Second in a Series…
What do you think divides us in McMinnville?
By Brad Durham
Dr. Smoot delivered me at the Clinic in downtown McMinnville in 1956. As a child of the fifties, I remember when Chancery Street was a beautiful tree-lined, two-lane street. I remember people saying they were “yellow-dog” democrats, and they were proud of being that. Today, most of the people in McMinnville are republicans. I was in the fourth grade when schools were racially integrated in McMinnnville. Our community is still trying to resolve divisions over various issues including race, taxes, politics, education and the beautification of the city.
Our former presidents such as George Washington and Andrew Jackson owned slaves. Then as now, America has been divided on political and spiritual issues. For example, Christians were divided over slavery, and both sides used scripture to defend their points of view. Similar to our early history, McMinnville’s citizens in 2023 have different views spiritually, culturally, and politically. Our political landscape is very divided, and both sides often use Christian teaching and scripture as references for their points of view.
As we truly listen to each other, hopefully, we see more commonality than division. McMinnville is stronger when it is united; weaker when it is divided.
The following are comments from the twelve people I interviewed.
I wish people would be respectful of other people and their opinions. I believe that we’re divided by…in this country…unfortunately from 2012 to 2020, we were divided by race — by the United States government within the United States government.
Stacey Harvey
More or less, what I think divides us is our actual government. Actually, having the city government and the county government because most people don’t understand the difference between the city controlling this…(and the county controlling that). The tax thing divides us too.
Terry Bell
I guess different mindsets. Political views especially now.
Judith Gomez
I think there is the same type of dichotomy there is in the country. I think there are democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives.
And I think the haves and have-nots divides us. We have people here who are struggling financially, and there a lot of people who are doing well. There is probably some trouble there as well.
Tony Lawrence
There are some people who want to hang onto how things were 50 years ago and maybe wish things were the same as they were then. I am sure there is a valuable reason they feel that way. There are other people who would like to see more progress.
Justin Tanner
Politics, right? It’s dividing the whole country, and I think it’s ridiculous that in national politics and the division we see there — we are seeing at the local level. That’s crazy.
Mandy Eller
I think we get caught up in issues like politics and parties that really don’t serve us well. And in our day-to-day lives don’t really matter, but for some reason we get really caught up in it. We get very concerned about who is doing what in Washington, and probably we should be more concerned about what is going on right around us.
Dr. Bryan Chastain
I think the fear of change. I think it has been fueled a bit by the political climate of our country, and I think that politics has instead of uniting people, has divided people. It’s become….if you are for that, then I’m against it. They draw the line and there is nobody willing to meet and compromise in the middle, and that’s what has made democracy so great for so long.
Jimmy Haley
That’s a tough one. When I first came here, I didn’t understand the way this works. We’ve historically been hard-core Bible Belt. We are about as traditional Bible Belt as you can get, and I think that is a divisive issue.
Todd Herzog
Not making sure that the citizenry is properly informed of decisions affecting their community. Not having the opportunity to participate in town hall or meetings or give input on development decisions. We have seen that happen recently on a couple of occasions and it breeds mistrust.
There seems to be a desire at this point, which you could see in the last election, to push party politics into McMinnville that will lead, in my opinion, to divisiveness and impede good debate on key issues. Warren County has been known for its people being independent thinkers and I would hate to see political gridlock become an impediment here.
Mac McWhirter
Politics. If you are a R or a D, it is almost like we do not associate with you. Regarding the restaurant, I have been told that you are a democrat, so I am not eating with you. I am human. I am a person. I am here to take care of you. I don’t care what your politics are, but too many people do. It has gotten worse over the past 6-8 years. It has literally become very divisive for this community.
Lisa Zavogiannis
Politics. Religion. We all have discriminations. When I say that, I mean so and so’s house is better than mine. Their car is better than mine. They have more money than I have. We all discriminate like that. That is all of us.
Wayne Wolford
Apparently, there is vast agreement in McMinnville that politics divides us. Politics may not be the only divisive factor in our midst, but it is probably at the top of the list. As Jimmy Haley indicated, we are not meeting in the middle to compromise as we once did.
It is my hope that we will find more common ground. If we can agree to disagree, we can agree to work on respecting our differences and working together for the greater good of McMinnville. Perhaps there is an “Abraham Lincoln” in our future who can help lead McMinnville to resolve its political divisiveness.
Next week’s article on April 25 will focus on the question, what do you think when you reflect on McMinnville’s future?
For more in-depth look at America’s history during Abraham Lincoln’s life and how he dealt with divisive politics, please read Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham’s book And There was Light Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle.
BD Newsletter 
“Politics” is the easy answer, because nobody wants to talk about how white Christian nationalism has been festering in the sweaty nether-regions of this whole area since the integration of public schools and is the root cause of the political divisiveness across the spectrum.
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YES, politics, but more specifically partisanship has divided McMinnville. There have always been political parties, but in recent years the leadership of both factions have concentrated taking partisanship to the local and lowest level in McMinnville society. Forty years ago, no one cared if their county clerk, mayor, or constable was a Democrat or Republican, and now suddenly, and regardless of the fact that there are actually more people who belong to neither group, party membership is all important when considering who is fit to hold those elected offices. Respect for the beliefs of one another were ignored in this turf war. Republicans publicly refer to Democrats as enemy child molesters who want to confiscate tax dollars from the struggling middle class worker and give them freely to masses of lazy, drug-smuggling illegal aliens crossing our country’s Southern borders, while Democrats see Republicans as racist, Christian nationalists who attacked our nation’s capital and want to exterminate the most vulnerable members of society. It’s difficult to find progress where so much hatred is being displayed and passed about.
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Maybe i’m guilty of not being the deepest thinker on the planet but under the heading of division: …who says we have to fit in one box or the other? TV Media? …seems convenient for them if we do. But that, to me, is using tinker toys to assemble our collective viewpoints…ya know, ya can’t accommodate nuances and curves. So if we subscribe to that MO then the byproduct is division. Personally, I believe we are capable of thinking on multiple levels, considering nuance, weighing the pros and cons, yielding an opinion. I just don’t subscribe to the theory that everything and a everyone is this way or that way….
Lastly, “conflation” is way out of control and has been weaponized beyond recognition. “So and so was seen at a table in a restaurant with three people who had (insert candidate) signs in their yards” ….it’s just not that simple. If I happen to be the “so and so” subject…maybe I agree with them, maybe I agree with SOME of their views, maybe I agree with none of them…maybe the reason for the lunch date at the restaurant was to sign up for an insurance policy?
If the consensus is we are all divided, maybe we need to take a hard look at what or who influences us. Personally, I’d like to think I can reach conclusions on my own and not base my opinion of others on a finite set of requirements.
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