The BLOG: Politics

Identity lost: How modern politics are tearing America apart

(Adobe Stock photo)

(Adobe Stock photo)

I’m so sick and tired of hearing Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders talk about how hard they’re fighting. Everything in the political world today is all about fighting… fighting, fighting, fighting. There are no winners in a political fight, there is only collateral damage, i.e., you and me. At the very first Democratic debate of this political season, the last question asked by the moderator was, “Who do you see as your greatest enemy?” Clinton’s answer was not Iran, not Russia, but the Republicans. The Republicans! Her own fellow Americans are her greatest enemy. That’s just not politics, that’s civil war. Why can’t we be Americans first? Rather than Democrats and Republicans first? Why can’t we work together and work for compromise rather than fighting to win something that we cannot possibly put our collective fingers on? Don’t we all want the same things? Don’t we want to make a better life for ourselves in the future as well as for our children’s futures? Why can’t we lay down our weapons of vernacularism, and pick up the tools of compromise? Do we always have to get 100 percent of everything we want every single time we want it?

Isn’t there enough fighting around the world already? We have Islamic extremists groups growing like weeds all over the world, recruiting people from over 80 countries worldwide and instead of focusing our energies on a method of ensuring our survival, we’re fighting each other like children over what color crayon to color with next. Does it really matter which bathroom someone uses when there are jihadists with machine guns ready to kill them on their way to the “correct” bathroom? It’s like saying, “So-and-so was murdered on their way to the bathroom in a terrorist attack, but at least they knew which bathroom they could use.” Where has the value of human life gone?

What does winning look like? Does it look like when we go to a public restroom, we have to choose between six or seven different stereotypes of how we identify ourselves? Or maybe there’s one for men and one for women, one for transgender men, and one for transgender women. One for Caucasian women identifying as African-American women and one for African American women identifying as Caucasian women. Is this what winning looks like? Are we that insecure or self loathing that we cannot even stand to be in our own skin to the point where we have to go out and identify as something that we’re not?

We, as Americans, have lost our identities. I remember a time when we were all proud (as I still am) to be Americans! Does that mean that we do everything perfectly, all the time? Of course not. But it does mean that a person who is lucky enough to be born in the United States has the good fortune of knowing that he/she can speak out against their government, or anything for that matter, without the fear of being thrown in jail. It you think for a minute that this is an exaggeration, I know people who have come over to the United States from Russia for example, who have experienced free speech for the first time and can’t believe the feeling. It’s like watching a young child who has a cochlear implant and hears his mother’s voice for the first time.

What are politicians really fighting for? We have seen Hillary Clinton being dragged to the Left by Bernie Sanders. What does this mean? Does it mean that she’s telling liberal Americans what she thinks they want to hear because these people are “Feeling the Bern?” That’s hardly an honest approach to take. She’s basically saying, “I’ll say whatever you want me to say as long as you vote for me. Who cares whether I believe it or not.” What does she really believe? We don’t know because she’s to busy worrying about Bernie’s message — always changing her position to align with his.

Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, is an admitted Socialist. He calls himself a Democratic Socialist. There is no form of Socialism that is beneficial to the general population. Look no further than Venezuela. Merriam-Webster defines Socialism as “a social system or theory in which the government owns and controls the means of production (as factories) and distribution of goods.” Think about this carefully…the government owns and controls the means of production (as factories) and distribution of goods. They can give you as much or as little as they want. Again, look no further than Venezuela. They have now run out of food; people are rioting in the streets, looting stores just to feed their families. Marx defined Socialism as “a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.” According to this definition, Socialism is the midpoint between the destruction of Capitalism (our country as we know it) and the emergence of Communism as the new normal. Do I really have to spell out the dichotomy here between Socialism and Capitalism; between Bernie Sanders and anyone who opposes Socialism?

Recently, John Stewart asked, “When was America great?”, taking a swipe at Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Well, Mr. Stewart, maybe you should try living in another country such as India, where you would be a part of the caste system. In your case, based on your background, you would be part of the Shudra, the caste of semi-skilled and unskilled
laborers. Here, you would not have fame and fortune as you have now. You would not have tens of millions of dollars in the bank. In fact, no one would even know of your existence, outside of your family. It is solely because your ancestors from eastern Europe thought enough of their future generations (you) to give them a better life than what they had. They came from Socialism and Communism because they knew that their lives under these types of governments meant that they and their future generations, had no quality of life. Like you, my  ancestors came from the Ukraine. The difference is that I appreciate every day, the fact that I can wake up in a free country and go to work to try and make a better life for myself and my family, without fearing that tomorrow in could all be gone. So John, when was America great? It always has been and as long as it stays a Constitutional Republic, always will be.

According to Wikipedia, “A constitutional republic is a state in which the head of state and other officials are representatives of the people. They must govern within an existing constitution. In a constitutional republic, executive, legislative, and judicial powers may be separated into distinct branches.” Maybe if our elected political leaders took that definition a little more seriously, we would have more compromise that we so desperately need.



Joe Kotler is the founder of Independent Restaurant Solutions, a company created to give independently owned and operated restaurants a voice in an ever-increasing chain restaurant environment.