Seeds of division

Given the current state of affairs, it seems the common thread that holds together our national fabric has unraveled.

The adage that we have more in common than not seems a quaint vestige of the past.

The great philosopher Rodney King once asked, "Can't we all just get along?"

Today's headlines sadly give us the answer.

Be it political, cultural, religious, racial or gender issues, we can't seem to reach agreement on anything large or small.

We sorely need a unifying issue that brings some semblance of universal agreement.

Just one would do.

Let's be honest. When we lack agreement on which restroom a person should use, you get a sense that our differences run pretty deep.

If we only had some level of cooperation, compromise and common goals, we could accomplish great things.

Yet we lack all three.

The seeds for this national disconnect lie squarely at the feet of Barack Obama. It was Obama who opted for division over unity in his obsessive push for fundamental transformation.

And the one remaining Obama legacy is the division that shrouds our nation.

Even though it was the prior administration who I believe was largely responsible for our current discontent, it was the election of Donald Trump that lit the fuse and widened our divisions.

With each passing day, we seem to find more areas of disagreement.

We might find agreement that everyone deserves adequate health care, but we strongly disagree on the limits and cost of that issue.

We might agree that ours is a nation of immigrants, but we most definitely disagree on the impact of the current wave of immigration.

No one wants to endanger the world with environmental issues, but good luck finding agreement on how to address these issues.

Something as seemingly simple as improving our national transportation infrastructure cannot progress because we strongly disagree on how to fund this massive undertaking.

With finger-pointing as our new national pastime, the political and cultural sides are too far apart to find any common ground.

And so we languish on the issues of utmost importance.

Progress on any issue often takes compromise. But compromise has become a dirty word in the halls of Congress.

The price for this stubborn stupidity will be paid by our children and grandchildren.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.