In Social Political Discussions The Sounds of Silence
By
Leonard Zwelling
We were recently having dinner with friends and a subject that has come up a lot came up again. It was not so much politics. It was the fact that they, like us, do not enter into political discussions with people they do not know well. Such discussions are far too likely to degenerate into hostile encounters. I am afraid that is what American political discourse has become. As a nation, we probably have not been so divided since the Civil War, and politics is being fueled by social media, which in turn is laden with bad information.
A lot of people think this is a new phenomenon brought to us by Donald Trump beginning with his descent down his escalator and the birther movement against President Obama, but if you think back to the Clinton vs. Gingrich fights of the 1990s, you realize we have been building up to this all along.
I think there have been some significant changes though.
Chief among these is the internet’s power to disseminate misinformation at lightning speed and the relatively poor job the mainstream media has done filling the void. Just watch the NBC Evening News. The stories are done in abbreviated form and always end with a feel good bit of nonsense that has no bearing on real news. And is the weather in California really national news? I don’t think so.
Is it any wonder that X, TikTok, and Instagram have supplanted The New York Times as a major source of news for many Americans.
When this is combined with a President-elect who has decided to begin running the country before his inauguration and proposing to do so with people unqualified for their appointments, yet an American populace hungry for change, you get a lot of confusion, hundreds of opinions, and uncertainty about where to find the truth.
Given that, when you sit down to dinner with people you do not know well, it is best during these uncertain times to discuss something other than how you voted and the plans of the incoming administration.
I do not remember a time in my life when so many have avoided talking about the way they feel about the government and what the future is likely to hold. What I am sure of is that at least half the country is deeply worried about what the other half thinks and what the incoming administration will do. The great unsaid concern is that Mr. Trump gets all those he appointed into place, and a crisis ensues in the arena of one of these unprepared departmental secretaries. Then what?
Mr. Trump may well find that he has to manage the challenge himself. He may find that the very people he left out of this iteration of his administration, those he dismissed four years ago, may be the very people he needs by his side today.
I hope not, but I’ll stay silent. For now. LOL!
