Columns

In a recent radio interview, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger made an interesting point about how polarized our politics have become. I’m paraphrasing here, but Kissinger’s idea is essentially that positive changes in society are achieved only through moments of reconciliation, not conflict. It seems clear he views the partisan environment as a major obstacle to the continued success of America.
So how can we get to a point of reconciliation? And are we so polarized that reconciliation is no longer possible?

Last week, Ted Cruz won the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Texas over a better-known, better-funded opponent. If you’ve followed the race, the narrative from the press has essentially been that Cruz is a Tea Party-backed firebrand whose knee-jerk ideology presages a rightward lurch for the GOP.

How can we talk about the shootings in Connecticut — or Aurora or Columbine or Virginia Tech or an Oregon shopping mall or anywhere else — without getting into an argument?