Reconciling Political Differences in the U.S. Appears Daunting

On a Zoom call earlier today an old friend made the point that dishonesty in American politics “goes both ways,” citing a lie that United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff (pictured) apparently told in connection to the Mueller Report in the days immediately before the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Neither I nor any of the other 10 – 12 participants on the call spoke up, but clearly we were all having the same thought: false equivalency.  Expecting absolute honesty from any individual politician or his party in general is like expecting your dog to speak French, but an occasional lie is hardly comparable to four years of constant disinformation, highlighted by a president whose documented lies and misleading statements topped 22,000.

So where does this go from here?  We still have 70 million people who think Trump did a great job, many of whom believe the election was stolen from him by a band of socialist fraudsters.  Biden talks about rapprochement, and that’s certainly a good tone to take, but by what mechanism can Trump supporters be reconciled with the rest of us?

Biden received less than 51% of the vote, and for good reason nobody on either side sees this as a mandate.  This country looks just as polarized today as it was last week.