Can't We Agree to Disagree?

Looking at the bane of social media i.e. Facebook, I am bewildered on how polarized we have become.

I see the posts stating so and so will leave America if Trump is elected. No they won’t. No one will. If a conservative like myself can survive eight years of President Obama, two of those under Democrat control of the entire Legislative Branch and the gift that just keeps on giving, the Affordable Healthcare Act (guess what Max Baucus, my rates did go up just as I predicted!! Thanks for the rabbit punch!!!), the left leaning entertainment industry will sit right where they are at!! We might even be given the chance to enjoy such diatribes as Walk The Dog or Fahrenheit 9/11. I can’t wait to miss those movies too!! Kanye will continue to make noise, Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell will continue to make bad TV, and Jon Stewart will continue to do whatever he does now that he isn’t making fake news.

And Bernie and Hillary posts are driving me nuts!!! What the hell!! Bernie won’t be able to “tax the rich” to death any more than the last socialist in the oval office did, Barack Obama. (C’mon, you smiled when you read that.) Hillary being president won’t make companies miraculously hire women as CEOs. Last time I checked she isn’t Cinderella’s fairy godmother with a magic wand! Campaign promises from both sides are bunk!!!! Remember “no new taxes” from G.H.W. Bush? Guess what we actually got? New taxes. Guantanamo Bay still open for guests? Yes. Good going Barack! So don’t think you’ll be seeing a wall along the southern border if Trump gets in or Obamacare go away if Cruz gets elected. After all, we aren’t electing a king, a dictator, or American’s sweetheart.

If you are offended or ashamed that someone is winning in the primaries and you post something on that opinion, either Donald or Hillary, I think I might slap you!! Or at least give you a reminder of some dreadful times we actually had e.g. slavery, treaties with Indians, internment, the atomic bomb drops on Japan, Jim Crow laws and segregation, women suffrage, Iran-Contra, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Watergate, etc. etc., ad infinitum!

But should I be taken aback from all this? Haven’t we always not got along?

Any amateur historian of American presidential elections will know, this is not the exception but rather it is the rule. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams ran a heated contest in the election of 1796, the first one after George Washington’s presidency. The only reason why Abraham Lincoln was elected was because of turmoil. Woodrow Wilson snuck in, thanks to Teddy Roosevelt’s ego and his attempt at a third party. Bill Clinton also benefitted from a third party when Ross Perot decided he was the guy for the job. All of these elections had campaign promises that were unfulfilled and rhetoric that was abhorrent. Remember when the G.W. Bush campaign smeared John McCain in South Carolina? If not, you are not qualified to post rants about elections on Facebook anymore! This will help me get back to seeing cute cat videos and random food shots of what people are eating! Oh the agony of Facebook!