Politics in the United States have never been polite, but in 2019 politics have become downright frightening.

Reasonable, thoughtful conversations between Republicans and Democrats are nearly nonexistent. What has brought about this breakdown in communication?

Right here in New Hampshire consider the comments of our own Gov. Chris Sununu. A few years ago, he told the Republican caucus of the House, “You are either with us or against us; you are either a Democrat or a Republican.”

Can it be that there are no thoughtful, independent thinkers among our Republican legislators, that every one of them is content to move in lockstep in whatever direction the party demands? And in response to the broadly supported paid family leave bill and a budget that acknowledges New Hampshire’s responsibility to fund public education, our governor said “the Democrats are the barbarians at the gate.”

But there are legislators across the political spectrum who appreciate and support these carefully considered measures.

Clearly, there are powerful and disturbing reasons for the Us and Them division poisoning our state and our nation.

In her 2017 book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, Duke University history professor Nancy MacLean provides a persuasive account of the reasoning that drives this effort to divide us, as well as the carefully developed and stunningly effective strategy that has brought our democracy to the present moment.

The heart of this disturbing and critically important book is an account of economist James McGill Buchanan’s view that “what others described as taxation to advance social justice or the common good was nothing more than a modern version of mob attempts to take by force what the takers had no moral right to: the fruits of another’s person’s efforts. In (Buchanan’s) mind to protect wealth was to protect the individual against a form of legally sanctioned gangsterism.”

Indeed, the idea of helping one’s neighbor as described in the story of the Good Samaritan was analyzed by Buchanan as a situation in which the good neighbor allows himself to be fleeced by an undeserving stranger. Those in need are characterized as “parasites” on society.

Called “public choice theory,” Buchanan’s perspective was adopted as a stunningly effective rationale by the Koch brothers and other extremely wealthy individuals such as the DeVoses and the Scaifes to protect the entitled, those they deemed “the producers,” against “the others,” the parasites.” Valued moral traditions were rejected. Citizen-supported efforts to advance the common good were labeled “socialist.”

Indeed, a new slogan of the conservative right, prominently displayed at the Feb. 27-March 2 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is “Liberty Trumps Socialism.”

For these conservatives, there is virtually no common good. Only private goods matter. Our society becomes divided; it becomes Us against Them.

The privatization of such things as public education has become the mission of lavishly funded think tanks and conservative organizations across our nation. These organizations, often working out of general public view, include ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which offers legislators across the United States model bills that advance conservative goals such as school vouchers and voter suppression, and the State Policy Network, which is associated with New Hampshire’s Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy directed by Andrew Kline, the current chairman of the N.H. State Board of Education.

Privatization of public education as well as some mental health services appear to be key goals of our own Republican governor, Chris Sununu. The governor appointed Frank Edelblut as New Hampshire’s commissioner of education even though Edelblut has no credentials in education, was associated with the Patrick Henry College Foundation, an institution that required the teaching of creationism, and homeschooled all seven of his own children, which he certainly has the right to do.

Edelblut is now championing what is called “Learn Everywhere.” This program sounds attractive, but look more closely.

If authorized, Learn Everywhere would grant the state Board of Education, not your own local schools, which currently oversee Extended Learning Opportunities, the authority to review and approve or disapprove private instructional programs, and would require that school districts accept many of the credits such programs provide.

Edelblut’s Learn Everywhere program would remove a significant measure of local control over local, taxpayer-supported public education and in essence would set up a system where private entities could provide education to students outside the oversight of your own local public school system.

The governor’s support of privatization efforts can also be seen on the mental health front. A bidder on his $26 million project to build a 100-bed psychiatric hospital was CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), a contributor to the governor’s political campaigns.

The division between Us and Them begins with a twisted vision of what democracy means, and constantly repeated false “memes,” such as public schools are failing, government can’t do anything right, voter fraud is rampant. Capitalism, private enterprise, is surely valued by U.S. citizens. However, our Constitution begins with the words “We the People.” This phrase makes clear that our new nation valued community, the idea that there is a common shared good.

Helping one another was not viewed as a frightening imposition but as a moral good that made our entire society a better society.

Communities supported and continue to support public schools because well-educated students make our entire society thrive. Equally important is the fact that public schools offer young people the opportunity to learn with and from their fellow citizens.

Instead of being “siloed,” that is educated with only like-minded students, public schools provide places where a rich variety of ideas are explored and tested.

It is a fact of human life that living together and figuring out how to share the things we all want and need is difficult. It is difficult for couples, for families, for citizens in a society such as ours, for nations occupying various parts of a single planet. But stealthily destroying our trust in one another, in our schools, and in our government, in our ability to reason together to determine the wisest and best way forward is to plot the destruction of our nation as we have known it.

It is to make of “We the People,” Us and Them. This will happen, indeed it is happening, but only if we do not resist, if we fail to say, “No!”

We the People have been and are better than this. How can we once again become the United States of America?

I believe that if each of us commits to carefully seeking out and questioning those running for public office at every level, if we actively work to get out the vote for political candidates who are committed to represent our shared values, it is within our power to make our nation truly great again.

But as Doris “Granny D” Haddock made clear, “Democracy is not something we have, but something we do.” If we want the United States to remain a great and united nation, each of us has work to do. Now.

(Janet Ward lives in Contoocook.)