Cruz, Milano, and the State of Political Discourse

When it comes to the gun control debate, there are few people as diametrically opposed to each other as Senator Ted Cruz and actress Alyssa Milano. So, as is our wont in the United States in 2019, we expect these two to not get along and maybe even hate each other. But, that’s not what happened when these two met to talk about the issue. While they may not have changed each other’s minds, they were cordial and even embraced each other after they were finished.

How is it, as advanced we are as a society, that two people being civil to each other during a political discussion makes national news? How far gone must we be for people who are paid to write about the days most newsworthy events to find this so groundbreaking that it warranted coverage?

This shouldn’t be something as strange as it seems. This should be the norm. Back in the day, Dinesh D’Souza and Christopher Hitchens, two very opinionated men, who were very much the polar opposites of each other on the political divide, would have very enthusiastic debates, and then go out for drinks afterwards. They were friends. Why isn’t that happening anymore?

It’s getting to the point where the people on both sides of the political aisle are no longer seeing those on the other side as minds to be changed, but as enemies to be defeated. There’s that old Abe Lincoln quote that seems to ring truer with each passing year: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Shortly after those words were spoken, the two sides to whom he was pleading began to kill each other in what is still the bloodiest war in American history.

We can’t let it get to that point this time around. We need to stop throwing things at each other and sit down for discussions again. After you read this just do one thing to help in some small way to heal our divided country. If you lean right, find a liberal, and just talk. If you lean left, find a conservative and do the same. No “soyboys”, no “Nazis”, just talk. Explain what you believe and why you believe it, and then listen when they do the same. If they insult you, don’t take the bait, just talk. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to move forward as a country.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King: 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.