Are We ‘One Nation Indivisible,’ or Doomed to ‘Divided We Fall’? | Opinion

November 30, 2022 | Patricia Duff and Tom Rogers | Newsweek

Over the last several years many have bemoaned the plague of extraordinarily deep partisan divides spreading across the country, fraying our unity, undermining social trust, and tearing at our democracy. At first blush, the midterm results offer two contrasting takeaways about this: the divides seem a little less intense, yet the extremist views that drive those partisan divisions are still plenty rampant.

Surely the nation does better when leaders of both parties offer solutions to our biggest problems, while being open to collaboration and compromise to move them forward. The tactical use of extreme rhetoric to inflame the most polarized elements of each party’s base has proven very effective for organizing and fundraising, but such tactics work to tear us apart rather than to create an effective middle. …