SALT LAKE CITY – “America’s culture war has reached a tipping point.” Senator Orrin Hatch is seeking answers to America’s partisan divide in a new article he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.
Hatch writes that “as the partisan divide deepens, it becomes clear that we need to take meaningful steps toward de-escalation.” This before he says he believes the population succumbs to violence.
In the article Hatch calls for a change in tactics in order to break down the partisan divide and ease tensions across the country
The first change he suggests is “preventing communal spaces from becoming politicized,” believing that people deserve to get a break from talking politics at places like “restaurants, theaters, sports arenas and houses of worship.”
Hatch calls the over-politicization of public spaces an assault which he believes is the equivalent of a “scorched-earth policy.”
“It is an attempt to burn away the last vestiges of civility and common cause along the march to political domination. Everything—from chicken sandwiches to prom dresses and even cartoon frogs—can be weaponized for political purposes. In this world, there is no neutral territory: Every place is a battlefield, everything is a weapon, and everyone is a soldier in the great culture war.”
The second suggestion is to work together to resist the politicization of everything. Hatch goes so far as to say the public should denounce those who “politicize things that should not be politicized.”
Third, Sen. Hatch suggests the public discourage harassing public figures and “incursions into their private lives.”
“Just as combatants and POWs are accorded certain rights in wartime, government officials and others who participate in politics deserve privacy and respect, no matter how intense the culture wars become,” Hatch wrote.
Lastly, Hatch says regardless of your political opinions Americans should “commit themselves to rhetorical disarmament.”
Sen. Hatch ended the article suggesting that President Trump continue to use Twitter but as a tool for good rather than political division. He also says he has discouraged the President from calling the press an “enemy of the people” because though it’s flawed it is indispensable to our democracy.
You can read the full story on the Wall Street Journal here.
