We Americans love our Heroes. 

Washington, Lincoln, John Wayne, Rosa Parks…Tom Cruise as Maverick. We like to celebrate their rugged individualism, their moral compass, their determined passion that compels them to go against the flow. I’m getting amped just thinking about them.

We love seeing Washington depicted leaning into the night against the cold and against the odds as he forces his way across the Potomac.  We cheer when Robin Williams inspires us to stand defiantly on our desk in Dead Poets’ Society or Rudy is lifted on the shoulders of his Notre Dame teammates.  Our heart even stirs when we see the lonely Marlboro Man out on that range doing “man work,” alone…because, by God, someone’s got to do it and the only comfort he needs is a job well done and a cigarette.

We love this rugged quality so much it even inspires the names we give our cars: Intrepid, Explorer, Challenger, Firebird, Viper, Yukon and Tundra, Bronco and Mustang, Escape, Edge, and Expedition. These are not vehicles for mall parking and grocery shopping - these are adventure wagons. They carry our alter egos.  They match our demand for living like heroes (who happen to need 12 cupholders, leather seats and butt warmers).

Heroes inspire us.  They bring out the best in us.  We point these people out to our kids as examples. We train our children to follow in their footsteps, to be leaders and stand up for what’s right.  We tell them that a hero is someone who is faced with a challenge and is determined to overcome, not just because they want to but because they have to.

America is known the world over as the cowboy, the titan, the rockstar, the brave and the free…as leaders.  Even now, the world “looks to us”.

That’s why it’s so surprising to me that as a nation of individuals we’ve turned into a herd of cattle when it comes to politics.

Ouch. I know that was abrupt…and harsh. I’ll give you a minute. 

OK. Ready?

Here’s the deal. There’s a disturbing trend in America today that’s only getting worse with each passing election.  More and more, both parties seem to be  calling for (demanding) our total party line acceptance.  They don’t want our independent thinking, they want our compliance (otherwise it’s suggested that we’re giving into the other side and letting them win). You must accept the party as a whole.  If there are extremists in your party that are borderline pathological, you have to support them anyway.  If someone says something stupid you’re required to validate them.  If someone proposes something ridiculous it’s on you to justify it.  It’s not enough for us to be “anti-them” we have to be fully “pro-us” with no questions asked.

You doubt me, but if party leaders showed up tomorrow and told us we are no longer driving on the “right” side of the road because that’s just what the other side wants us to do, you can bet that more than half of our neighbors would get on board, car wrecks and all.

The stakes are apparently too high for independent thinking or “rugged individualism”.  There is only room for absolute conformity.

What news network is your network?  FOX, CNN, MSNBC, OAN… Which one do you subscribe to?  OK, fine. We believe all these networks have a political base they serve: liberal or conservative. Right? Now ask yourself when was the last time your news network was critical of a member of their party affiliation?  When was the last time they did a hard hitting, in-depth review and called someone out from their own party base?  You can’t do it.  It doesn’t happen. They’re not here to inform they're here to reinforce.

When other countries broadcast news that only agrees with their party, we call it State Run News. Here we call it a trusted new source. The only one that tells us the truth (that we want to hear).

But wait…there’s more.  Our party leaders not only want our unflinching loyalty (and full acceptance), they also want to be first in our lives.  You may be part of other groups (a family, a race, a religion or be a Netflix or Hulu subscriber and all that’s fine), but the party must come first.  If your church or religion disagrees with the Party line, change churches.  If family members have another party affiliation it’s OK to keep them, but be suspicious of them and lower your estimation of their morals and intelligence.

How are our leaders doing all this?  It’s pretty simple really. They blanket the airwaves with fear.  They know the most common response to fear is anger, so they use it to motivate us, secure our loyalty and get us to hate other Americans.  We fear we will lose “our America”. We fear we will lose “our freedoms”.  We fear a take over by “them”.

Here’s what I’ve learned as your humble corespondent… the thems are just as afraid of your America as you are of theirs.  And that fear (and the vitriol and rage that follows) is only getting stronger and it’s all part of the plan.

Where are the American individuals, the heroes who will say, “No”.  Who’s going to be brave enough to not buy into the whole party package?  Who’s going to investigate and read and change channels occasionally (if not just turning the TV off all together)?

Who will be brave enough to put country above party and not let the “Idol of Party” rule their lives or families or churches?  Who will take the time to read and listen and not just party line vote?  A bad person who shares your party affiliation isn’t better than a good American who happens to be on the other side of the aisle.

Maybe the most disturbing part of this trend is all the talk of a new civil war.  I don’t know if that’s a reality or not. To some degree it’s not hard to imagine.  And, maybe for some that seems like a solution.  You go your way and we’ll go ours.

The trouble is, unlike our last civil war there are no clean lines.  There is no “North and South”.  We are intermingled and intertwined.  The war is with the people in the cubical next you, in the pew in front of you, in the grocery line beside you, in your house.  How are we going to wage that war? What a disturbing end to “the great experiment”.  Perhaps John Steinbeck was right when he wrote: “We have overcome all enemies but ourselves.”

Look, I know my little column isn’t likely to change anything.  I just want to try and bring some awareness.  There is a flow, a current that is happening… and unless we choose differently we will continue to be caught up in it.  We don’t have to agree with each other to listen to each other and treat people with respect and hold ourselves to American ideals.

We don’t have to keep answering the demand for outrage and anger.  We don’t have to hate our neighbors because our party tells us to.  We can topple the Idol of Party and politics…if we want to.  But it’s on us.

Godspeed, friends.  Get outside. Breathe the air and greet your neighbor.  It can only help.