I remember a time—not that long ago, let’s see maybe nine or 10 years ago?—when political differences of opinion were not the basis of doing business with someone. That’s changed drastically.

Politics and religious beliefs are probably the last thing you want to talk about when you are doing business with anyone, especially religion. But political leanings, left or right, now are becoming just as divisive as what’s happened with religion.

Okay, so let’s say I’m a Hindu. Or I’m an agnostic. Say I don’t believe in Jesus Christ or even an almighty God. What does that have to do with my ability to do business with some else? My personal religious views are my own business and no one else’s. If you truly feel that you cannot do business with people who don’t have your religious beliefs, well, then you could have some serious problems in commerce. Moreover, you could be potentially breaking the law of the land. America was, last time I checked, founded upon the principle of the division of church and state. The Pilgrims came here seeking religious freedom, didn’t they? No one church or religious belief (or lack thereof) should dominate what happens in our government or in business, for that matter. If you don’t agree with this, I think you might want to go back and read our Constitution. We have freedom of religion in this country, by law.

You may not like the fact that I’m a Hindu and you’re a fundamentalist Christian. Our religious belief differs. But we’re both Americans.

Same for political views. It’s such a shame that politics in this country has become so divided. We can no longer have civil discourse with those with whom we disagree, politically. It’s always a fight for the win, and there’s some serious disrespect on both sides of the fence.

The only way we can manage to get along is for both sides to respect the right to different views. You may not agree with your neighbor, but you sure have to respect that party’s right to have an opposing viewpoint.

Frankly, I think that the nastiness that’s occurring on the national front has to do with our current governmental leadership. It’s based on “I-win/You-lose” attorney mentality (there are many attorneys in government—167 members of the US House of Representatives and 55 Senators are attorneys). It’s obvious that we need more women, less attorneys, more ethnic and racial representation in our government officials. And these should be people who are more interested in fair governance, the big picture, and not focused so much on winning for winning’s sake. It also a factor of our economic system, capitalism. The guy (girl?) with the most toys wins. Yuck.

Should everything we do be based on a mentality (or an economic system) that’s always geared towards the win? What about doing good too? Doesn’t that count for something?