When it comes to politics in the United States, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates under former President Barack Obama said during a recent interview that he believes the extreme political polarization is the greatest threat the country faces.
Gates made these comments during an interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation” with host Margaret Brennan about the lackluster progress from Congress when it comes to the debt ceiling.
“I think it is the polarization in the country,” Gates said when asked what he thought was the greatest danger to the U.S. “We’ve always had polarization in America.
What’s been different, more recently, is not just a measure of paralysis, as indicated by the debt ceiling, but a level of meanness and a lack of civility among our politicians, or the sense that somebody who disagrees with you is not just somebody you disagree with, but is an enemy, is a bad person.”
What might have been a healthy difference of opinion between political parties in the past has now become an all-out battle of “my side vs. your side” mentality. And with the current Administration, the divide appears to be even greater.
It’s clear that the current President and his administration are failing to unify and lead this country as Democratic leaders should.
Rather than trying to reach across the aisle to find a compromise, Democrats seem content to divide the nation further by ruthlessly attacking Republicans and their ideals every chance they get.
It’s shameful and incredibly irresponsible. If Democrats sincerely want to unite the nation, this would be a good place to start.
Without some sort of bridge requiring parties to put their ideological differences aside, we’ll be stuck with an environment of hostility and distrust.
This environment is what prompted Gates to make this statement. He knew that allowing this type of environment to continue carries serious consequences and wanted to warn citizens about the dangers that come with allowing polarization to take hold.
The irony in all of this is that the candidate (Biden) who vowed to unify the country has nearly torn it apart with far-left agendas, insane spending habits, and broken border policies. Biden’s anti-American rhetoric has caused extreme damage within the US.
Having a President call law-abiding citizens ‘terrorists’ has to be one of the most damaging comments I have ever witnessed a president make.
Gates made it clear that while Republicans and Democrats will always have differences in opinion, they need to find better ways to work together. Gate recommends that political leaders should not “demonize people to disagree with them” as this only exacerbates the problems.
Ultimately, what Gates is trying to tell us is that in order to move forward as a country, differences of opinion need to be treated as differences of opinions and not as “us vs. them” battles. The current Administration and Congress need to understand this and start working together to keep the nation strong and united, instead of dragging it down into polarization.
