here is my theory:
America is a broken home.
To explain what I mean, I have this other theory (stolen from my brother) that the two main political parties have a kind of sexual polarity. Republicans represent masculine energy, and Democrats represent feminine energy. Just an example, Republicans (at least ostensibly) are all about independence, guns, rugged individualism, and so on. Democrats represent the ideas of nurturance: caring for kids, schools, old folks, and so on.
Up until the 80’s or so, while the two parties fought like cats and dogs (as many couples do), at the end of the day they would kiss and make up and make a deal. But when Newt Gingrich came along, well, this tempestuous relationship fell apart. The two energies became totally alienated.
I have yet another theory, that the sense of belonging is key to health and happiness. So, while the two political parties have always fought a lot, as a nation, we were still a family, however dysfunctional; and we, the average citizens, could at least feel like we were part of a collective family/ tribal/ national experience.
But now that mom and dad are divorced, we have had our essential and fragile sense of home destroyed. We are being forced to take sides, even though we really need to belong to both energies. This is throwing everyone off kilter.
When you read the cutting comments of otherwise sane people, either on facebook, or in a comment thread on a news site, and you realize that what you are reading is not a logical argument at all, but an expression of pain and fear at the rending of the two essential poles of socal fabric, it all starts to make sense. One can then more easily rise above the fray and keep a sense of calmness.
Bear in mind when parents divorce, they often try to turn the kids against the ex-spouse. That is what is happening here, on a grand scale.
