The Great Divide

On January 6th, a protest by Trump supporters turned into a riot. During the months before Black Lives Matter protesters rioted destroying property. The police did what they could, sometimes too much so and on January 6th, too little. Conspiracy and anger abound. There are too many armed people in this country. Militant groups continue their vigilant conspiracies while the poor point out injustices and CEO’s of banks walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses after committing fraud. Trump and his administration continued the work of the Republicans since Reagan of dismantling the government. The ineptitude of government officials in the last four years was atrocious, it was criminal. And yet the great divide is still defined politically.

This is not a political divide.

This is not an ideological divide.

This is an economic divide.

If this were a political divide then we could discuss policies that would be based upon a common good. If this were an ideological divide then we could discuss the validity of arguments, the strength of evidence. But there is no common good that is defined politically or economically. There is only the common good that we as citizens define, and this is not defined by the ticker tape numbers that flash across screens all across this country. There is Wall Street and there is the rest of us. There is what is good for Wall Street and what is good for the rest of us. There is political ignorance and ideological fear. These things simply feed the need for violence. Guns give the illusion of safety and power. God gives the illusion of purpose and justice. Greed causes wars and Wall Street profits from those wars.

The great divide is a three-part meritocratic tool, a wedge. The great divide is the result of guns, god, and greed.