We are going first person here because this tiny bit doesn’t reflect the entire staff’s experience. It only happened to me. My daughter and I moved to a small exurb of Mobile that is a little artsy touristy-resort town on the very tip of the bay tucked between Mobile and the tourist beaches. The town itself has 18,000 people and so one school it includes the kids from the countryside around us makes for a very big and very wealthy public middle school (Archery team in middle school).

She has to make friends.

She started talking to another girl in her history class. They were both new and talked excitedly, except one big thing loomed over the conversation. Both are extremely smart kids in “Accelerated History” and thus both know the politics of the country. Both kids danced around the issue, knowing it could be a deal-breaker if they were to get along. One mentioned COVID and the other the vaccine, one said she was fully vaccinated, the other said she was, too! A huge development, one says “aren’t the anti-vaxxers morons,” the other says yes. And then it’s done, both agreed Trump is a fcking moron who is responsible for this and both kids’ families are Democrats. My daughter was bursting with excitement as she got in the car. Her first real cool friend.

Okay so now back to what matters. The Senators in Washington faced what amounted to a dealbreaker with their party, in a very similar test. It shouldn’t matter in the overall scheme of things. Senator Lindsey Graham knows the country needs the infrastructure bill just as much as a person needs friends. He also knew that the vast majority of the country, which we presume includes South Carolina, want that bill done. Lindsey voted yes.

By doing so, Lindsey broke his deal and friendship with at least a portion of the South Carolina party this week. THAT is how far this country has become. Any vote that can be perceived as helping Biden, or even middle school friendships, depends upon who is doing what with respect to politics. A South Carolina county GOP has censured Lindsey Graham.

According to the Aiken Standard, reported Saturday.”The Aiken County Republican Party has overwhelmingly voted to censure U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, citing his support of the behemoth infrastructure bill that recently passed the Senate.” 

This actually is stunning and actually is important. The two parties are simply incompatible all the way down to one vote in the Senate and one friendship for 13-year-olds. The problem can’t be solved if “both give a little,” not when even middle school kids know that it goes all the way down to something as critical as vaccinations. The Board didn’t turn to each other and say, “This is too far, come on, he voted for a bill that a lot of Republicans voted for.

So for Lindsey, if one county feels this way, significant members of the state’s GOP must feel the same way. If two smart little girls feel this way, millions of smart kids feel the same way about deal breakers.

It is one horrible situation but it is reality.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LeftScoop.news. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.