Fear and hate are a much easier sell than peace and love. Understanding the situation is fine but understanding the opposition is totally different. We also know that ‘they’ have no interest in understanding ‘us.’ Have you ever tried to talk to a Trump supporter on any rational basis? Trump lost the 2020 election and over 60 non-partisan courts, including the Supreme Court, found not a shred of evidence to support the Big Lie. If the opposition does not believe in truth but believes in lies instead there is nothing to be gained by conversation.

So, then the question becomes, where do we go from here? Survival instinct tells us that when confronted with imminent danger the response is fight or flight. Flight concedes the battle to the opposition, fight requires courage and determination. If there can be no negotiation the resolution becomes war. History and current events are replete with failures to compromise, and ironically peace treaties are almost always about negotiated compromise. I guess that shows that war accomplishes the inevitable only after it is drenched in blood.

Democracy is all about compromise and accommodation; peace, love, and understanding. What do we do when only one side exhibits any desire to preserve our representative democracy? Fight or flight?

“We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” - Lincoln