The easiest thing in the world is to accumulate evidence supporting your hatred of another person in the political realm. At the same time it is almost impossible to imagine how you yourself became the devil other people hate. Yet, understanding ones own offenses is exactly what needs to be done here and at this time. This writer was in a political support role in most of his years in public service. Politicians can accomplish wonderful things for the public, and the common person on the street. All the great accomplishments of America have been bipartison. This writer has been to well deserved celebrations of good political outcomes hosted by generous yet no necessarily wealthy members of the American community. Of course that is how I like to remember my career. What is so hard for me to grasp is how I became the devil other people think they know. Yet I have.

The party currently in power are in power because they grasped the utility of cynicism and despair. They realized it is better to do nothing to help and lie as needed when the kitchen gets too warm. They promise things transparently unattainable and blame crimes and failures on the “other devil”. The other devil’s supporters meanwhile become implicated in the crimes and feel the need for the protection of people they now want to despise. Extortion protection a simple time tested strategy for coercive unity. This is also a double bladed knife and the minority party in this country is on the verge of falling into the same trap again by banking on their own devil rather than creating something new. Cynicism and despair work both ways. 

Taking it from the minority side, how did liberals become the “devil” the opposition thinks they know? Let’s look at an American classic we were all supposed to read in school. Hester Prynne in Hawthornes “The Scarlet Letter” was forced to wear the scarlet letter as a result of having a child out of wedlock. Her life was shaped by the cruelty of the judgement of community. Reflecting back I think I saw the minority culture making class, and demographics meta-forms of the scarlet letter blurring the dignity and detail of entire cultures in an effort to advance a cause. Harsh judgment alone caused an increment of votes to go to the other devil. Then of course the Epstein catastrophe was a bipartisan train wreck so another slice of the electorate calls hypocrisy and votes for the devil they knew. The failure on the borders was also a bipartisan disaster and again an even larger slice went to the devil the majority knew. 

Modest Suggestion for Good

Race, gender and class are all subparts of a larger collapsing building called Human Rights. Humans in the last half of the 20th century after Nuremberg received global human rights. The current administration has found the concept of global human rights to be profoundly inconvenient hence you see the injustices on the streets of America today. Good is dispensing with the harsh puritanical judgements of race, gender and class altogether and gathering under the larger tent of human rights, justice, democratic tolerance and love to create a new focus. Simple and naive you say. Yes, good is simple and possible, but naive is frequently in the eye of the cynical beholder. Cynicism is a fatal disease. Take a gamble on the possibility most people are tired of the repeating uninspiring skirmishes of the two devils making their fortunes off the current set of conflicts. Erect a new tent pole with open doors and a generous welcome. You will be amazed. That would be good.