THANKS LARGELY TO HILLARY CLINTON and progressive Democrats in the U.S. House of Representative on one side, a number of obstinate Republicans in the Senate on the other, and presidents who put egos ahead of the country, the U.S. has been fragmented as it now only a few times in the past.
Is there hope Americans can overcome these divisions?
THIS IS NOT THE FIRST time the nation has been divided.
At its birth there were those who wanted to remain subject to England’s royalty and some who wanted independence.
When the industrial age came to the northern states, a movement gained momentum to free the slaves in the south. It might have happened anyway over time, but a war was fought not over slavery but for freedom from Washington. President Lincoln emancipated — by presidential fiat — the south’s slaves in 1862; the war had been in progress since April 12, 1861.
- On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the states currently engaged in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
Lincoln didn’t actually free any of the approximately 4 million men, women and children held in slavery in the United States when he signed the formal Emancipation Proclamation the following January. The document applied only to enslaved people in the Confederacy, and not to those in the border states that remained loyal to the Union. (https://tinyurl.com/ycnr8hgk) Lincoln’s sole intent was that the slaves should rise up against their masters.
Fortunately, despite a few crazies on each side, America has not again fallen into a state of “hot” warfare, but the schism between right and left is reminiscent of the “cold” war between the U.S. and the former USSR.
There are painful remnants of America’s civil war extant. Consider the oft-heard name “War of Southern Independence” to refer to “Mr. Lincoln’s war.”
Yet this conflict officially ended in April, 1865, nearly 155 years ago as this is keyed.
No matter who wins in 2020, America loses
No matter if President Trump wins another term or a Democrat replaces him in the White House, he, or she, will be hard pressed to succeed in anything.
If the House remains in control of the Democrats — who seem to have surrendered to the party’s “progressives,” nothing a Republican president can propose will be found acceptable.
If a Democrat moves into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., a Republican Senate will stand ready too thwart any proposal.
Should either party win the White House, the Senate, and the House, perhaps the country will move forward, but possibly only for a few years. Neither party is going to go away or change its stripes. If anything, the parties’ leadership — and that term is used loosely — will, like Pharaoh, harden its heart to the people’s wishes.
Mr. Rogers for president
This country does not need a decent 5¢ cigar (https://tinyurl.com/qvjwkth), it needs civility. It needs a simplex radio mentality: I talk, you listen; you talk, I listen. We cannot “talk over” one another. Similar to email: you send, I receive; I reply, you receive.
In addition to preventing shouting matches, it also may provide time for both sides to consider, calmly and rationally, what the other is proposing.
What we need is civility, courtesy, a genteel approach a la the late Fred McFeely Rogers.
It’s used to be OK for a politician to denigrate an opponent within the confines of the Oval Office as presidents Harry S Truman and Richard M. Nixon are said to have done, but today, with malcontents at the ready to report both fact and fiction to the media, this is not the case.
Before (anti-)social media, a politician of import either thought — or had someone to think for him/her — before promulgating a slur on an opponent or idea.
Also “before (anti-)social media,” people had time to fact check (or have “facts” checked for them) before shooting from the lip or the tips of the fingers.
If we can’t have Fred Rogers, perhaps Alfred E. Neuman — What? Me worry? — would do on an interim basis. Someone who won’t take umbrage on every real or imagined slight.
Pogo was right
It is not only the liberals, in all their incarnations, nor the conservatives in their many variations, it is all of us who fail to proffer basic courtesies to one another,
Until we, as a nation, regain civility toward one another, the chasm will only widen.
With physical attacks increasing due to philosophical differences, we are left with only a few options:
- Return to civility
Anarchy
Civil war
Only one of those options can keep America great.
It is said that Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians because the Jews abandoned the commandments and once, to the Romans, because of internal dissension. Is there a Rome waiting in the wings for Americans to destroy their own country from within?
Many great nations have risen, fallen, and disappeared. Will America be next?
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.
