I miss the days of agreeing to disagree.
Not long ago, politics — divisive by definition — didn’t… divide us.
People thought separately, voted separately, and stayed together — as Americans.
We now live in an era of war — of incivility and weaponized words. Of expressed and enacted ugliness.
For evidence, look no further than a Friday poll.
As surely you know, in the early morning of the 2nd, a major announcement came: Both the President and First Lady had tested positive for COVID-19.
In many times past, Americans on both sides would’ve offered their prayers and well wishes.
But anyone who’s glimpsed at Twitter in the last several years knows that was a world ago.
And if you didn’t want to see the worst this inferior universe has to offer, you’d have done well to limit your social media exposure since the news.
But if you needed numbers to confirm our collapse, here are a few.
According to a Morning Consult/Politico survey conducted Friday, 55% of Republicans reported they were “sad” upon hearing of the Commander-in-Chief’s situation.
Fifty-one percent felt “worried.”
That shouldn’t surprise — the poll revealed that 54% of voters generally are “very concerned” about the coronavirus.
The number remains unchanged from a similar late-September study.
But here’s a startling stat: Of Democrats, 40% reported they were “happy” our 74-year-old President was diagnosed with a potentially deadly disease — one particularly potent for those in his age group.
Those “indifferent” totaled 41%.
As noted by The Daily Caller, economic concerns were roughly equal on the Left and Right of the aisle:
Following the diagnosis, 48% of both Democrats and independents said they’re worried about the health of the economy, while 51 percent of Republicans said the same, per the poll.
For another metric of societal sinkage, consider this October 2nd headline from the New York Post:
“Twitter Says It Will Suspend Users Who ‘Wish Death’ After Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis”
That says… a lot.
From the article:
“Content that wishes, hopes or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against an individual is against our rules,” Twitter said in a statement to the outlet.
The anti-abuse policy explicitly bans tweets “hoping that someone dies as a result of a serious disease e.g., “I hope you get cancer and die.”
It’s not clear how often the rule will be enforced, as many have taken to Twitter to send ill wishes to the president since his and first lady Melania’s positive tests were announced early Friday morning.
That’s where we are.
And it should make 100% of Americans… sad.
-ALEX
See more pieces from me:
Wildlife Park Removes a Gang of Parrots for Cussing Out the Customers
‘Regular Guy’ With Head-to-Toe Tattoos and Blacked-out Eyeballs Loses His Kindergarten Teaching Job
Hero Sandwich: Chicago’s Famously Gay ‘Boystown’ Gets Toasted, Renamed Over a Non-Binary Beef
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