Make America bipartisan again
During this year's State of the Union address, President Donald Trump and speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi made some headlines regarding their now very public feud. Trump appeared to ignore Pelosi extending her hand for a handshake prior to the meeting, and preceding Trump's speech, Pelosi ripped up her paper copy of it. While many may condone and even applaud their actions, Trump and Pelosi's actions towards each other are detrimental to this nation.
It is not hard to see that this country is divided, and political parties are at fault for this. Politicians on both sides used to be able to somewhat work together to make this country what it is today, but nowadays, cooperation is virtually nowhere to be seen. It seems like we are on the verge of another civil war.
Of course, people are allowed in this free country to hold their own beliefs; however, when those beliefs are causing people to flat out hate each other, it is time to consider how we go about showing and discussing our beliefs.
The responsibility of showcasing how we should go about expressing our beliefs falls on our leaders. But when the most powerful people in the democratic and republican parties hate each other's guts and cannot set aside their personal opinions for the good of the country, what example does that set for the rest of the country?
In a usual workplace setting, if one does not like a coworker, the professional thing to do is to suck it up and work past it. Why should the people running the country be held to a different standard?
By not shaking Pelosi's hand, Trump may be expressing his anger towards the impeachment trial, but he is also dismissing Pelosi's job as a lawmaker and as the voice of many others. Trump also is rejecting her as a person who had to do their job by going through with the trial, and politicians actually doing their job is something that should be strongly encouraged in this country.
In ripping up his speech, Pelosi may be making a stand against all she believes Trump is doing wrong, but she is also invalidating the stories of the American heros he recognized. Also, even though some may argue that there were some exaggerations in Trump's speech, Trump actually has not tanked the economy completely, for it is doing fairly well. We should not be stanning Pelosi for ripping up Trump's speech-she is not a queen for doing so.
We need to bring back professionalism back into American politics, and that starts with the behavior of our leaders. In doing so, there may be hope for less division and a more pleasant experience in working together, for a more bipartisan effort.