Speaking About Politics Isn’t Divisive — Harmful Policies Are

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1 hour ago

Since childhood, many of us were told there are three topics we should never discuss publicly: religion, politics, and income.

If you want to keep your relationship with God private, I fully respect that. If you choose not to talk about your income, that’s your right — and for the record, you are allowed to.

But politics? Politics absolutely must be talked about, especially in the United States.

Politics govern every aspect of American life. Whether you recognize your privilege or not, public policy determines your healthcare, your safety, your bodily autonomy, your financial survival, your rights, and your future. Avoiding political conversation is not neutral — it is an active choice that shapes society. And taking a passive-until-reactive approach to politics is exactly how we ended up in the crisis we’re in today.

When we refuse to discuss politics publicly, several things happen:

Voter ignorance rises
Extremism flourishes
Public opinion stagnates

Silence becomes a breeding ground for harm. And the moment people finally speak up — when they’ve had enough, when they refuse to accept cruelty as the cost of citizenship — they’re accused of “creating division.”

But the only real divisions being created are between progression and complacency, humanity and inhumanity, equality and inequality, inclusivity and hierarchy.

Accountability always feels like an attack to those who are unwilling to face the consequences of their beliefs, behaviors, and political decisions. Calling out harm is not the same as causing harm.

When the political right passes policies that lead to widespread suffering — by stripping rights, restricting bodily autonomy, cutting social programs, targeting queer people, blocking healthcare, or loosening gun laws — those actions create real-world harm. Naming that harm is not divisive. It is accountability.

Yet the narrative becomes: “You’re divisive for calling out what I’m doing.” When what’s being done is causing mass suffering, that framing is nothing short of abusive-relationship psychology on a national scale.

Modern right-wing political strategy depends on fabricating cultural enemies. It relies on fear, resentment, invented threats, and a self-victimization narrative — all tools to keep their base activated and obedient. The “boogeymen” they construct are familiar: LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, teachers, trans children, and a mythical “deep state.”

They manufacture fear around marginalized groups, then claim the left is “dividing the country” simply by refusing to join in the fear-mongering. It is textbook projection.

At the root of today’s ideological divide is a philosophical split: the left fights for inclusion, while the right fights to preserve hierarchy.

The modern left’s core value is simple: everyone deserves dignity, safety, and equal opportunity.

The modern right’s core value is equally clear, even if rarely spoken aloud: not everyone deserves the same rights, resources, or protections — some people are inherently more deserving than others.

Their voting records make this reality undeniable. When inclusion threatens their sense of status or privilege, they label inclusion itself as “division.” Because equality looks a lot like oppression to those accustomed to privilege.

Someone recently shared a quote with me that has stayed in my mind ever since:

“Democrats will feed 100 people out of fear that one goes hungry. Republicans will refuse to feed 100 people out of fear that one may not ‘deserve’ to be fed.”

This perfectly captures the moral divide. The left believes food is a human right, that survival shouldn’t depend on passing a moral purity test, and that a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable.

The right believes scarcity is a moral tool, that suffering builds character, and that helping the “wrong” people threatens social hierarchy.

So rather than risk feeding someone they deem “undeserving,” they will allow people to starve. That is not fiscal conservatism. That is moral cruelty dressed up as economics.

The right cries “division” because they don’t want to confront the reality that their votes harm people, their policies kill people, their positions are rooted in fear and prejudice, and their worldview requires inequality to function.

The left is not dividing the country. The left is exposing what is dividing the country. And the people causing the harm don’t want to see their own reflection.

So keep talking — loudly, consistently, and unapologetically — about the policies and people governing your life in America. Speak with others who share your values and your humanity. That is how change happens: through collective awareness and collective courage.

We already know the cost of wasting our energy on those committed to misunderstanding, willful ignorance, or deliberate cruelty. The work ahead belongs to those who choose clarity, compassion, and progress.