‘We are losing our soul’
Robert Reich perfectly articulates why opposing political viewpoints aren’t automatically worthy of being deemed moral equivalents (“What civilization demands and why we fight for it,” May 5) if one supports a moral imperative to protect the weak from efforts to disenfranchise them, while the opposing side pursues that goal with unabashed enthusiasm.
The recently leaked Supreme Court memo has already emboldened states to crack down or eliminate abortion rights established 50 years ago, a right that impacts half the population of the U.S. It won’t be long before we are a collection of disparate states with uniquely held points of view so extreme as to cause dramatic shifts in population by those seeking refuge from hostile environments. (“If Roe v. Wade is ultimately overturned, Maryland must become a sanctuary state for abortion,” May 3.)
Eventually, states will simply start seceding from the union because they’ll challenge the outcome of an election that they disagree with, or lose interest in living in harmony with people who think differently than they do, or perhaps they favor a different form of religious expression. We are losing our soul.
We’ve allowed a belligerent ex-president to cause many of us to lose faith in an imperfect two-party system of government that had previously held our nation together even in difficult times.
The American principles of strength through unity AND diversity allowed us to break free from England and become a beacon to the rest of the world, but they are under attack. The willingness to compromise and to strive for moral exceptionalism despite our differences have historically brought out the best in us. We’ve been tricked into losing our desire to find common ground because finger pointing and campaigns of disinformation have been weaponized to do exactly that.
We have to fight back — but not through angry debate. We need to encourage more dialogue with our neighbors and friends, not to recycle the latest sounds bites, but to express our mutual concern that the price we are paying for the status quo is too high, and that we can still accomplish more together than will ever be able to as separate entities.