READ & COMMENT

The fight for the mind, heart and soul of the American Dream has come out of the shadows of guerilla warfare onto the battlefield of a full-fledged culture war. As with all things American, this battle will be more dramatic and globally important than any political skirmish in Europe. It will make Brexit look like a playground scuffle.
 
What we are witnessing now is a culture war between the AOC/Bernie Sanders wing and core supporters of the Democrat Party and their GOP & Alt-right/Tea Party counterparts.
 
After 4 years of frustration trying to combat what they saw with some justification as ‘The Cult of Trump’, AKA MAGA; with Biden’s victory, Georgia in the bag and the scurrilous scenes in DC this week, the left smells blood. All is fair in love and war and from their perspective Trump was trying to undo all the progress they thought had been made toward equality and multiculturalism exemplified by President Obama.

I condemn yesterday's behavior of The President and a small group of violent activists. I also wonder if the editorial leadership of The Tribune recognize that their blatant editorial bias played a role in the toxic fissure in America that led to the disgraceful violent protests in DC?
The editorial decisions that accept the constant denigration of people and ideas they don’t agree with? Their overt disrespect of elected representatives and other community leaders who they don’t agree with? Their insistence on failing to serve the 60% majority of SLO residents who are not Democrats?
The paper has been littered with examples of this over the last few years. Some of the blood and tears  of yesterday is on your hands, and the hands of any media or political leaders who seek to inflame the toxic partisan politics that infects our communities.
If any good comes out of this tragic and disgraceful attempt at sedition, it must be this. That all those with a voice that has been used to propagate such partisanship, now use it to promote ideas not ideology. To seek a higher middle ground of compromise and compassion.