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On Tuesday, news broke that former President Donald Trump received notice that he was the target in a new criminal probe looking into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Predictably, social media camps quickly retreated to their corners before they came out swinging.

Those on the left celebrated the news, taking it as another step toward bringing the former president, who many have already convicted in their own minds, to his knees. 

Meanwhile, many on the far right raged at the news, returning to claims of a weaponized justice system, driven by the left, that is determined to take down Trump on the way to the 2024 election.

Both sides attempted to argue with various points of logic they claim work toward the betterment of our nation. However, often times the arguments were laced with venom and vitriol we’ve come to expect in modern day politics and unfortunately, modern day America.

At the same time, there can be little doubt that if the roles were reversed and a Democrat did something along these same lines — as many on the far right claim — the roles would be reversed. One only has to look at the recent plea deal made by Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son in a case that many Republicans say was rigged because he is the president’s son.

For years now, attacks have been leveled in one direction or another, as if in ancient siege warfare against one another for little to no gains.

There are questions of fairness within the Supreme Court, local politics have featured fights over lifestyle choices and even school boards are not immune. 

The problems are many, and yet they all are systematic of the slow erosion of what built this nation.

None of these things should really be celebrated. In fact, we should all be taking a step back and looking hard at an overall system that is crumbling before our eyes. 

Rather than conversations and debates, we are relying on being the loudest in room to prove we are right. We have become echo chambers for the news of our own convictions rather than taking time to look at things rationally.

The outcome for this is we are challenging our own long-held belief of being the greatest country in the world. Most still do, of course, but rather than looking at our successes, we point the finger to the other side and say “you are bringing this country down.”

This country has severe issues and it’s time we look at these issues with the gravity required. We are never going to fully agree with one another, but rather than simply devolving into a shouting match, we need to take difficult looks into what we have lost and how we gain it back again.

The answers are never easy in cases such as these and in full disclosure, there are no answers to be found here.

But what we can see is the loud fighting, using social media as the court of our public opinion, but carries little to no weight. We are flailing in the dark in oftentimes pointless arguments.

It’s time to turn the lights back on.