Column
People Need to Give Up the Illusion of Bipartisan Friendship
If someone doesn’t want to be your friend because of your political beliefs, you should take it as a sign that you are wrong — not wronged
This week, as wildfire smoke blanketed the West Coast and protests against racist police violence continued across the country, a former nurse at a Georgia ICE detention center publicly accused a doctor there of forcibly sterilizing immigrant women: “Everybody he sees, he’s taking all their uteruses out,” the nurse said. Her account was further bolstered by a detainee at the center, who told an advocacy group, “When I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp. It was like they’re experimenting with our bodies.”
We need to remember those fires and orange skies, the state brutality, and vulnerable women’s bodies being torn apart the next time someone laments that hyperpartisanship is ruining the country. There is no room for moderation when the stakes are this high, but despite parties pushing policies that result in clear wrongs, “civility” discourse shows no signs of abating.
