I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that endless political campaigning may be part of the problem. This incessant competition for control and anxiety over what’s at stake isn’t putting people in a frame of mind where they’re prepared to listen to one another and work out mutually agreeable solutions to our problems. The government barely governs anymore—an election is hardly over before the parties start working out what style of political theater will win the next election; they just paralyze each other. The more invested we become in who wins and controls what, the less it seems to matter.
I am not saying “Hey, let’s give this Trump guy a chance.” But rather, we need a long-term strategy that isn’t activating the other side’s lizard brain the way a four year-long political campaign would. This reminds me of WWI trench warfare — the generals on each side kept thinking that the solution was a bigger and more costly offensive. When the Germans finally did break the line it didn’t matter because their remaining troops were too exhausted to keep fighting.
Let’s not do that.
