People Can't Debate Policy Because They Differ On Facts

In the past, Americans accepted facts. The debate among elected officials was over what policies are best to deal with those facts. That was a good thing. Debating policy could lead to solutions that solved the nations problems -- even if those solutions were a compromise between the differing policies.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case in this country. According to the Pew Research Center (in a survey done between July 30th and August 12th), most Americans now think there is a basic disagreement on "Facts".  About 78% of the public thinks Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on facts.

I blame this phenomena on Donald Trump. Trump has no regard for facts or truth. He just invents facts to justify whatever policy or action he wants -- and sadly, his base of deplorables are eager to accept his "alternative facts" (because it justifies what they want to believe.

I understand why Trump does this. The facts do not justify his actions.

If you know that homegrown white terrorists pose the greatest danger to American citizens (a fact), then it's hard to justify a muslim ban. So he invents the alternate "fact" that muslims pose the greatest danger.

If you know that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, commit far fewer crimes than American citizens do (a fact), then it's hard to implement anti-immigrant policies (such as separating children from parents and caging them). So Trump tells the lie that immigrants commit more crimes.

If you know that global climate change is real and human-caused (a fact), then it's hard to justify withdrawing from the Paris Accords and allowing industries to pollute more. So Trump tells the lie that climate change is a hoax.

If you know that minorities are not treated equally by the police (a fact), then it's hard to justify refusing to take action to correct that institutional racism. So Trump invents the lie that police treat everyone equally.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point. Trump has turned our politics on its head. Instead of advocating for policies to fix our problems (and debating those policies to arrive at a solution), Trump just invents his own "facts" to justify his policies.

The result is that this country can no longer have an intelligent debate on policies and reach a reasonable compromise to solve national problems. We can't do that because the two parties cannot agree on facts. This divides us into partisan camps -- camps that cannot come together to compromise, because we can't agree on what the facts are.