Letter: Why can’t we just disagree in presidential campaign?

I don’t think I am alone in finding the current presidential campaign depressing. We seem to have reached a point where we can’t just disagree. Political opponents, and indeed entire classes of fellow citizens, must be demonized and dehumanized.

Donald Trump recently went to New Mexico, a state where the ancestry of many of its Latino-American citizens goes back hundreds of years. He insulted Mexicans, and he insulted New Mexico’s Latina governor — a fellow Republican. A riot ensued. Something I doubt troubled Mr. Trump, because pouring gasoline on the fires of racial discord seems to be part of his political strategy.

So as we trudge towards November, it is instructive to remember the grace and wisdom of our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 2:44 AM with the headline "Letter: Why can’t we just disagree in presidential campaign?."