We are not a binary nation

March against wrongheaded arrests of peaceful undocumented workers. Make your voice heard when personal liberty is abridged. But take care that you understand all sides of the issues you care about.

Sep 12, 2025

an on off button on a black wall — Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash

Long ago, in a land far away — 1976 in Fort Worth, Texas — “binary” was a new concept for me. What we “wrote” in Fortran was miraculously transformed into “1” and “0,” binary. As part of those exercises, and indeed as part of my Math major, we learned to calculate in bases other than base ten. 1+1=10 in base 2.

If you’re a nerd at heart, the wonders of the Internet have now given us a binary calculator. You can convert binary numbers to base ten, and vice versa.

For non-nerds reading this: The long and short of base 2, of binary, means that there are only two numbers. Zero and One. Everything must be expressed in terms of those two numbers. Computer programming is based on base 2, binary stuff. And adopted the terminology of that corner of mathematics. When you talk about a Mb (megabit) for data transfer (not to be confused with MB or megabyte, for file size, isn’t math fun), you’re invoking that ancient binary notion.

Over time, “binary” has become a descriptor for other concepts. Its application for constructs as diverse as “base 2” (only two numbers), to logic (mutually exclusive states), to a material consisting of two equally important elements, to simple comparisons, and now to gender as part of our political discourse — these applications all derive from the earliest mathematical meaning of base 2, one or zero. From the Latin, binarius, “consisting of two.”

We are slowly understanding that gender is not binary. But this post is not about gender. It’s not even about mathematics, except to lay the foundation for a clearer grasp of the word.

It’s about us. All 340,000,000 of us. All of us who call these United States of America home. We. Are. Not. Binary.

We are not black or white. We are not Republican or Democrat. We are not liberal or conservative. We are not southerners or Yankees. We are not “flyover” or East-West-Third Coasters.

Sure, media treats us like we are. Mainstream media as well as influencers, talking heads, bloviators. They want to keep us firmly entrenched in their camps, camps they label as binary. You’re either with us or against us. You’re either black or white. You’re Republican or Democrat. Straight or gay.

Heaven forbid you try to be a woman in Kansas who is a registered independent who voted for Kamala Harris who supports subsidies to farmers who loves her intersex son who wants H-2A visas to be free who backs Palestinians over Israel who goes to her Baptist church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night who hates the idea of home schooling or charter schools. You are not binary.

Heaven forbid you try to be a man in California who is a registered Democrat whose wife is a stay-at-home mom who homeschools their children who is baffled by the difference between gender and sexuality and doesn’t want to think about that just now who advocates for a quick and fair and free path to citizenship who supports Israel and hates Netanyahu who is Jewish who volunteers at the local Catholic soup kitchen who sends $150 to the ACLU every month who shops at Target. You are not binary.

Heaven forbid you try to be a gay man in Pensacola who is a registered Republican who wholeheartedly backs Israel who is a pacifist who voted for Trump three times who thinks it’s crazy that Miami Republicans love a clear path to citizenship for Cubans while denying it to Mexicans who believes J6ers should spend the next thirty years in penitentiary. You are not binary.

Neither are the talking heads or influencers who try to force us round pegs into square holes.

Neither are you or I.

We’re all this crazy mixed-up hodgepodge of topographies that are unique to each individual. Whether we are first-gen Americans or one side of our family has been here for 150 years. Whether we grew up in a bilingual household or English-only. What religion (if any) we were raised in. What religion (if any) we are now. How our parents voted. Whether we lived in the same house from birth to college, or whether our parents moved us around. A lot, or some. Where we lived. Whether we attended public school or private. Whether our education stopped at high school (or earlier) or university. How much we’ve traveled. What race or ethnicity we are (including Heinz 57). And likely five-hundred more factors.

Many of which are unique to us in the USA.

Look at your own life, your “heritage,” to use a popular word. Seriously. Take pen and paper, or create a “Note” on your iPad. Think of as many bits and pieces that make up who you are, why you vote or think the way you do, how you became the person you have been becoming. Do you know anyone else who has exactly the same profile? Odds are extremely low that you do.

If a person your age, but living in Germany or Italy, were to do the same exercise, the odds that someone else has exactly the same profile increase dramatically.

Since we are not binary, as individuals, and as a nation, what are we then?

We are all Americans.

And we need to act like it.

You’re a Democrat and you disagree with Sen. Susan Collins re Israel? Fine, disagree with Susan Collins re Israel. That does not give you the right to denigrate her.

You’re a Republican and you disagree with Sen. Cory Booker re abortion rights? Fine, disagree with Cory Booker re abortion rights. That does not give you the right to denigrate him.

You’re an Independent who disagrees with Joe Walsh re income tax policy? Fine, disagree with Joe Walsh re taxes. That does not give you the right to denigrate him.

The same goes for Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Ilhan Omar, Elizabeth Warren, Teds Lieu and Cruz, Chucks Grassley and Schumer, Lindsey Graham, Tim Kaine, Mark Kelly, Mikes Thompson and Johnson, Nancy Pelosi, Petes Aguilar and Buttigieg. Even for Lauren Boebert, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton.

