Dividing the Herd

Those who work hard to divide the grassroots bore me because it's lazy. It's not hard to foment division.

You see predators do this in nature. They find a herd, push hard up the middle in a surprise sprint, divide those previously peacefully assembled, go after the closest prey, and then pounce.

You know what's hard? Crafting solutions to hard problems and gathering others to join you in working toward a solution.

But these jackals never do that. They have no solution. They just criticize and point fingers all of the time. That's why I find it uninteresting. It does nothing, and when our greatest problem in fighting the Left is organization, this nonsense just fosters disorganization.

I could make the argument that this might just be the goal, but I'll skip the psychology. What is inarguable is that it brings about division among people who might otherwise get along just fine.

Pick a topic: the Christ is King thing, school choice, elimination of property taxes... I'll highlight each one.

Christ is King: it's said that only the anti-Semitic say this. The truth is that one day all knees will bow to Jesus, so those who like to create division use this phrase to troll others. Some are truly anti-Semitic and some want to label everyone as anti-Semitic.

Jesus is Lord. Get over it. Those who see racism or bigotry everywhere are boring in the inability to have a rational discussion.

I have very good friends who are Jewish. They have their beliefs and I have mine. We don't let it come between us.

This divides by using the wedge of either inciting argument with the statement or labeling assumed motives. Both are lazy and generally done to drive clicks and views.

School choice: The problem with school choice as Texas pursues it is that it addresses the wrong problem. The problem isn't how education is funded; the problem is the lack of consistent student proficiency. You don't tackle proficiency with money. You tackle proficiency with curriculum and discipline.

Giving a small percentage of students the freedom to pick a different school could solve the problem if the school has a better curriculum and enforces discipline and if the student has parents who support both. But this only addresses the issue for a small percentage of students while spending more money.

This is what I call tactical division. We agree on the destination (better education) but we disagree on the tactics (how to get there).

Elimination of property taxes: Not everyone agrees on the principle objective. Many in the legislature don't want to eliminate property taxes... they just want to reduce them, or pretend to reduce them.

The solution here is simple: stop spending money. But too many Republicans love spending money. This is cultural division. We don't agree yet on the principle, so it's hard to arrive at the right tactics to get there.

When I see people driving up the middle to gain attention for themselves, it's energy wasted because it solves nothing. But for too many of these people, it was never about solving anything. They enjoy the brief limelight of the drama they create.

We need fewer problem-pointers and far more problem-solvers. Let's work the solution by first finding the right principle (the destination), the best tactics to achieve the objective (how to get there), and bring as many as we can with us while we do (stop labeling people with broad indiscriminate brushes).

Let's climb higher out of the fray. Let's do the right things right.

3 Comments

Christin Bentley (Mar 17, 2025 2:58 PM):

Spot on!

Kim Spain (Mar 18, 2025 12:59 AM):

Great words!

Carol Milder (Mar 18, 2025 1:34 PM):

Powerful insights! Thanks!