It has been 292 days since President Trump took office and for about 292 days I’ve heard the words “not my president” over and over again.
These words are always followed by a retaliating phrase like, “He was elected, grow up and deal with it.”
For 292 days, more than half the country has been marching the streets, protesting and getting involved with politics, while the rest of the country has been making idiotic claims about how we need to unite this country and come together as a whole.
Our country is not united. In fact, if we were separated any further we’d probably be having a second civil war.
Ironically, they say that tragedy is supposed to unite people by bringing them closer together in a time of need. But our country uses tragedy to divide us.
Why don’t we take a look at a few examples and start with the massacre in Las Vegas last month that left more than 50 people dead and more than 500 wounded.
Immediately, before the death toll was even finalized, before we knew who the shooter was and before families even knew whether or not their loved ones were safe, the entire country was arguing. Half of the country was arguing for more gun control while the other half was preaching about not politicizing tragedy.
As Trevor Noah recently pointed out in his program “The Daily Show,” we all politicize tragedies, as long as they support our arguments.
In the aftermath of the deadly Las Vegas Shooting, Fox News host Sean Hannity dismissed the politicization.
“In the midst of tragedy, the rush to politicize the worst shooting in American history is shameful. Now, the left has no shame,” Hannity said.
But then the Manhattan Massacre happened.
An immigrant drove a truck into a bicycle lane, killing eight and injuring more than ten. Now half the country is enraged by the lack of vetting for immigrants while the other half thinks that politics should be separate from tragedy.
People such as Hannity changed their tune.
“What about people that are here that we never vetted? You can’t even vet people who aren’t here without being called racist and Islamophobic,” Hannity said.
I know that these tragedies are examples and give reason for change but can’t we spend time grieving before we start fighting? Can’t we take the time to honor the innocent lives that were lost?
There are a lot of reasons why we as a nation are not united but politicizing tragedies is definitely one of them.
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