It’s time to occupy No Man’s Land.
While we’re focused on the national debt, policy, and the Supreme Court, we’re blind to the legacy of hatred and anger we are building for the next generation.
America faces important issues in the days to come and some carry life-and-death consequences. But our voluntary presence inside ideological trenches presents a danger all its own, and continued division will contribute to the downfall of this nation. Start here to find out why prolonged discord is dangerous, and how civil discourse can heal the nation. Or use the links below to learn about the players in America’s political system.
The Juggernaut
The Republicans and Democrats have cobbled together a two-party system that insulates them against solving meaningful problems; each party simply has to convince voters that the other party is more dangerous and more sinister.
The Kingmakers
The Commission on Presidential Debates unilaterally decides who participates in debates by establishing the criteria for qualification, and it hasn’t allowed a third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992.
The Town Criers
The media fills its 24-hour news cycle with divisive stories, largely in response to the kind of content people watch most. By choosing to cover certain candidates and ignore others, the media perpetuates the two-party system and helps exclude outside voices from the political conversation.
The Foot Soldiers
American voters have willingly climbed into political trenches without realizing that the dangers inside the bunkers are as great as the dangers outside them. Many of the people they love reside in the opposite trench or in the middle ground between the two trenches, but hyper-partisanship keeps them from engaging.
The Power Brokers
Big corporations prop up the American political system with donations – both public and private – in exchange for legislation and decisions that benefit their business interests. They are shaping the political system into a self-serving machine that leaves voters behind.
We must choose our version of hard.
Keeping up with politics and taking an active role in the process is hard. Discussing politics with your friends and family is hard. Trusting politicians is hard. And finding a candidate who represents your interests is really hard.
In contrast, washing our hands of politics is easy. Writing off the people on the other side of the political aisle is easy, too. And believing the system is impossibly broken is especially easy, because all evidence suggests it’s true.
But choosing the easy path will result in a different set of hard things:
Accepting that politicians will continue to choose party over people. Recognizing that those with the most money wield the most influence in the current political system. And seeing the toll that the ongoing division is taking on the nation, and its communities and families.
Start here to learn more about hyper-partisanship, who benefits from it, and alternatives to political trench warfare.
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Navigate on your own
Follow the links as you navigate around the site, or start from this page to access the content on your own… start here.
Join the effort
Keeping up with politics feels hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Resolve to stay engaged in the process and stay informed about what’s happening… start here.
Contact me
Share your ideas and suggestions, because this project gets more interesting as more people engage and collaborate… email me..
“… if [danger should] ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.“
Abraham Lincoln,
Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
January 27, 1838
Between the Trenches 