“When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains–however improbable–must be the truth.” –Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It occured to me last evening that the recent and entirely unprecidented low level in our civil discourse must have its roots in something that is itself entirely unique and unprecidented. Of course, we have seen partisan bickering and remarkable coarse, non-constructive retorical styles and methods in our past, but the complete disfunctional nature of the current conversation in the public marketplace of thought is something else. Regrettably, I think this new low is based in something that is entirely too well known and in fact ancient; it is prejudice.
There are those, and I know many, that cannot accept the very fact of our current President. It is beyond their experiential capability to get their arms around the fact of his Presidency. When you hear things like “Take back our country” and “Return us to the country that I knew,” comments such as these are reflecting a paradigm that will not allow for the elevating of such an individual to such a high position; not when that individual represents so many of the fears and prejudices that are at the very nature of that paradigm.
In electing our current President, we took a great leap, but we only began a new phase in an old story. The silent masses elected him, but the vocal minority cannot accept the outcome. The very concept of him succeeding in his role threatens too many of their core beliefs. It is encumbant upon them, based on all they know and hold dear, to make sure he cannot be successful. That is what we are seeing now.
Why Eye Write 