BY SHARON MARTIN

Is the distance between the left and the right unbridgeable?

The president and his family are enriching themselves at the expense of the American people. Do Republicans just not care or do they get their news from sources that don’t make this clear?

Paul Ryan’s economic plans and GOP legislation will hurt almost everyone in this country. Insurance will become more expensive, if you can get it. Protections for investors and anyone with a bank account are being eliminated along with coverage for pre-existing conditions. Special needs students no longer have an advocate in charge of education.

Republicans, do you even know what bills your legislators have pushed through in the dead of night?

The president lies as a matter of course. He denies things that he said on camera just days or weeks before. And according to psychologists, his supporters don’t care because he’s lying for them. Don’t you believe it! Anything President Trump does, he does for President Trump.

Reaction from my conservative relatives about last week’s testimony reveals a lot about the divide. One posted a video of a manic cat at a computer. The caption read, “This is Democrats deleting accusations against President Trump after Comey’s testimony.” Another sent a lengthy article from the National Review blasting Comey for making the people believe that the president was under investigation. This wasn’t the type of article he sent when Secretary Clinton was blindsided in 2016.

Did they even hear the testimony?

There’s disquiet in this household that no amount of hope or medication can dispel. Did ordinary citizens feel this in the run-up to the Civil War? What were their news sources? Did they know the war was coming?

Minorities, women, taxpayers, investors, immigrants, the LGBTQ Community, journalists, students, and those who don’t fit the mold that the current leadership prefers watch and wait as protections, respect, and rights slip away, the Bill of Rights be damned. What can frightened people do? How can we open eyes and hearts to the danger of the times?

How do we convince our conservative family members and friends that we have their interests at heart and not just our own, that it’s also their lives, their children, and their country at stake?

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer