In the wake of the Trump assassination attempt it is time to reflect on how we got here. Why are Americans so polarized? Because the government is involved in matters they have no business interfering with and the media praises their unconstitutional initiatives. The first step in fixing it is getting the government out of the business of promoting values. The government is supposed to be a neutral arbiter when it comes to the value system that Americans possess. Whether gay, straight, black, white, Asian, male, female, Christian, Muslim, atheist, disabled, intelligent, transgender, conservative, liberal, poor, or rich, it should not matter to the government (or any person for that matter).

The government should be focusing on what Americans have in common, not their differences. There are a lot of differences between individual Americans, but what Americans have in common is our citizenship and we are all born with same fundamental rights. Every American needs to realize they won the lottery when we were born in this great nation otherwise, we would be persecuted for our demographics or values. Thus, the sole reason people consent to be governed is for a protection and safety of their fundamental rights. To protect its citizens, a good government must defend the sovereignty of every person equally as well as its national borders.

The entire purpose of the First Amendment is for citizens to have freedom of expression, thought, and speech to practice the value system of their choice so long as it does not violate the rights of their neighbors. No society can survive if liberty of thought, speech, and expression are banned for any reason. Therefore, the primary mission of good citizens and government is tolerance. Tolerance is the principle behind the First Amendment and the entire Constitution. Even religious liberty protected in the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment protects Christians, non-Christians, and atheists alike. The bottom line, we should love our neighbors as we love ourself. And something everyone seems to forget; tolerance is a two-way street. If you tolerate my values, then I should tolerate your values.

It is not rocket-science, but we are making the world out to be much more complicated than it needs to be. If the government got out of business of promoting any singular value system, then that, in turn, removes value systems from the focus of media coverage. If that happens, then people should be a lot happier.

Almost every stain in American history can arguably be traced to our government’s intolerance toward a citizen’s demographics and or value system. Eugenics, sterilization, abortion, internment, exclusionary immigration policies, slavery, and segregation became the norm when the federal government thought they had the final say on values. We should remember these lessons when the government wants to promote preferred classes, human sexuality, correct pronouns, and critical race theory.

Justice John Harlan was known for being the lone dissenter in the infamous segregation case Plessy v. Ferguson. Harlan explained the Constitution provides for no caste system for Americans to be segregated in groups by race, gender, sexuality, ideology, socio-economic status, or religious following. In his “I have a Dream” speech Martin Luther King had a vision that some day he will be judged by the content of his character and not his skin color. Why celebrate these men if we cannot follow their simple advice?

This is precisely the reason our Founders created a Constitutional republic, not a democracy. Our Founders abhorred democracies because they do not survive the test of time. A republic is a nation of laws where the biases and opinions of men are mitigated by a written Constitution, separation of powers, and checks and balances. Thus, in a republic the law is applied equally to all. In a democracy, the law and your rights are what a majority says they are! Democracies drive a wedge between different groups in society because the government picks winners and losers based on how we look and think. Democracies create factions of people that Madison warned against in Federalist Paper 10. The bottom line, when the biases and opinions of men are taken out of the equation, republics are designed to treat everyone equally. We need to recapture our Founding principles to end the polarity and division that is literally killing our society.

The amount of civil unrest, polarity, and anger that is occurring in the United States should not be any surprise. This is precisely what happens in democracies and why they do not survive the test of time. The more we dissolve our Constitutional republic in favor of a democratic government that defines the laws and rights of society based on the biases and opinions of majorities, the more polarized we will become.

The opinions shared here do not necessarily represent the official position of the Libertarian Party. These editorial articles have been submitted by Libertarians across the country, and featuring these topics does not represent an endorsement of the content therein.