Opinion: I Fear We Have Lost the Ability to Respectfully Disagree

I'm about to sound like the old man in the room, but I remember when we in America could disagree about an issue, but still manage to be neighbors. I fear that we are slowly losing that ability if it isn't gone already.

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Just so you know, I am not a member of any political party, so this is not meant as a vindication or indictment of anyone or anything. To put it simply, I'm fed up. Fed up with the seemingly constant parade of political discussions where one side (or sometimes both) want to take up arms because the other person or party doesn't agree with them.

My uncle ran for the state house in Missouri way back in 1984. I remember the knock-down, drag-out debates that year. But, once the election was done, everyone (more or less) shook hands and got back to the job of governing. It wasn't perfect because humans never are, but it was civil. Now, it seems that the "civil" refers to what feels like the brink of civil war.

Since this is another election year, there are a slew of political ads on the radio and I hear them all. No offense intended for any in particular, but I have yet to hear any that don't sound like shouting. Even after the elections ended a couple years ago during the bitter 2020 debacle, it didn't seem like the campaigning stopped by either side.

No matter how the elections of 2022 end, I truly fear for what will go down in 2024. Can we have a civil discussion that ends in at least a general agreement on how we'll disagree?

I fear that time of understanding how to respectfully disagree are long gone. May God help us all.