Commentary: The left, right need to come together for the common good

Where will the nation be headed after this ugly election season? More divisiveness and bitterness, or a new realization that we are still one nation?

The ideological chasm separating the Trumpites and Clintonites will remain no matter who is president or who controls Congress.

However, we have a challenging common agenda that, pursued without regard to partisan politics, will help repair the country as we move into 2017 with a new administration and Congress.

Here are some key parts of that agenda:

In the world’s richest country, too many people still go hungry. Will we redirect our fiscal priorities and increase our philanthropy to mitigate this problem?

The plague of heroin and opioid addiction continues to grow in big cities and small towns. We must either make an all-out assault on this affliction or addicts will continue to die with added agony for their families.

Guns are killing about 90 people daily, according to the Brady Campaign. Could not gun control advocates, such as Brady, and the National Rifle Association meet in a national town hall event to reason together about solutions? Such an encounter by itself would be the beginning of wisdom.

Human trafficking is not a problem affecting only other countries but the United States as well. Thousands of children are bought and sold yearly on our own mean streets. If we don’t begin to staunch this tragedy now, when will we?

There are hundreds of hate groups in the nation, some of whom have committed violent acts and made minority citizens fearful and discouraged. Will we commit to resisting their venom?

Middle-aged, non-college-educated men need compassion and new directions. The jobs they once held in the auto industry, coal mining, steel manufacturing and the like are disappearing rapidly. We must reach out to them as a nation, value what they have done and assist them in acquiring new skills.

Everyone is concerned about terrorism here and abroad. A variety of solutions are needed to blunt its hateful power. For example, celebrating the remarkable accomplishments of Muslim Americans, resisting Islamophobia, and cooperating with the Muslim community in efforts to fight all forms of extremism and hate.

The use of social media to spread hate degrades the American character. Sharp disagreements over governmental policies are fair game; insults and threats reduce us to thuggery.

Intense political differences will, of course, persist after the election. But when liberals and conservatives commit themselves to providing for the common good, sometimes-painful compromises occur.

Politics, after all, is “the art of the possible.” You get some of what you want, rather than nothing, and you return another day to fight for more.

What needs to change is the way left and right view one another, not with suspicion and even contempt, but a generous spirit.

We need, in short a new heart in the nation and a commitment to decency in the way we conduct the business of politics. Perhaps this is quixotic to hope for, but politics in its current state can only put in peril the great American experiment with representative democracy.

Costa Mesa resident BENJAMIN J. HUBBARD is a professor emeritus of religious studies at Cal State Fullerton.