The need for consensus in the USA

An appeal from a patriotic American

    I have spent the past month visiting my extended family in the USA, after more than two years of international travel.  The experience deepened my appreciation for the fact that the United States of America is in the midst of an ideological civil war, in which neither side respects the other nor listens to the other; and in which both sides hold each other in dismissive contempt, regularly putting forth caricatures of the views of their enemies.  Both sides are suffering emotional pain with respect to what is happening to their country.

      As a patriotic citizen of the United States of America, I am truly saddened that we have arrived to this place.  I today send a plea to the citizens of my country to rethink what they are doing.  Instead of trying to hurt one another, let us creatively search for the road to consensus; not, it should be noted, compromise, but consensus.

     I propose that the road to consensus involves reframing each of the issues that divides us.  My proposal…