Disagree with their opinions. Fight back against the policies they put forward. And fight back hard.

While at the same time, listening.

I appreciated Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s gentle pushback of Stephen Colbert this week. He tried to prod her into disparaging the six conservative Justices on the Supreme Court. She would have none of it.

When Colbert read her blistering dissent in SCOTUS’s “decision” that froze a lower court’s decision which temporarily barred federal agents from using racial or ethnic profiling, she urged him and the audience not to stop there. They should read the entire decision, not just her dissent, she insisted.

Sotomayor expanded on this, emphasizing that we should, if not must, read actual documents without relying on the news media to interpret for us. I cheered as she said that! My difficult 140+ hours working through legislation introduced or cosponsored by John Fetterman, Dave McCormick, John Joyce, and Lloyd Smucker proved to be an eye-opener. Often what legislation or resolutions said did not resemble what talking heads made of them.

We have to read real documents. Primary sources. If we rely on Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Jesse Watters, Bill O’Reilly, or Joe Walsh for our opinions, we are lost. If we rely on others to form our opinions, we have ceased to think.

We don’t live in the dark ages of 1976 when only reporters like Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, or Dan Rather had ready access to primary source documents like speeches, lectures, legislation introduced or passed, SCOTUS rulings, or debates on the House floor. Our current media choices permit us to read transcripts or watch videos on YouTube, download a PDF of a ruling or watch a debate live on C-Span. Usually in real-time. A luxury those titans of journalism did not enjoy.

If you prefer news summaries on MSNBC or Fox, CNN or NewsNation, Twitter or BlueSky or Substack, great! Go for it! Just check out the information you absorb to ensure it’s accurate. If you ingest disinformation, it will poison your brain.

And when you find that something is misrepresented — whether by “our” side or by the MAGA side — call it out. Snopes and FactCheck.org are excellent go-to sources. If they have a link to an original document, read it. Wikipedia also is a good reference. Check out the footnotes, which tend to be primary sources.

If someone posts on Facebook: All Republicans in the House are wearing AR-15 pins, call it out. (It’s something like ten of ‘em — and yes, call out those ten, but stop with the broad brush). If someone posts, No Republicans expressed sorrow over the murders of the Hortmans, call them out.

This disinformation has not only poisoned our individual brains, it’s poisoned our national discourse.

Yesyesyes, we must figure out how to contend with Trump’s “flood the zone” approach to politics. Yesyesyes, people are not qualified for high-level Cabinet positions just because they were Fox news anchors. Yesyesyes, the quantity of lies told by MAGA-anchored influencers and talking heads and entertainers can be mind-boggling.

But. We should adopt the old-fashioned Democratic approach to change: One step at a time. One half-loaf at a time. Changing the mindset of one person at a time.

LBJ did not get his full voting and civil rights package when he started his “Great Society” campaign. But the change that was effected changed lives and enabled millions to access the American dream, even if imperfectly.

President Clinton did not get peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, despite working his butt off to achieve it. But he laid the groundwork that more rational minds (not radicals on either side) have returned to.

President Obama did not get his full healthcare package when ACA was passed. But that half-loaf was amazing.

President Biden did not accomplish all the legislation he set out to pass, legislation that would have helped farmers, repaired ailing infrastructure, placed guardrails around cybersecurity and SaaS. But he pushed through a helluva lot more than anyone thought possible. And he got Republicans on camera vowing not to touch Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That was a brilliant impromptu move.

Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore did not win their elections. But they established themselves as powerful forces to be reckoned with and shone bright spotlights on urgent issues.

So next time you start to write “orange turd” or “libtard” or “Crooked Hillary” or “Cadet Bonespurs” or “Little Marco,” ask yourself: Will using this epithet advance the political and moral agenda I believe in? Will it bring justice to someone? Will it make this a better America?

If not, then perhaps it would be a better idea not to use it.

Yes! Vehemently disagree with Trump’s unconstitutional use of the National Guard in U.S. cities. Yes! Vehemently disagree with stripping trans military members of their pensions and honors. Yes! Vehemently disagree with “enforced disappearances” (a human rights violation) and with extrajudicial arrests and with violations of the Fourth Amendment.

Vehemently disagree with harmful policies. Protest against authoritarian actions. March against wrongheaded arrests of peaceful undocumented workers. Make your voice heard when personal liberty is abridged.

But take care that you understand both sides of the issues you care about. Take care that you read Supreme Court rulings. Take care that you know what is in the legislation the talking heads tell you to dislike. Take care that you have a good grasp of what is inflammatory in something you find self-evident.

Because the 340,00,000 of us who inhabit this crazy, wonderful, beloved, aggravating, maddening place we call the United States of America are in this together. For better or worse. Till death do us part. We’ll only survive if we embrace the crazy, wonderful, beloved, aggravating, maddening qualities of our friends and neighbors. Those who don’t look like us, think like us, worship like us.

Take care.

Postscript: What role do you think marketing and social media may have played in this attempt to divide us into “black and white, Republican and Democratic” camps? This hit me just as I was about to post.

Am I the only person who feels like news is not about journalism, but about marketing segments?

Now more than ever

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