Politics has a reputation as being emotionally charged and divided among partisan lines. Republicans naturally despise Democrats and the same can be said of Democrats with the Republicans across the aisle. It’s perfectly natural for voters to go to the ballot box and straight up and down check the candidates based on the the letter next to their name. We’ve reached a point of shallow, but polarizing politics. The problem with this occurring is it has real world consequences.
Winning the majority in Congress isn’t like the National Football League season and missing the Super Bowl. Missing the finish line isn’t as simple as walking away in disappointment, but knowing it’s just a game. Similarly, backing bad players and terrible personalities simply because they’re on your team isn’t like it is in sports. Putting bad people in office because they share your political party can have bad consequences.
But politics is treated a lot like such.
Now the politics of division is costing us the very foundation this country stands on. First it started with the attack on the Second Amendment. Predictably, politicians resort to their own bullying of their opponents. Democrats mock Republicans, claiming they don’t care because they disagree politically and pray to a God they don’t believe in. Such a political response escalates tensions and pushes the parties further away from each other.
Republicans make the same mistake when it comes to protesters and related movements on the left. When a leftwing activist gets arrested for merely voicing their opinions and making a show without actually committing a crime, the right celebrates. If a liberal is arrested for merely yelling at police officers, waving a sign, and making a scene, is he committing a crime?
There comes a point in society where we have to admit that bad precedent affects us all.
Martin Luther King Jr. was put on a watchlist because he was a suspected communist. Given where we were at against the Soviet Union, who wanted to take the risk on being taken down or over? The same is said about terrorism now. But the treatment of King, as well as what other Civil Rights leaders experienced, is contrary to the principles of freedom. But out of fear, the use of the watchlist became accepted.
Now decades later, it is being used to deprive second amendment rights.
What if there became a point where free speech is ruled a terrorist act? It’s certainly plausible. Many claim certain firearms should be banned purely because the Founders never intended for them to be protected under the Second Amendment. They only planned for muskets. On that same note, the Founders also only planned for printing presses and tavern talk. Should blogs and social networks be banned? Should there be universal background checks before you can post a status update to Facebook or upload a picture to Instagram?
One may think guns and speech are different, and they are. But the precedent is the same. If you allow one part of the Bill of Rights, a document designed to restrain the government and protect the people, to be compromised, the rest will follow. If the left picks and chooses by disregarding the Second Amendment, they will lose the First. If the right picks and chooses by disregarding the First Amendment, they will surely lose the Second.
Don’t let the parties divide you. Be Independent and protect all of the Bill of Rights, at all costs.
