America damaged by tribalism, misinformation

I want to say “bravo” to Editor at Large Jay Jochnowitz for his column “Alienating us from each other,” Jan. 22. He has written my thoughts exactly.

I would add that a group of people who build their house on sand stand a chance of it sinking. The media, like Fox News, has allowed itself to be sucked into misinformation and hate speech. As we have seen in the lawsuit against them, they may pay a high price for their rhetoric.

Turning people against one another has opened the door to more hate crimes and mass shootings than we have ever before witnessed. Politics has evolved into a combat sport.

The good of the people is way off on the sidelines. Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said the country has become, “two separate tribes; with separate facts, and separate realities; with nothing in common except hostility toward each another.”

Governing cannot happen effectively when it is being transfused with hate, lies and misinformation. The infighting among Republican House members, the dishonesty of members like George Santos, and the trading away of our human rights by House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy, all in the name of personal power, makes me lose faith in the system.

In the past, we have had problems, but common ground usually could be found and solutions reached. Today, we are witnessing power-hungry selfishness. Congress is dysfunctional. Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and other right-wing extremists have a stranglehold on sensibility. Those who call themselves conservatives are in it for themselves, not for the American people.

What is the solution? Mary Perrin Scott

Delmar