Matters of Church and State

CAN’T WE ALL GET ALONG

          Many of us can still recall that poignant appeal by Rodney King, the African American whose savage beating by four L.A. policemen 20 years ago was videotaped and shown over and over on television across the country and around the world.  King made the appeal after the policemen were acquitted, triggering riots that claimed the lives of 53 persons and massive destruction of property in L.A.

          Jonathan Haidt opens his thought-provoking book, THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: WHY GOOD PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED BY POLITICS AND RELIGION, with that phrase and King’s follow-up comment that is particularly pertinent to today’s bitterly divided political situation: “Please, we can get along here. We all can get along.  I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while.  Let’s try to work it out.”

          Lovely thought which I fully ascribe to.  Theoretically.

As I read the book, I began learning more about my own political self-righteousness – feeling a bit guilty in the process -- and hopefully gaining a better understanding and appreciation of conservatives and where they are coming from.

            But, then I put the book down and I am thrust back into the real world where my new found patience and understanding bump up against conservatives in daily life and I am back to square one.  A few examples to illustrate my point:

·        A week ago, I was getting my hair cut by a Vietnamese women in Fairfax.  She had a picture of her family on the mirror.  I asked about them and she proudly talked about her daughter who is in college and the life she and her husband have built in America.  A professed conservative Christian, she talked about how hard she and her husband have worked to achieve this dream.  But, then she went off on a tangent against African-Americans who, she says, don’t work hard enough and that’s why they haven’t done better.  Really?

·        A few days later I am listening to C-Span Radio’s coverage of a Claire Booth Luce Policy Institute meeting.  Conservative Christian Star Parker is talking about how Liberal programs are antithetical to the Bible. In the bottomless grab bag of Scripture, she “found” a citation that proved that even the Liberal backed minimum wage saps the moral strength of America and violates the Scripture.  Moreover, abortion is wrong even in the case of rape and incest.  And, of course, she has a Scriptural example to “prove” her point there, too.  Really?

·        Next, my wife and I are staying at a B&B in Front Royal, Va., and my German born wife and the owner start discussing Germany.  In no time, he states that he is worried that this Administration is leading us into the same kind of political situation that led to Hitler in the 1930s.  Really?

·        We return home, I open Facebook, and a dear former colleague posts an item that invokes the same old tired conservative slogan: “Let’s take back America.”  Take it back to what and where?  The good old days?  Really?

   ·        Then, just today, I have lunch with a wonderful neighbor friend who was a nose gunner on B24s in World War II.  And he reminds me that he listens to Rush Limbaugh regularly.  Really?  I have a tough time reconciling those two: my highly intelligent neighbor and Rush Limbaugh who, in my opinion, is one of the all-time world class idiots.

  To be fair, we are all shaped by our moral intuitions and childhood upbringing, and conservatives find my political philosophy as repugnant as I find theirs.  I know because I hear from them pretty regularly.  Fair enough.  That’s what makes for political discussions and political campaigns.  But, it’s what also makes for political stalemate and deadlocked government.

So, back to my original point, the question still remains:  Can we all get along politically, as Rodney King implored us to do in a racial context?  Can we find enough common ground on key issues to move this country forward?

             I would like to think so – and there are periods of American history when we did, despite our political differences.  But, judging from my own strong feelings as a typical voter on the Left and from the political intransigence I sense from the Right -- plus the bitterly divided Congress which supposedly represents this great divide -- I am not sure that’s possible anytime soon, certainly not until after the November election.

But, then hope springs eternal.  Stay tuned.

Gerald E. Lavey