Recent events have taken their toll. I know I’ve not been immune to their effects; I’ve got two or three very angry essays written over the past few weeks that will probably never see the light of day, thanks in no small part to an over-narrow focus on the dishonest media feeding the flames, essays that ignored the real-world impact of the misinformation they spread. I suppose you could say I went through a period of “can’t see the forest for the trees.”

This blog is supposed to be about the political divisions in our country, and while the media plays a major role in it, so do our elected officials, and their non-elected power-broker masters.

Stoking the fires of division is what keeps them in power. Never mind that if we came together this country would once again be the world leader in virtually every area, instead of descending toward third-world status; were we allowed to do so it would mean we could see through their underhanded tactics and remove them from their positions of authority. They would much rather see the nation torn apart than lose their power.

“Divide and conquer” is a tactic that is thousands of years old, and as effective today as it was when we lived in caves.

That’s why the most recent calls for “unity” fall flat. After a generation and more of partisan rancor, after watching what damage extreme rhetoric does but continuing it anyway, we’re expected to embrace a call to come together in peaceful brotherhood?

Forgive me a bit of skepticism here, especially since the loudest calls for “unity” have come from the same people who also condemn all Republicans simply for being Republicans, part of the “party of Trump” or some other derogatory label, who want to hold them all responsible for the actions of a comparatively few extremists.

“Unity” doesn’t mean “acquiescence to me.”

They say there can be no unity without accountability. Well, there also can be no unity without forgiveness. And forgiveness is not forthcoming, not from either side of the aisle.

Don’t misunderstand me, that forgiveness should not extend to the perpetrators of the destruction and violence we have experienced this past year, nor to the people who incited them, urged them to smash and burn, to desecrate – and kill. Whether it happened in Milwaukee, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, or Washington DC, those people should have their day in Court and be held accountable for their actions.

It’s the American Way.

But for the thousands and thousands of other people who rallied, or marched, who plead their cases in peaceable assembly? That’s the American Way, too, and they deserve consideration and forgiveness even if you didn’t agree with their positions.

The fault for the bitter divisions related to the election can be laid squarely at the feet of the media, and at the doorstep of the two major political party committees. The media failed in its most basic duty of keeping the public informed, and the committees are guilty of manipulating the campaign rules to exclude anyone except members of their own parties, thereby restricting the choices of the voting public to two hand-picked candidates.

It’s the voters who deserve the most forgiveness, because we really had no choice in the matter, and haven’t for years. We have been obliged to choose between two extremes, to hold our noses and vote for the candidate who stinks the least.

The Biden/Harris ticket wasn’t elected for their political platform, they were elected because slightly more people found them less offensive than a second Trump/Pence term.

And that’s the simple truth.

Voting for “the lesser of two evils” is a far cry from voting for someone you want to see in office, whose policies you can actually support. But those people aren’t allowed to participate, and the media ignores them.

So I forgive those who didn’t vote the way I did; I forgive those who held their noses and voted for Biden, I forgive those who held their noses and voted for Trump. I forgive those who were moved to assemble in peaceful solidarity with others to bring attention to their causes, whatever those causes were, whether I agreed with them or not. None of these people are at fault for the bad things that have happened, and those voices are important to our political process and should not – cannot – be silenced if we are to “build a more perfect union.” Those voices are welcome at my table.

The others, the ones that preach division and the destruction it brings? Not so much.