Anger Management - Saving Democracy

The 2020 general election will be held in a few days and people seem to be reaching the point where they are angry about everything. I recently saw someone post a question online asking why are one side's supporters so angry. I thought it was a good question and I gave it some real thought, reaching a set of conclusions I believed were factual observations and were hopefully impartial.

Ha! I'd better think again!

I received a barrage of replies about my demeaning statements. Clearly, I'd hit a nerve even thought I tried to avoid doing so. Sadly, it seems there is very little communication happening -- definitely not occurring between the two party lines and now its apparent one can't even talk about possible causes for the great divide without insulting someone.

I'm a proud Independent Voter. I prefer to chose the best candidates regardless of their party affiliation. That used to work, but in the last 20 or so years its come to voting for the least bad candidates because there aren't any best choices. How did we get into this extreme opposition situation? Obviously this is a complex and difficult question to answer. None-the-less, I'm finding the very fundamentals of what I think being an American means have been shattered and I'm questioning if it can be put back together again.

People are very angry - anger is an emotional response. Emotions blind us to thinking logically. We are on the spiral path to the bottom once anger gets to the levels we are now seeing. Consider this...

There can be no logic when there is anger. 

Without logic, there can be no cooperation. 

Without cooperation, there can be no compromise. 

Without compromise, there can be no agreement. 

Without agreement, there can be no United States of America!

I know I've over-simplified this, but that is how I see things. It's a slippery slope we're on and together we need to find the break handle and pull hard, together to stop this thing we call our country from plunging out of control. I do think it's this simple. But it will be very hard to actually do.

I'm willing. Are you?