In the experiences of many people, the political damage that we inflict on our political systems through the destructive effects of polarization is no less destructive than is the damage created as a result of physical wars such as we see in Syria, or for that matter, any country where some type of physical war is a part of the culture.  The policies of government, such as those that dictate health care and law enforcement, when flawed, often result in life-and-death events. And ill-conceived ideas that are the product of polarization can maim what they don’t kill.  They can also starve us, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

 The physical world is, among other things, a teaching tool. Physical, mental, and spiritual energies work together as a whole, and are thus relatively unified. As a result, we can learn at lot about one energy system as a result of what we know about another.  We can learn about the effects of our various mental wars by studying the patterns we find in physical wars.

Whether it’s the people’s business that doesn’t get taken care of, or things that are not done correctly because of compromises that had to be made in order to at least get something accomplished, citizens all over the world are increasingly waking up to the fact that they are paying the bill for the polarizing, selfish political maneuverings of well-paid government officials, and that the cost is extraordinary and growing. Increasingly, the citizens of the world are recognizing that the effects of polarization are draining them physically, mentally, and spiritually, and they want their governing systems to change.

Conservatives are naturally the first to see the costs of bad government because of the left-brain’s conservative focus on security and on the money that helps buy it. The selfish conservative side of our brain also recognizes the value of collective security, and innately recognizes that a government that is ideologically divided is a weak government.  Being so strongly focused on these issues, naturally, conservatives are the first to revolt en masse when such problems are recognized. More than any other factor, the reason Trump was successful in getting elected appears to have been his promise to dismantle a mal-functioning system—“drain the swamp” he calls it—something most conservatives and many liberals want. And while Trump might be creating his own swamp with his choices, that’s because he relies so heavily on one side of his brain for information rather than using the insights of both sides.  

The 2016 Elections in the USA saw large numbers of voters demanding change (in concert with voters around the Western world).  The better-educated class of liberals, because they use their brain more holistically, led progressive attempts to nominate a candidate who promised to change the system. But the conservative drive to revolt is inherently stronger than the liberal drive, and as a result of the conservative hemisphere’s natural drive to achieve self-preservation, conservatives were able to get their change candidate, whereas liberals fell short.