America has always been a country of intense division and passionate politics. Living in a country as large and diverse as ours, stark political fault lines are inevitable. Your leadership matters. The stakes are always high. But we as a nation have long played a very dangerous game that nearly led to the assassination of a leading presidential candidate. That game is dehumanization.
At some point, our political debates were no longer about issues, policies, and competing visions of the nation, but became exercises in demonization. The politics of personal destruction went from rare to commonplace. Why would anyone be surprised by an assassination attempt on former President Trump, who for almost a decade has been compared to Hitler and demonized as a “threat to democracy”? Think about it. Trump and his supporters have been attacked as a threat to the very fabric of our nation. It was only a matter of time before someone started to believe the rhetoric.
We have lost the ability to disagree without demonizing each other. The default in our politics is to hit rock bottom, and political leaders of both parties are both perpetrators and victims of this. Calling your political opponent Hitler or accusing someone of committing genocide (as some on the far left are doing in their vulgar “Genocide Joe” attack on President Biden) sets you on a path that can ultimately lead to only one outcome:
We cannot allow our political differences, however passionate, to take away from our humanity. If politics are more important than the people, then we are missing the point. Politics should not be about pursuing power for power’s sake. It should be about serving the people and seeking power because you believe your vision is in the best interest of the country.
Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images
By divine providence, America escaped disaster yesterday. The country was inches away from total collapse. If the assassination attempt on former President Trump had been successful, it would have been a clear data point for millions of people that, rightly or wrongly, the fight at the ballot box is no longer enough. And what happens after that? Who really wants to see a country where half the population, regardless of who they support in this election, has lost faith in the whole experiment? Where do we go from there?
My friend, the political commentator Kira Davis, often says it’s hard for the country to come together because “no one wants to give up their right to be insulted.” There are plenty of examples of the right being met with hateful rhetoric from the left, and vice versa. But at some point, we all have to ask ourselves whether we love our country more, or our right to be insulted.
Everyone is responsible for this problem: Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, progressives, the media, everyone. We, as a collective, have forgotten that people are more important than politics. Donald Trump is not just a billionaire or a former president. He is a human being with a wife and a family.
Dehumanization is very dangerous because it disturbs conscience. It allows people to commit heinous acts without remorse because the volume of their ideology is so loud that it drowns out the conviction of the still, small voice inside. When you dehumanize people, this is the natural outcome.
After 9/11, our country came together. We remembered that what unites us is much more important than what divides us. And that lasted for a while. Eventually, that feeling faded and we stopped seeing each other as fellow Americans. We started seeing each other as sworn enemies again. The assassination attempt on former President Trump was another incident that shook the country. People are talking about the need to come together again and ease tensions. Do we really believe that? Or will this feeling also fade over time?
As a proud American and descendant of slaves, I often say, “We may have come here in different boats, but we are all in the same boat now.” The success or failure of this American experiment will have a profound impact on all of our lives. We have one more chance to move in the right direction. Let’s act before it’s too late. You can disagree passionately, but please stop dehumanizing.
Darvio Morrow is CEO of FCB Radio Network and co-host of The Outlaws Radio Show.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
