I am wearing my American flag pin this week.

I had to dig it out of my top drawer and rub off the rust spots.

I wore it quite a bit after 9/11. I wore it when I was part of a march through the French Quarter opposing the war in Iraq. I wore it almost every day after my son-in-law, a Marine, was shipped over there.

And then one day, someone made the wrong assumption. “Well of course,” she said, “that’s the Republican symbol now.”

 I put the pin away. And then, I joined my fellow Americans as we proceeded to demonize each other.

“Socialist.” “Nazi.” “Tree-hugger.” “Blithering idiot.”

Flash forward to the last presidential campaign.

Never have I seen one so bitter, so mean, with so much back-biting, and with so little discourse. It was a disgrace. Americans didn’t talk to each other, they talked at each other. They shouted, whispered, mocked, all but put their fingers in their ears and sung “lalala” when the opposition tried to make a point. Every concept was reduced to a slogan. No thought that couldn’t fit on a bumper sticker was allowed.

By this time I had moved north of the lake, into Republican territory. A handful of Democrats opened an Obama for President headquarters in Covington, La. Someone ripped down the banner that hung across the front of the building. People stole political signs from other people’s front lawns. I found a subtle bumper sticker — a big blue dot, with the words “Another bright blue dot in a very red state.” The print was very small. Nobody messed with it.

I went to a meeting of the Democratic Woman’s club.

Someone brought out a camera to take a group picture for the Covington section of The Times-Picayune. The woman standing next to me bolted out of range. “Don’t want to lose my friends,” she said.

My own family was divided. Four of my adult children were passionate about Obama; two were for McCain. After a few initial salvos, our family stopped discussing it. We Obama-ites e-mailed Huffpost stories to each other, and I imagine the others exchanged Drudge Report excerpts. We watched MSNBC; they watched FOX. Each side wondered how the others could be so stupid.

Their father, like me, was for Obama. At a neighborhood meeting, he mentioned something about watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, and the woman he was speaking to touched her husband’s arm and whispered “He’s one of us.”

My daughter gave me a shirt that read “Republicans for Voldemort.” I loved it.
I am not proud of this. Here we were, Americans all, in each other’s faces or smirking behind each other’s backs.

Nobody talked about compromise. Nobody wanted to agree about anything. No middle ground. You were either with us, or against us, to quote somebody.
Now, it’s time to stop.

Obama-ites, stop being so smug. Bushies — no more saying “NOBama.”

Because compromise we must, if the planet is to keep turning on its axis. And that means talking to each other politely, realizing that people who don’t agree with us, still may have a valid point of view — may, in their hearts, be good people. Or at least sane.
And let’s wear those flag pins. All together now.

Liz Scott Monaghan is an instructor in the School of Mass Communication. She can be reached at [email protected].