America stands divided

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

A recent Time magazine cover made reference to the divided states of America. President-elect Trump was on the cover, thereby suggesting–at least on the glimpse–that the division was his making.

You will recall Trump was not president for most of the preceding decade.

Nevertheless, the issue is legitimate. Are we a divided nation?

The quick answer, I think, is yes, America is more divided than a Sunkist orange. Evidence points to how the vote split in the recent election along political and geographic lines. One can also mark the rancor of the sides rhetorically and the widespread refusal to compromise within the political apparatus for the common good of those represented.

The sides, liberal vs. conservative, seemingly detest each other and make their feelings known. The more strident one side becomes, the more the other responds in kind.

Wouldn’t it be nice, we ask ourselves, if everyone could just get along?

Don’t hold your breath. The fact is we have been a divided country for most of our history with political fluctuations accounting for changes in office.

America wasn’t even close to unified when the revolution began in 1775. The truth is a small percentage of colonials rebelled against the crown with broader support coming along gradually. Many sat on the fence. Others, loyalists, returned to England rather than turn against the king. A few played both sides.

America was divided for decades over the issue of slavery which not only split opinion but the country itself, culminating in the most destructive war in our history. The Civil War left scars still healing and set the stage for further harmful practices such as segregation.

In the 1960s America divided over the Vietnam War in ways today’s youth cannot imagine.

We have divided over labor, women’s rights, taxation, religion and any issue you can name.

My point is division within a country where differences of opinion are allowed is not a destructive thing as long as it doesn’t venture outside commonality.

The one thing we must maintain is a national sense of being. That is what sustains our mutual defense and why we must all come running when the house is on fire. Support of nation and those inhabited within sustains all.

America was most unified during World War II when the country was unjustly attacked. Citizens responded in the millions and minor dissent was supplanted by patriotism, sacrifice and courage. We knew what was right and wrong.

Unity brought victory. Fascism and expansionism were stopped.

It is not in Americans’ nature to accept political hectoring without question. We tend to accept what sounds logical and principled within our personal code, but we uniformly reject what we fail to see modeled successfully. We Americans are more accepting of proof than propaganda because we know the difference. If not, there is no excuse.

For now, the left has been rejected, its agenda exposed and its intent clarified. Lefties’ response was predictable to those of us who know them well: they chose the divisive route over acknowledgement of their condition.

There could be no fault of their own, you see. Clinton lost, the left persists, because of the archaic Electoral College, the Russians, voter suppression, and for the vast ignorance of masses indifferent to liberal correctness in all things. There have been many explanations for rejection but none point to the most visible source–the left itself.

We are divided, I submit, because the left divided us with its message, its manner, and its relentless need for control over everything. Their presentation suggested the best protection of freedom was to have less of it.

Understand, the left won’t change. They are incapable of it and derive their power from insistence. The key to their success isn’t the end of racism but the perpetuation of it. If poverty could be truly ended, the left would have no resource from which to draw validation. So the poor get poorer while the successful become more villainous and the political more vicious.

Barack Obama said he would unite the country, but I saw no evidence that he even tried.

Donald Trump has said the same, but the left will do all it can so that doesn’t happen. Indeed, they are at it already, united in their hatred of a man whose only ideology is “America first!”

Liberals claim to be agents of change, but they mean everyone but them. That position is not an antidote for divisiveness.