Democracy is tearing us apart

Police tape is seen near a Cartier store on Rodeo Drive, the world renowned shopping street in Beverly Hills, California, which is boarded up and closed to vehicles and pedestrian traffic as a precaution against possible violence on US election day. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP)

A good test of your political sanity is to see if you can think of a reason to vote for the other guy. Try it. We all have our preferences. Most of us make up our minds before the campaigns start. But it’s still a worthwhile exercise. If you can’t think of a single reason, ask yourself why. The answer may surprise you.

Americans live in a big, boisterous, divided nation of red states and blue states, Democratic precincts and Republican strongholds. It can be easy to assume the worst of those who live far away. Miami to Seattle is a 3,300-mile drive. Paris is closer to Moscow than San Diego is to Boston. We used to think that the values that united us were more powerful than the distances that divided us. Do we still?

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The plywood boards going up on windows in Democratic cities’ downtown shopping districts suggest we don’t. The expectation that this week’s losing side will take to the streets should inspire a national examination of conscience. We say we are one nation, indivisible. It seems less true that it did 30 years ago.

People board up the White House Gifts store, three days before the election. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

Perhaps it’s human nature to divide ourselves into teams. The factionalism that Washington warned about in his Farewell Address may be an impulse sharpened by evolution: It’s a jungle out there. There’s strength in numbers. Elections are binary. It’s us or them.

This time around it feels like we’ve ventured a little further into that wild frontier than we should. Presidential historians tell us that elections have often turned nasty, but not in our lifetimes. Not like this. Trump is a racist. Biden is corrupt. Pence is a theocrat. Harris is a socialist. Why would any sane person vote for any of them? It’s a fair question. We might do well to ponder it honestly.

If the fate of the republic is on the ballot every four years, as the polemicists always insist, we may not be as indivisible as advertised.

I drove this weekend through Westchester County, N.Y., and Fairfield County, Conn. These are some of the richest ZIP Codes in the country. I saw nothing but Biden-Harris and Black Lives Matter signs from Chappaqua to Ridgefield. In the considerably less affluent neighbourhoods of the northern Bronx and Yonkers fly a fair number of Trump flags.

It doesn’t compute. Immigrants for Trump? Rich people for higher taxes? How can it be? Everything is possible in America.

A man walks past a boarded up Wells Fargo bank, in Washington. Picture: Andrew Cballero-Reynolds/AFP

One thing you can say for sure is that our politics are a mess. Everyone’s trying to make sense of things the best they can. Some vote their pocketbook. Some vote their conscience. Some vote for the candidate. Some vote against him.

Can you imagine being friends with someone who votes for the other guy? Could you stomach a thanksgiving dinner at the same table? I fear that, for too many Americans, the answer to these questions is no.

Elections are about drawing distinctions. Candidates win by convincing voters the other guy is not only wrong but a lowdown, lying, dirty dog. It can’t possibly be true. Not all the time.

Maybe you can’t think of a good reason to vote for the other guy. Maybe you think anyone who votes differently than you deserves to be punished. If so, consider the possibility that you’ve lost sight of what it means to live in a land of liberty and justice for all.

I know how I’m voting. I have my reasons, just as you certainly have yours. When the counting’s done, let’s see if we can remember what it is we’re supposed to have in common.

The Wall Street Journal