Steven LaChance Blog

I came to an understanding recently. What we are dealing with in the United States is not political and should not be framed that way. It runs deeper than red or blue. Yes, people often line up that way and the extremes on both sides dominate the noise. But most Americans live in the quiet middle, trying to figure out how to fix things for the country as a whole rather than for a single party.

I watched a video of Bernie Sanders in West Virginia speaking with Trump voters. What struck me was how much their concerns overlapped. Jobs, health care, being left behind — they shared more than they disagreed on. Yet they had been taught to hate him, even when the common ground was right in front of them. That tells us something. Maybe the way forward is for the reasonable majority in the middle to stop letting the extremes set the terms and instead focus on what we agree on.

The truth is that the ultra rich want us divided. They need us distracted, fighting over party lines while they strip away freedoms and funnel more power into fewer hands. Bernie put it simply. They are not nice people. It may sound blunt, but it is true.

This is the zeitgeist of hate. It is not natural. It is manufactured. It is the trick of power. One hand waves to keep us angry while the other empties our pockets. And we keep watching the wrong hand.

So what about the hate? That is the point. The powers that be manufacture it because they know that if they give people someone to blame, the blame will not land on them where it belongs. Your trans neighbor is not the reason you are struggling to pay rent or put food on the table. But if they can convince you that person is the problem, if they can frame them as the cause of all your struggles, then you will never look upward to see who is actually responsible.

This is not a radical idea.

It is one of the oldest tricks in the book. History shows us again and again that when people are hurting, those in power hand them a scapegoat. In Nazi Germany it was the Jews. In the Jim Crow South it was Black Americans. During the Red Scare it was anyone who could be branded a communist. Today it might be your immigrant coworker or your LGBTQ neighbor. The pattern never changes because it works. Distract the people with hate and fear, and they will not notice who is really picking their pockets clean.

Modern research confirms that many Americans see through this game. A Pew Research Center survey found that majorities across party lines believe elected officials use divisive wedge issues not to solve real problems but to rile people up and keep them loyal. Another poll showed that nearly six in ten Americans believe culture war phrases like ESG are deliberately used to divide us. People sense the manipulation, but sensing it and stopping it are two very different things.

Talk to people honestly and you hear it. A Trump voter will often tell you one or two reasons they supported him and then admit they do not believe in most of what he says or does. It comes down to fear. Fear of hunger. Fear of losing work. Fear of losing everything. Reasonable people on the left carry the same fears.

We are more alike than different. We want roofs that do not leak, bills we can pay, food that does not run out, and a chance for our children to hope for more. When we see through the trick and step out of the zeitgeist of hate, we stop being played against each other. Then we can fight together for what truly matters: a fair chance at survival, dignity, and a future that does not feel stolen.