While I've touched on this before, I am truly puzzled by those who think there is some supremely noble goal in "uniting the country." While for some that's just a prettier way of saying "shut the hell up, we know what's best so stop harshing our unity man" but others actually seem to genuinely think this is important. It should be obvious that it isn't going to happen. There are fundamental disagreements about how this country should be run. Those disagreements aren't going away and more importantly nor should they. It's healthy to have disagreement and debate on the future of the country, not unhealthy as some believe. It's healthy for there to be vibrant, rambunctious, and combative political discussion, not unhealthy. It's healthy that people feel free to disagree, and to voice those disagreements. It's unhealthy to try to silence dissenting views by burying them under a ridiculous desire for consensus. There is no such consensus.
It's the same set of people who imagine that partisanship somehow creates disagreement rather than the other way around. It's true that there's some degree of tribalism in political identification, but mostly partisanship exists because people choose the party which best represents their political views. Partisanship is the political expression of disagreement, not the creator of it.
What "why can't we all agree" really means is "why can't everybody just agree with me."
Democracy is messy. Hurray!
