Opinion | Our political-tribal divide is a mile wide and an inch deep

What would you like to hear first — the good news or the bad news? I’ll start with the bad.

We are constantly told that our political leaders wear black or white hats, with nothing in between. Spoon fed to us by the grayest people imaginable; grasping office-seekers and the talking heads who amplify their most contentious points to attract the largest number of ears and eyeballs. It is the age of opinions (and even deeply held convictions) resting on very, very little.

We can see this tribal divide in Riverhead where, if we relied only on campaign materials, campaign signs and campaign speeches we would see Republicans described as racist traitors and Democrats depicted as open-border virtue signalers that believe America is deeply racist. 

Now — the good news.  Human beings are far more complex than the nonsense we are bombarded with.  Most Republicans are not racist traitors, and most Democrats are not open-border virtue signalers.  Rather, most of us view our fractured politics as an often upsetting distraction from what we really care about — our families, our health, our careers, and our country.

How do I know this to be true in Riverhead?  Not because I grew up here.  I didn’t.  I grew up in West Islip, spent most of my professional life in New Jersey, and moved to Riverhead because of its rural character and its natural beauty.

And not because, as a candidate for Riverhead Town Board, I am trying to get your money, get power, or feed my ego.  To the contrary, I am running, reluctantly, to stop the squandering of what Riverhead now is. 

What I know about Riverhead I learned recently.  It makes me feel better and might make you feel better, too.

I am a Republican going door-to-door with one of my running mates, Rene Suprina, who is a Democrat, running on a fusion ticket on the Democratic line (with Angela DeVito, Josephine Makowski, and Lori Hulse).  So far, not one person has said to Rene or to me “why are you doing this together?”  So far, not one person has said to us “I think this is wrong.”  But many people — Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, and independents — have told us “you’re running together is a good idea.  I am glad you are doing it.”

Because they know what you know.  That our tribal politics (“us” versus “them,” with nothing in between) is not working.  For any of us.

Andrew Leven lives in Riverhead. He is a candidate for Riverhead Town council member.

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