How did we wind up with such a huge partisan divide?
Some of it as old as the advent of agriculture, where the use of land to produce larger amounts of food enabled some to not have to spend all their time in basic survival, and instead collect in cities. Rural interests versus urban interests is a division that has often split our politics.
But there our other factors as well. How we are raised, and our experiences in growing up, play a large role too.
After the election, I was deeply upset about how many people wound up voting for someone who was clearly unfit for public office, a fraud and charlatan, a self-centered man who deliberately appealed to the worst in us.
About a month after the election, I had a meeting about some investment concerns with somebody whom I deeply respected. It was clear that we were on opposite spectrums on the issues of the day. Could this be simply be explained by a rural vs. urban perspective?
I knew his father, and I respected him as well. Then I thought about the life experiences he had as opposed to my own with my father. And I realized there was something more going on.
My father started out supporting and managing a large family farm in Michigan. He was very successful at it, using modern techniques and science to out yield many similarly sized farms. He wanted to go to college, and even though his family responsibilities caused it to take ten years, he saw it through. He even got a summer job working at Kellogg's, the cereal company in Battle Creek, in order to earn money towards his schooling. He did so well that they offered him a management position to stay. He did not take it. There was something else he wanted to do. He wanted to be a teacher.
My father, who could have chosen to be anything, chose a lifetime of service in education, an exemplary record of contributions in the public sector. He was a phenomenal teacher, especially in motivating the underachieving and marginal student. He later became a school administrator, one of the best in the state, leading for a while a state organization of administrators. He was a forerunner in the use of computers in schools, and was beloved by students, parents and teachers.
I had before me a perfect example of how public service could work, of what it meant to be a great civil servant. Further, I could see the private forces working against him and the schools; the corporations that wanted favors, the wealthy and influential who wanted special privileges for their own children, the different religious groups who wanted their brand of theology imposed on the schools.
My father was an excellent, moral, hard-working man, who happened to believe in the public sector and gave his life to improving the lives of students and community.
My friend's father chose a different course. Just as caring and hard-working, his father devoted himself to work in the private sector, work designed to help many private business people do better. He approaches his job with the highest of ethics and principle, and believes in the efforts of those private endeavors. He saw the good they were doing, the contributions to their community, and the people they employed.
He also saw those efforts stymied by government regulation. He often dealt with government bureaucrats, who were sometimes indifferent and uncaring. He saw a world of roadblocks designed to interfere with private interest's ability to benefit themselves, their family, their employees, and their community.
Because of my father, and also my own experiences, I grew up respecting public servants, and a bit wary of some in the private sector. Because of my friend's experiences, he is wary of those in the public sector.
Both fathers are great and honorable men. Both served their community well, one in the public sector and one in the private arena. It led us to different conclusions as to what works, But coming to realize this, and where it contributes to our divide, I have a better hope that we can bridge it. For that is the way forward; public and private, rural and urban, wealthy and poor, working together for the betterment of all.
We need checks and balances. We need a mixed economy - pure ideologies of one kind or another do not work. We want to do what's best for everyone, solutions that allow both individuality and community to thrive.
I believe that, ultimately, that's what our fathers want.
I believe, that when we take the time to think about it, that's what we all want.
