The Time Is Now: America Needs To End The Poisonous Personalization Of Politics

personalization of politics

I was in Washington for the Rally to Save America that President Trump spoke at on Wednesday.

I was honored to be there doing press for the organization that hosted the event, Women for America First. Hundreds of thousands of Americans peacefully gathered to have their voices heard.

The crowd was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my long political life. It was also the most diverse crowd I had ever seen at any Republican event.

Unlike a George W. Bush rally or a John McCain rally or a Mitt Romney rally, this event had white, black, and brown people, it had straight and gay, it had men and women, young and old, wealthy and working class, it was truly America’s melting pot.

I left that rally just as the President was finishing speaking, totally on Cloud Nine. The hundreds of thousands who had gathered had done so peacefully.

I left thinking this was the single most important political event that I have ever attended.

RELATED: Barack Obama Says Conservative Media ‘Ecosystem’ Is To Blame For Trump Supporters Storming Capitol

From High To Low

In the time it took me to walk from the Ellipse in front of the White House to my hotel just a few blocks away, I went from feeling like I was on Cloud Nine to feeling like I was trapped in some alternative universe hellscape. 

When I walked back to my room, I saw the images on TV.

At first, it appeared that protestors were simply marching up to the Capitol to demand that Congress hear them.

Very quickly it became clear that a handful of bad actors were going to take advantage of this moment to turn a peaceful protest into a disgusting display of violence and anti-American behavior.

What happened at the Capitol is absolutely inexcusable. Violence is never the answer. Period.

What happened in the wake of this inexcusable violence is also very, very wrong.

The mainstream media, the left, and far too many average Americans took the actions of a handful of criminals and attributed them not only the hundreds of thousands who had gathered peacefully – but to the 75 million Americans who voted for Trump.

None of this will serve to heal America, none of this will serve to quell the violence, and none of this will serve to end the divisions that are crippling our nation.

RELATED: Report: House Members Nearly Come To Blows As Congress Preaches Unity To America

How To Truly Heal America And Our Divisions

What will help? An end to the personalization of politics. Nothing has been more detrimental to the health of our political discourse and nothing has been more toxic than the personalization of politics in this country.

You don’t have to respect politicians, but you should respect your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, and your fellow countrymen who have different political views than you – even if they support a politician that you don’t respect.

What separates our great American experiment from the broken third-world regimes of the world is that political tribalism doesn’t become personal tribalism.

We can and should disagree strongly about the policies that will shape our future, however, those disagreements should not poison and destroy families, friendships and communities.

There are those on both ends of the political spectrum who benefit from the personalization of politics. They raise money off the disintegration of our country and they sell division. They are ghouls.

No one is guiltier than the American media. They are merchants of division. They believe that optimism doesn’t sell so they gleefully sell fear and hate.

RELATED: Federal Prosecutor Could Bring Criminal Charges Against President Trump For Capitol Violence

End The Personalization Of Politics

Sadly, we can’t expect the media or politicians to lead the healing of America. The good news is that we the people can do it. The day after the DC rally, I got into a heated on-line debate with a long-time friend of mine.

We have known and cared about each other for 20 years, but we deeply disagree about politics. Rather than simply burn our friendship to the ground, she texted me and asked, “do you have 10 minutes to talk?”

She FaceTimed me and we talked for probably half an hour.

We laughed, we disagreed, we reminisced, we even found common ground. She ended the call by saying, “why can’t more Americans do this?”

The truth is, we can.

is President of Right Turn Strategies. He is a contributor to The Hill, and a regular on the Kennedy... More about Christopher Barron

Mentioned in this article: