Remember “United We Stand?”
That phrase bounced round and round in my mind during the recent anniversary of 9/11. It seemed that the dust and pulverized glass of New York and Washington barely settled before the decals emblazoned with that saying went up on cars across America. Shortly after that came the magnetic ribbons asking us to “Support Our Troops” (for there is indeed an understood “You had better” implied before that phrase.) Rarely I see both of those on passing vehicles but they are weather-worn and faded like the Motley Crue tour t-shirts from my Scaramouch days of 1989.
In retrospect, that era of unity seemed to last a whole tidy ten minutes.
The United States is in a time of distinct polarization. That much is evident but someone with deep historical perspective might point out that it wouldn’t be for the first time or even the most severe case (Civil War, anyone?) Correct. What is significant, however, is that a Pew Research poll has found that the U.S. is now more politically divided than it has been for 20 years. Party lines are so deep-set against one another that 37% of Republicans report believing that the Democratic Party is a “threat to the nation’s security and well-being” while 27% of Democrats think the same of the GOP. The distrust, ire, and even intense animosity are the order of the day. But what does that mean for the road ahead? I am no prognosticator. My Magic Eight Ball has proved itself worthless and if I had any modicum of clairvoyance I would have a winning lottery ticket by now. I do, however, entertain a perhaps shocking scenario. I’ll get there in a moment but let’s first take a look at this division.
To see this split in the national fabric, one need only toss out a litmus test issue.
President Obama’s call to raise the minimum wage has more or less galvanized Democrats and independents. While several Republicans are in support of the move, those supporters face serious dissent from the GOP base.
The Supreme Court further reflected this national division with their Hobby Lobby ruling of last July. Like a black light on a hotel bedspread, the aftershocks of the ruling revealed a fissure straight along the lines of religion
Speaking of religion, one might think that such a practice would involve compassion. That attribute does not appear to factor into the decision-making process of the right when it comes to immigration. This summer saw tens of thousands of refugees, many of them children, flood the border and detention centers in Texas. As people blocked buses of these refugees from entering their towns, little could be accomplished through the gridlock of Washington. The Republican-led House voted to repeal the President’s previous executive actions on immigration. This development, however, has little chance of passing through the Senate.
Then there is the omnipresent schism of race. The recent killing of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri highlighted this as it led to nights of rioting and continuous controversy. What exactly happened? Did Brown, an unarmed 18 year-old, assault the officer or was this a case of police overreacting? A poll by the New York Times indicates that your answer might be based on your ethnicity. Most whites say they are either reserving judgment or say that the shooting was justified. Blacks on the other hand mostly say the killing could not have been warranted. Unsurprisingly, a similar chasm spans the level of trust that both whites and African-Americans report having in police officers. A total of 70% of whites polled reported feeling safe and confident that they would not be victims of police brutality. Only 40% of African-Americans could say the same.
While poll data is a useful means to quantify the divide and to make it concrete, sometimes you don’t need it. The schism reveals itself through heated and vituperative proclamations.
Take Donald Trump. Please.
Sorry. Bad joke.
Trump, speaking from dubious medical credentials, asserted that missionary doctors infected with Ebola should not be brought to the United States. He tweeted, “The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!” But just to clarify, he did call the doctors “great.” Likewise, opposition to the sitting President has long lost all civility in certain circles. The most recent example comes from the owner of Tactical Firearms in Texas, who placed a message on his store’s sign that asked if a member of the Obama family should be beheaded.
But wait. How, you may ask, could things be so heated? When voter turnout appears continuously low and more and more people utter the phrase, “I don’t care about politics” and then abdicate themselves further from the process, isn’t such charged rhetoric the sign of but a few people having it out like savages and not a reflection upon the majority? Maybe. The rub, however, is that the more vocal someone is about their views the more involved they typically are. They vote. They contact representatives. They are engaged in the process.
These are the people that candidates worry about.
Will that mean anything, good or ill, for the midterm elections this November? Don’t count on it. Whatever the result, the side that comes out the loser will gridlock the process with more filibusters in the Senate and/or President Obama will be freshening up the veto stamp. Not only that, but political ideology seems more thoroughly interwoven with religious convictions…or lack thereof…more than any time in the past. Just as one small case in point, Senator Ted Cruz (R, TX) recently gave the keynote speech at a summit of Arab Christians hosted by In Defense of Christians. Cruz asserted that Christians have “no greater ally than Israel” and that the state should be defended. The crowd turned, booing and jeering Cruz who responded, “If you hate Jewish people, you are not reflecting the teachings of Christ.” Apparently, the Senator made the leap in logic that the opposition could not possibly be on grounds of policy and must be on faith. His claims of antisemitism among his Arab audience must have made sense to him at the time.
This is the fundamental problem with recent fusion of religious…primarily Christian…idealogy and political parties. One can usually change their mind on a issue of policy. It is less likely they will do that if the policy is somehow tied to their sense of spiritual ethics and the fate of their soul. To see this, note that recent research found that 49% of Americans said they would be unhappy if someone in their family married an atheist. As an addendum, 36% of conservatives reported the same if a member of their family married a Democrat. These two disparate ideologies don’t seem like they will ever see eye to eye. “Compromise” has become a curse word and a sign of weakness in a leader. Where will this leave us?
Maybe with my “shocking scenario.”
Right now, followers of the two ends of the political spectrum are like a husband and wife who emotionally know that their marriage is over but who continue to live under the same roof. The cost of a divorce would be too great, they’re trying to stay together for the kids, or what have you. So long as one party doesn’t bring their dates home to the house, everything is fine. But that approach tends to have a finite shelf life, the tension reaches a terminal point, and the two people involved oftentimes end up making that physical split.
Will that happen with America?
Will we break off into two countries? History is repleat with “bloodless” revolutions and secessions where two regions once whole bifurcated into separate entities. Could it happen here? Perhaps. While there is a strong geographic component to our divided nation, it is also one of thought. The lines of separation might not be neat in the Mason-Dixon way but messy and fuzzy.
Maybe the phrase on the bumper stickers needs an update for the times. “United We Stand…Just in Different Places.”
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