This opinion column was submitted by P. Carter Earnshaw, a retired public transportation manager and published author.
It’s been called the “Grand Canyon in U.S. politics” and “the Great Divide.” But tragically, and unnecessarily, it has become a “bridge too far.” I’m referring to the political divide eating away at our nation’s fabric like an aggressive cancer.
While enjoying a beer on a bar stool in a June Lake pub, a respected friend and ex-employee stated, “They want to take away our freedoms!”
Searching the inventory of political comebacks in my liberal brain, and in an effort to keep the spirit of camping alive, I replied, “The bears? Just who are they?”
“You know, the liberals.”
Shocked at my Republican friend’s response, I drew a circle with my index finger around my face. “Gay, loud and proud liberal, hello. Just stating the obvious.”
Embarrassed with his short-term memory, he was still eager to make his point, “Well, you know, the election being stolen and all.”
I could have replied, “There’s more evidence that the world is flat than there is that the election was stolen.” But I took a more empathetic approach.
“How did we get here, my friend?”
He smirked, “I drove.”
“Seriously, have we just stopped exercising the muscle between our ears?” Then I took the philosophical approach, “You know what the greatest power on earth is?”
“Nuclear?” He even pronounced it correctly.
“To wield another man’s mind. You know what the greatest weakness is? To allow it.”
Political conversations don’t always end this friendly. It still begs the answer to my question, “How did we get here?” In the early 1980s, I was employed as the news director at a well-known talk radio station in Salt Lake City. Political discourse was just as vehemently disseminated, but there wasn’t the uncompromising polarization that we see today in America. Because of a law called the Fairness Doctrine, for every hour of liberal commentary, the station had to give equal time to a conservative talk show. It was not uncommon to hear adverse hosts tell the other, “Why didn’t I know that?” or “You made a good argument, I’ll have to reconsider” — comments far removed from today’s political hyperbole.
In 1987, the Reagan administration decided it was in the best interests of his party, the Republican Party, to revoke the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission, introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable and balanced. In other words, show both sides of the coin, give both pro and con, tell both sides of the debate (remember being on the debate Team in high school?) — and more importantly, be held accountable for lying.
Shortly after that revocation, all forms of media began to lean toward the political interests of the stockholders. Political media pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on the far right, and Noam Chomsky and Rachel Maddow on the far left, began to control the political narrative. Political leaders became our nemeses and party factions took our nation and their parties down paths toward extreme fundamentalism. These extreme bully pulpits, similar to the one used in Nazi Germany, kowtowed nonconformists into silence and fear.
But their message wasn’t just about platform; it was also about hate toward those holding different points of view.
When an ex-president of the United States boasts that he could kill someone on the streets of New York City and get away with it, we better start reconsidering our alliances.
My fellow Americans, I plead that you closet your stereotypes, reclaim your mind and consider that there are far greater values that unite us than issues that divide us. Bring back the Fairness Doctrine and close the Great Political Divide.
P. Carter Earnshaw is a retired public transportation manager and published author.
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