Last month I went to a meeting at an American Legion Post in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, organized by Search for Common Ground. SFCG promotes peace and reconciliation around the world--from Afghanistan and Burundi to Venezuela and Yemen and many other countries in conflict and crisis.
Using metrics that predict political violence, they are now working in America--specifically in Pennsylvania and Texas, which they see as the two states most prone to political violence in the U.S.
They brought together a groups of veterans as a place to begin the dialogue between people that disagree politically. As veterans we have in common our oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. Most of the veterans around the table were volunteers, although some of us served during the draft era.
I sat between the veteran who invited me and a physicians assistant who served in Iraq at the same time I did, though in a different region. The Physicians Assistant and I are democrats. She was the only woman in the group. Two other soldiers in the room I knew were conservative but against Trump. The rest were clearly Trumpians.
Importantly, several of the veterans said things that indicated they believed the 2020 election was stolen. Someone who seriously believes the election was stolen has a rationale (if not a reason) for political violence.
At one point in the exchange of beliefs in the room (discussion implies exchange of ideas; the participants expressed their beliefs) a staffer from SFCG said, "The tension in the room is palpable." He was very right.
At one point, I said to the room that I love expertise and brilliant people. I love modern medicine of all kinds. I especially love vaccines as one of the five greatest innovations in the history of medicine. I love journalism and journalists, and all of the regulations that protect us from greed and corruption.
I saw dagger eyes around the room. The guy opposite me endorsed the movie "2000 Mules" with its Qanon-based ideas of how the 2020 election was stolen. A former state legislator leaned back in his chair and expressed regret about the unfair attacks on President Nixon and how Walter Cronkite ruined journalism.
Afterward, I spoke to a local organizer and found out he was a staffer for Senator Pat Toomey. Since I protested in front of Toomey's Philadelphia office every Tuesday for six years, I told him we could be an example of reconciliation if he was interested. I asked a couple of times. The response was crickets. or:
It has been two months since the meeting. I have heard from one staffer once, but no one else.
In my view, the group showed the depth of the conflict, but maybe it also demonstrated that veterans are not the best place to start. On the simplest level, our group illustrated the proverb, "Two of a trade can never agree." Just as within families, the bitterest rivals in our lives are often those closest to us.
I was not surprised to learn that veterans and even high-ranking soldiers like 2022-gubernatorial candidate Colonel Doug Mastriano were represented in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at twice our percentage in the population.
Soldiers who believe the election was stolen hate soldiers who agree with the election results most of all. I feel the same about them. Any veteran who participated in January 6 or supports Trump after the insurrection has violated or is going to violate our oath to support and defend the constitution.
For me, civilians who support Trump after January 6 are vile and stupid, but not oath breakers.
"The tension in the room was palpable...." It still is.
