Are We Going to be the United States of America or the ‘Divided’ States of America?

October 1, 2020

Our country is currently very sharply divided…that should come as a surprise to nobody.

Most Americans have a desire to see our country unified.  We constantly hear pleas for the country to “come together” and the “need for unity.”  Even the majority of our professional athletes, like the NBA and NFL players who have been protesting by linking arms together and kneeling together for our national anthem, are stating that they are attempting to convey the notion of “unity” through their social justice messaging.  Celebrities have given performances and issued public statements with “unity” as a fundamental message.  And “Big Tech” and other huge corporations have unity as a theme running through many of their commercials and ad campaigns.

But what constitutes “unity” and who is defining it?  Will that unity be based on our constitutional structure of liberty and the First Amendment freedom of speech to express one’s opinion…or will that “unity” instead be of the type that we are seeing more and more of these days, which is imposed by force and intimidation, through political correctness, censorship, suppression, and even violence?

With all of this apparent desire for unity, why is it that our country seems more divided than ever before?

And this division has become even more pronounced and intensified with the recent passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the upcoming confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.  Judge Barrett is an originalist in the mold of former Justice Antonin Scalia (for whom she clerked) and will likely be a polar opposite ideologically from the liberal activist Justice Ginsburg. As a result, if Judge Barrett is confirmed, it will constitute a major shift in the current balance of the Supreme Court.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) commented on the death of Justice Ginsburg by saying “Let this moment radicalize you.”¹  Radicalize…does that sound like a message of unity to you?

“Let this moment radicalize you.”

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

In response to President Trump’s decision to nominate a replacement for Justice Ginsburg (which he is obligated to do under Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution), CNN host Don Lemon told his CNN colleague Chris Cuomo that “we’re going to have to blow up the entire system,” and “get rid of the electoral college” and “stack the courts” if Joe Biden wins the presidential election.²  Does that sound like a message of unity to you?

Or how about this one…Hollywood filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner (a/k/a “Meathead”, for all of you “All In The Family” fans out there) tweeted the following in response to the decision by President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to fill the vacancy left by the passing of Justice Ginsburg: “This is war. Dems have powerful weapons. Now is the time to use them.”³  Hmmm…that doesn’t sound like a message of unity.

“This is war. Dems have powerful weapons. Now is the time to use them.”

— Rob Reiner

The reality is that we are in the midst of an ideological and cultural civil war in this country.  It is not yet military in nature, and the two sides are not as clearly divided geographically as the Civil War of the 1860s.  But the two sides have noticeably formed.  One side is fighting to divide this country, in order to tear it down as founded and constituted, and to remake this country into a Marxist, totalitarian country.  The other side is trying to hold onto traditional American liberties and freedoms…including our Bill of Rights and other individual Constitutional protections, as well as our traditional American values.  These two sides are clearly incompatible with each other.

Furthermore, the current media structure in this country is set up to perpetuate and continue this division.  One side, the liberal left, goes to sources like CNN, MSNBC, the Big 3 networks (i.e., ABC, CBS, NBC), the New York Times, the Washington Post, and to social media outlets (such as Facebook and Twitter) to get their so-called “news.”  The other side, the conservative right, goes to sources such as Fox News, talk radio, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and other right-leaning publications to get their so-called “news.”  At least with conservative talk radio (for example, Rush Limbaugh) and the Fox News prime time lineup (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, etc.), they make it very clear to their audiences that they are opinion commentators, and they do not attempt to position themselves as objective reporters.  Regardless, however, all so-called “news” these days is not objective on either side, but instead is presented with a certain slant and agenda.  There is no objective journalism or reporting of the news anymore.

The result of this ideological division is that our country is fracturing.  Benjamin Franklin once famously responded to a question concerning what form of government the founders had created for the United States of America by saying “A republic, if you can keep it.” (by the way, just as a side note, it is important to know and understand that America is in fact a republic, not a democracy)

When Abraham Lincoln saw how the issue of slavery was dividing America leading up to the Civil War, he made his famous statement (which originally came from Mark 3:25 in the Bible) that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  Lincoln understood that a sharply divided America would ultimately not be able to survive as a nation.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

— Abraham Lincoln

So how do you tear down the “house” (i.e., America)?…you divide it.  And there are powerful people and organizations who are attempting to do just that, divide in order to tear down the country.

One of the traditional mottos of the United States is “E pluribus unum” (which is Latin meaning “Out of many, one”). This phrase originated from the concept that out of the union of the original thirteen colonies emerged a new single nation. This motto is still found on much of our currency as well as on the Great Seal of the United States. Does “E pluribus unum” mean unity of thought? No, of course not…the citizens of this country are not robots (even though there is a bunch of programming going on today in public education, the media and commercial advertising).  But it does mean coming together and unifying to live under a common system of government and set of governing principles…namely, the Constitution.

Now there are powerful organizations and individuals who are attempting to reverse that philosophy and turn it on its head…trying instead to create “many, out of one.”

One example of this is found in the multiculturalism movement. America used to be referred to as the “melting pot”…where people of different ethnicities and cultures emigrated to this country and assimilated under a common language (i.e., English) and a distinct American culture. The objective for these legal immigrants was to become an “American” and to live under the freedom and liberty provided by this country.  Now, with the insertion of the multiculturalism movement into American society, sub-categories of Americans have been created and given a label as some type of hyphenated American (e.g., African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, etc.). Also, the common unifying language of English in America is being eroded through the introduction of bilingual education, television programming, signage, and even things like bilingual automated voice messaging systems.  The multiculturalism movement is not about unity at all, but instead is an insidious way of creating division.

