Heated Opposition Is Driving Us Apart
Kostigen
Taking the opposite side — whether in buying an investment, or assuming a political or cultural standpoint — can be popular, but is it the right thing to do?
When thesis meets antithesis, a synthesis is supposed to occur. That isn’t the case these days. People are divided more openly across the political, business and cultural spectrum. This division is leading to more distinct and frequent clashes between ideologists. In it is exacerbating divisions rather than bringing solutions closer to fruition.
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania famously switched parties this week, going from being a Republican to being a Democrat because, he said, “Since my election in 1980, as part of the ‘Reagan Big Tent,’ the Republican Party has moved far to the right.”
In other words, the political parties have banked to extremes, and the tepid ground for a political moderate such as Specter to stand on has fallen away. In terms of the political playing field, Specter’s defection further empowers Democrats. This erodes discourse and favors the disenfranchisement of the Republicans. There is no way for politicians to reach across the aisle; they must now take a running jump.
Carrie Prejean, a Miss USA contestant, last week opened up the country’s divide when she spoke about her belief in strictly “opposite marriage.” Awkwardly, the discussion of same-sex marriage took the spotlight, and debates continue to rage around the country on the appropriateness of such legal unions.
States are enacting same-sex marriage laws, from Iowa to New Hampshire. At the same time, opposition groups are lashing out via activism and television advertisements warning — albeit curiously — of the “storm gathering” as an attack on family values.
Heated opposition extends even into the investment community. Short sellers, or those who take the opposite side of a trade, believing share prices will fall “short” or go down, are under fire for their investment tactics. The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering regulating the way in which investors “short” stocks based on market conditions.
As MarketWatch Editor-in-Chief Dave Callaway wrote earlier this month: “Short selling, a useful and important tool in any investment arsenal, was turned into a dangerous weapon over the last few years through the rise of the credit default swap derivatives market.”
Of course there is investor outcry over any such regulation even though one can imagine the damage caused by taking the opposite position in a falling market, excitedly pushing the market down, down, down — for profit.
There are even those who seek out businesses largely considered the opposite of ethical. USA Mutual’s Vice Fund, for example, invests in “sin stocks.” It unabashedly takes the side of alcohol, tobacco, gaming and military defense sectors that are, let’s just say, out of philosophical favor with many investors.
In a recent report the fund says, “Those unable to kick the nicotine habit have been doing investors in the vice sector a big favor.”
Diametric opposition to values has somehow become fashionable and is embraced without any seeming care for conciliation. When Specter turned Democrat, for instance, many Republicans and conservative commentators said good riddance — and suggested other lawmakers who should exit the party with him.
An Associated Press poll conducted on President Obama’s first 100 days in office shows that the country has strong approval ratings for the path it’s on, rising to 48 percent from 17 percent last November. But that, to me, still means the population is almost evenly split.
Indeed, the AP says, some 44 percent of those surveyed believe the country is on the wrong track. “Almost two out of three Americans approve of how Mr. Obama is doing his job, although only one in four Republicans are happy with his performance,” the AP says.
What the numbers don’t and can’t show is just how much virulence is stocked on each side. This is a dangerous divide, and it needs to be fixed. We are close to becoming a nation of hate. We are supposed to be the United States of America, not the Divided States of America.
Synthesis is due.
*This article originally appeared on Dow Jones’ MarketWatch.com Web site.
Last 5 posts by Thomas M. Kostigen
• Business Takes Up the Green Cause - April 26th, 2010
• The Need for a New Global Ethic - October 23rd, 2009
• SEC Steps in to Protect Investors - June 16th, 2009
• When Going Gets Tough, the Help Embezzles - June 2nd, 2009
• Shame Is a Powerful, Necessary Deterrent - May 22nd, 2009
