We didn’t wake up one morning and decide to hate each other. Somebody pushed first.

For years now, we’ve been told that government is a “social contract.”  - Senator Chris McDaniel

An implied bargain among citizens about how we live together...

• We’ll leave you alone, in exchange for you leaving us alone...

That bargain requires restraint on both sides. 

Conservatives have honored it.
The polarization we see today didn’t come from conservatives tearing up that deal. 

It came because the Democratic Party hurried toward Socialism and then declared the old terms unacceptable.

• Positions that were once debated became mandatory. 
• Cultural preferences hardened into moral commands. 
• Longstanding compromises were reopened and treated as proof of moral failure. 

And anyone who declined to follow wasn’t reasoned with. 

They were labeled.

• Racist. 
• Bigot. 
• Extremist. 
• Deplorable. 
• Threat to democracy.

That name-calling didn’t follow polarization. 

It produced it...