US politics needs ‘conversation’ – Archbishop

The accusations between political opponents in the United States following the US elections in November 2020, and the January 6 storming of the US Capitol building in Washington left no space for “conversation”.

The divisiveness which occurred was “the work of the devil,” Archbishop Jason Gordon said while giving his perspective on the events in the United States.

He cited Pope Francis’ 2020 book Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future in which he states the devil is the great accuser and the work of the devil is the work of accusation.

“When we are only looking to accuse others, that is the work of the devil,” Archbishop Gordon said in the first instalment for 2021 of Ask the Archbishop live on Facebook Wednesday, January 20.

The accusations bring vitriol and division which left “no space for conversation” as hate is reflected on both sides. “There is no easy way out of this,” he added.

Archbishop Gordon said listening to both sides [Republicans and Democrats], he came to the assumption there were two brands of “Kool-Aid” being consumed by people, one was blue and the other red.

“Those who were drinking the red Kool-Aid saw one set of things, and those who were drinking the blue saw something totally different and there was no conversation between the two.”

He said politics is supposed to be rational, but it has become irrational. He mentioned the “race” talk which came after the August 10, 2020 elections in T&T as irrationality. “People started to make racial assumptions, slurs and accusations, that became an impossibility to have a real conversation.”

By Lara Pickford Gordon