American Polarization: Will Consensus Ever Be Possible?

Look into the future a bit. The 2008 Presidential elections could be the most polarizing elections this nation has had since President Lincoln was elected to Office in 1860.

Here we are in America so polarized relating to the social and cultural path we should embark that winners are based on which two major Parties get their dedicated legions to the polls. Typically the angriest base turns out to make their point.

My own voting record even reflects my intuition on how America votes. I was raised in a moderate to liberal working poor household that typically voted Democratic. In turn by the time of my High School days I had swung to the Left with fringe utopian ideas. I was not really a Marxist (that would have treasonous in my day); however I definitely had socialist visions of a better society stewarded by secular humanism.

My voting awareness emerged during the Nixon (R) White House years and the Vietnam War. I was righteously indignant that a man with such power would be involved in illegal activities that actively were intended to get the dirt on Democratic Party opposition Candidates – Watergate. Further more America’s only non-elected President – Ford – gave a full Executive Pardon to Tricky Dick Nixon. Thus in my first eligible election I voted for Jimmy Carter. I voted for a man I believed would bring moral clarity and leadership to America’s highest Office of the Presidency.

I guess I can credit Carter to my eventual slow swing to Conservative Christian Right Republicanism. However the swing was not swift. Carter was a wishy-washy President that changed policy as the wind would blow. I became extremely disillusioned with the Democrat Party.

Carter’s reelection came up in 1980. Carter’s opposition candidate was Ronald Reagan. With a little latent Left Wing peacenik still resident inside me, I was horrified that the Republican alternative to ding dong Carter was a man with a reputation of a potential WMD button pushing war monger. I voted Libertarian in 1980. The Libertarians fascinated me with their fiscal Conservativism and Social Leftism.

The 1980’s became a time of transformation for me. It was a time of Salvation. I forsook immoral living and exchanged it for faith in the Redemptive life of Christ.

As I joined the Christian Right, Ronald Reagan began to look more and more the hero rather than the war monger. I have been hooked on the Republican Party ever since. (I have to admit I did not for George H.W. Bush, in my mind he was to connected with the Nixon Administration. The third Party candidate Ross Perot was my man.)

I voted for Bush One at his reelection moment. I viewed Clinton as everything that opposed Christian morality in America.

I voted for Bush Two because he reached to connect with the Christian Right.

If you examine my voting history, you will notice it is polarized politics. America’s voting history in the late 20th Century and early 21st Century is a battle of Christian morality versus Secular Humanistic morality.

I spent all this time looking at the politics of polarization to get here. Here is I have read an interesting blog essay by Michael Barone.

Barone starts out writing about a speech he attended in which Karl Rove was the main speaker. I will not go over Barone’s insights on Rove. The thing I found interesting was Barone’s segue from Rove to the “Third Way.”

Barone is talking Mayor Bloomberg of New York City seriously thinking of a run for the Presidency. Barone suspects if the conditions are right, Bloomberg’s run will be as an Independent candidate.

This is where it gets fascinating. Barone thinks an Independent candidate may alleviate the polarization that exists in America. The implication is that if an Independent were elected to President, then much needed reforms will be easier to find consensus for solutions. The consensus could transform ideological barriers.

Just think of some politics that are extremely polarized in America. Let us name a few: Abortion, Religion, Homosexual Marriage, Government Deficit, Social Security, Medicare, Health Insurance, Views on National Security, Immigration and so on. This is hardly an exhaustive list, however imagine if some or all of these issues could be tackled by and Independent President.

Am I dreaming? Probably. However I am a man of faith thus I can believe.