Polarization is the word most often used recently to describe political divides in the United States today. But the two sides whose views seem most at odds share some traits that make them seem like mirror images.
Consider the case of Masterpiece Cake Shop that refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. They claimed that religious commitments prevented them from making a wedding cake carrying a message, which would be their responsibility, in favor of marital unions which their religious views consider forbidden.
The couple (and the left in general) claimed that the message of marital love conveyed by the cake is not the cake maker’s, but the couple’s. This sounds right until you consider what the left would think if cake makers produced cakes ordered by neo-Nazis with swastikas on top, claiming it was the Nazi’s message, not their own.
The argument for Masterpiece Cake Shop and its right-wing allies is that many cake makers in the area are glad to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples. Why didn’t the couple contract with one of them and leave Masterpiece Cake Shop alone? Distrust and disrespect. The couple felt disrespect for their relationship on the part of the cake maker, which they didn’t see being in any way similar to what the cake maker may deem disrespect of the couple for his religious views. Mirror images.
Distrust was also significant. LGBTQ advocates, of which I’m one, worry that if a cake maker can choose whom they will serve on the basis of sexual orientation, the result could be a society in which gays and lesbians are discriminated against generally as were blacks during the Jim Crow era. It may become legal to deny people housing and jobs on the basis of sexual orientation, making the LGBTQ community second-class citizens. Based on this fear, requiring the cake maker to produce a cake for a same-sex wedding seems necessary.
The same concerns of distrust and disrespect appear on the right concerning gun control. Although I have claimed, and still claim, that their constitutional arguments for a right to gun ownership are mistaken, I concur with their claim that the vast majority of gun owners are law-abiding. Many gun owners feel disrespected for their lifestyle, which includes hunting, skeet shooting, target practice, and training in self-defense, just as the left sees rejection of same-sex marriage as disrespect for members of the LGBTQ community. Both may often be correct.
Gun owners and enthusiasts are wary of gun-control measures which would deprive them of what the media call military-style assault rifles, such as the AR-15. Because fewer than one percent of gun-related deaths are caused by the use of such rifles, gun owners distrust the motives of those who claim that saving lives requires banning such weapons. Gun enthusiasts suspect that there must be some other agenda behind the proposed ban.
People for gun control worry that publicity surrounding the use of these guns tends to poison the atmosphere at public events and may jeopardize the education of young people as they become fearful of school settings. Also, they wonder why anyone would feel the need to have such a rifle in the first place, except to perpetrate anti-government violence.
Gun owners could point out that the news coverage of mass shootings employing such rifles, which fail to include overall death statistics, may reflect the left-leaning bias of major news outlets, and fear that such coverage is the first step in a campaign to deprive Americans of all firearms. In fact, there really are people on the left who would deprive all Americans of firearms (except those in law enforcement), just as there are people on the right who really do want AR-15-type weapons so they can fight effectively against the government if they believe it’s violating their rights.
Both sides distrust the culture of the average American. Distrust of our culture justifies the fear that if one cake shop can refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, the end result will be a Jim Crow-like era for gays and lesbians. Similarly, it’s only distrust of our culture that would lead gun advocates to think that if some guns are banned from legal ownership, and all firearms are forbidden in some places, all their guns will be taken away.
The left often decries the distrust of government by the right, but government in our republic mostly reflects the attitudes of ordinary people, which the left seems to distrust as much as the right. Each side identifies the other side with the views of its most extreme advocates, and neither trusts the good sense of most Americans to reject extreme views. With the possible exception of views about the 2020 election, respectful conversation with the other side would probably help.
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