Divided we stand

 Sorry for an unpopular or uncomfortable post, but I gotta speak what's left of my mind.

I'll just start by saying that you don't know how I voted. I'm pretty darned sure of that. Heck, I'm not even sure how I voted. Probably by mail, but possibly female also. The details are cloudy; ask again later.

But now that the election is over (though sans fat lady, because of the practice of not body shaming anyone, who can be sure?) politicians everywhere are calling for unity.

I don't know what unity is and I sense that it is impossible.

Democrats and republicans have, if you boil it down, 2 different underlying views of the role of government. There are opposing notions of the US's position on the world stage and the diplomatic moves that we should be taking. If we all could find a way to agree, we wouldn't have the system that we have -- we simply see the structure, function and position of government and the country differently from each other.

Then the calls come for unity. But even if I am willing to accept person A or B as the president and I will do my best not to spit every time his name is mentioned, I still, on a deep and philosophical level, disagree with policies, practices or positions that person A or B champions. We cannot be unified because we are, at the deepest level, still divided. Are we supposed to act unified in some public forum for the sake of appearances? Or is the call for unity a call for "you lost, now compromise your values - I won so I don't have to compromise mine!"

I remember very little from Social Studies class in grades 6-8, but I recall that I was taught that the responsibility of the majority is to protect the right of the minority to disagree. If enough people find the disagreement position persuasive, then it will eventually become the majority, and will have to protect the new minority's position. Unity is NOT to goal -- partisanship is not only inevitable but necessary. What are we expecting other people to do -- abandon their beliefs? Suddenly concede that because a majority feels a certain way, it is meaningless to feel stridently otherwise?

Yes, I know, a house divided will not stand and all that, but a house built on a foundation of resentment and superficiality will collapse at the first breeze. I won't ask anyone to defend, support or condone moves that I feel, at my core, are abhorrent and destructive. I won't ask for unity. I'll ask for respectful division as protected by the laws of legal expression and the democratic process. Don't ask me for anything different.