Msgr. Paul V. Garrity
Polarization is a physics term that talks about vibrations in things like light waves. It has also come to describe the ways in which the fabric of our society is being frayed by ideological differences and, in some cases, being torn apart completely. Red and blue became the defining colors of our major political parties on Nov. 7 of 2000 according to cable-news journalist Steve Kornacki in his 2018 book, “The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism.” This is when the actual presidential election was left up in the air for 36 days until the Supreme Court weighed in and gave the presidency to George Bush. It was the culmination, however, of a decade of raw, partisan politics that has metastasized in our present socio-political climate.
According to the non-partisan Pew Research Center, Americans are more divided today than at any time since the Civil War. The early ‘90s witnessed a scorched-earth strategy to end the dominance of the House of Representatives by one of the major parties. Demonizing the opposition turned political rivals into political enemies. Kornacki calls this the birth of a new kind of tribalism characterized by confrontation, gridlock, and polarization. The 2000 election was actually a near draw with the presidency going to the winner by one electoral vote, decided by less than 600 Florida votes, despite Al Gore receiving 544,000 more votes, overall, than George Bush.
Seething beneath the surface of concerns over the economy and foreign policy were and are a host of culture-war issues that have only grown during the past two decades. LGBTQ+ rights, gender dysphoria, censorship, cancel culture, women’s health issues, and decriminalization of marijuana are only a few of the issues that have resulted in great divides within our population of 332 million Americans. While there have always been divides in public opinion dating back to the time when some of our forebears were opposed to the Revolutionary War, the divisions today seem to be deeper and more pernicious. Compromise has become a dirty word and people who favor compromise are labeled traitors and defectors to the other side, who are branded as evil.
What is most pernicious is the way in which complicated issues get reduced to good and evil, right and wrong. The most glaring of which is the vaccine controversy. As the nation found itself in the throes of a deadly virus with hundreds of people dying daily, medical science came up with a vaccine. Almost overnight, people stopped dying. Almost overnight, as well, resistance to taking the vaccine emerged. The contagiousness of COVID-19 was seemingly trumped by personal freedom. The fact that radio personalities who pushed this bizarre thinking began to die of the virus did little to change the minds of the anti-vaxxers.
Immigration is a hot-button issue today. Because we are a nation of immigrants, dealing with this issue in a way that is just, compassionate, and reasonable should be a national goal. Instead, the complexity of the issue is ignored in favor of making it a political talking point. When a bipartisan and widely supported plan to deal with some aspects of the overall crisis was killed by a vocal minority, it threw into bold relief the danger of making the perfect the enemy of the good and the sin of willfully ignoring the common good.
Concern about gender dysphoria, sexual orientation, and the anthropological issues surrounding sexuality in general should convince us that what we know about all this is dwarfed by what we don’t know. What we do know, however, is that we need to learn how to listen to the lived experiences of many people in our society and not sit in judgment from an ivory tower. There is nothing simple about understanding the myriad of issues connected to sexuality and gender. Respect for the complexities of human sexuality should fill us with humility and openness.
Because public policy eventually follows public opinion, it is very important that public discourse should avoid the trap of thinking that complicated problems can be addressed with simple solutions. Complexity can be very intimidating. Getting into the weeds of any issue can be a daunting challenge for armchair sociologists and political scientists. While 30-second sound bites, social media, and 30 minutes of daily news help to keep us informed about the world around us, they are always limited in what they can convey and, sometimes, infected by prejudice and bias. Complexity that gets reduced to simplicity breeds polarization. Polarization erodes the fabric of community and makes us all less happy, less safe, and less able to solve the problems that surround us.
Msgr. Paul V. Garrity is a senior priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and a former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish and St. Mary’s High School.