A classic example of creating division out of unity in this country is in the area of illegal immigration. We now have a number of so-called “sanctuary” cities, counties and even states,⁴ which are blatantly thumbing their noses at federal sovereignty and federal immigration laws, and they are obstructing the enforcement of detainers and other actions of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.  This blatant violation of federal law is intentionally divisive action taken by these jurisdictions…and these jurisdictions are, in effect, “seceding from the union” on this particular issue.

Identity politics has also created division. Here the focus is on a person’s minority characteristics (e.g., based on race, ethnicity, gender, etc.) or other identity status (e.g., member of the LGBT or feminist community, member of certain age group, etc.). This has ramifications not only particularly in the area of hiring practices, such as quotas and other affirmative action programs, but also in the notion being pushed by certain political and other leaders in our society that only a member of a particular minority group can represent or speak for that group (e.g., only a woman can properly represent women, only an African-American can speak for the Black community, etc.).  We are also currently seeing identity politics creating a backlash against White people, by pushing the narrative of so-called “White privilege.”  This form of reverse discrimination (known as Critical Race Theory) is currently being taught in our public schools, in corporate training programs, and is being pushed by the radical left of the Democratic Party and the left-wing media.  The result of identity politics, naturally, is to create more division, not unity.  

And then of course there is the hatred, violence, rioting and destruction conducted by organizations like the anarchist group Antifa and the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization.  Antifa is a highly decentralized, far-left radical militant group that by their very nature is divisive and which attempts to achieve their objectives through the use of violence and intimidation tactics.  Antifa has been involved in the rioting and violence the last several months in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and many other U.S. cities.

Black Lives Matter is a radical organization founded by self-proclaimed “trained Marxists”⁵ (which makes support for this organization by entities like the NBA, NFL, Big Tech and other corporations, and the liberal media and the Democratic Party, absolutely outrageous).  One of the co-founders of this organization was the protégé of Eric Mann, who was a member of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization of the late 1960s (ok, pop quiz…which former U.S. President and First Lady have ties to the Weather Underground? Answer).⁶  The Black Lives Matter organization believes in the disruption of the “nuclear family structure”; in fact, they recently removed that reference from their website,⁷ because it was receiving too much negative attention.

“We are trained Marxists.”

— Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter organization is not about protecting Black lives at all…where are they in Chicago, with all of the numerous violent deaths of Black people in that city every week? Instead, they are a radical Marxist group intentionally trying to take this country backwards and create a race war, as well as attempting to tear down America and remaking it into a Marxist country. In fact, the president of the Greater New York Black Lives Matter group, Hawk Newsome, said that “[I]f this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally.”⁸  Clearly not a message of unity.

So what is the solution?  How can our nation unite and come together as one people?  We need a majority of American citizens in this country to rise up and take the following actions:

Focus our attention back on the U.S. Constitution.  Our Constitution provides the best governmental structure for unity as a nation. Is our country perfect?  Certainly not.  But the constitutional system developed by our Founding Fathers is by far the best system of government ever created by mankind.  In addition, this country has done more than any country on earth to correct its past mistakes and improve as a nation…for example, adopting the 13^th and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution (abolishing slavery and giving African-Americans and other racial minorities the right to vote), the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution (providing all citizens with equal protection under the law), the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution (providing women with the right to vote), the 1964 Civil Rights Act (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin) and the 1965 Voting Rights Act (prohibiting racial discrimination in voting practices).  Our Constitution, as amended, provides the framework for equality under the law for all Americans.  The Constitution needs to be emphasized and properly taught to our children and young adults in all of our schools and universities, and faithfully upheld and adhered to by all of our political leaders.

Categorically reject mob-rule and all rioting, looting, destruction of property and violence against people.  C’mon, the vast majority of us can agree on this, can’t we?  Peaceful protesting is one thing (meaning actual peaceful protesting)…it is constitutionally protected activity under the First Amendment.  However, peaceful protesting has been overtaken and replaced with mob-rule and the rioting, looting, destruction of property and attacks on innocent individuals by Antifa, the Black Lives Matter organization and other Marxist and anarchist groups.  We need to unify as a nation and with one loud voice demand that our governmental leaders (are you listening, mayors of Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, etc.?) take action to immediately stop this unlawful activity and hold those who have been participating in it responsible to the fullest extent of the law.  We must also demand that those who are financing the paid violent protestors and rioters be made known to the public and prosecuted to the maximum extent possible. And organizations like Antifa and Black Lives Matter (as well as White supremacist and all race-hating groups) must be thoroughly and overwhelmingly rejected by the American public.

Require a return to objective journalism and reporting.  As mentioned earlier, the current media structure is set up to perpetuate and continue the existing division in this country.  Opinion commentary and programming is fine and can still provide important perspective at times…but the problem is that all so-called “news” these days is agenda-driven. Americans also need a place to go where we can hear an objective reporting of the news (i.e., just a reporting of each day’s events, without any injection of opinion or bias), and then the people can either decide for themselves what they think about the particular event or seek out opinion commentary or other sources…hey, here’s a thought, maybe have a rational discussion with those around you about the event.

Return to a climate where there is tolerance for, and a willingness to listen to, opposing viewpoints. We need to fight for our First Amendment freedom of speech to express one’s opinion, and to push back on political correctness and attempts to censor or suppress opposing viewpoints. Our country has become so sharply divided that reasonable conversations among people with differing views are becoming a rare occurrence. The level of vitriol and hateful rhetoric directed at anyone who holds an opposing viewpoint is becoming all too frequent. We must come back to the realization that it is not only necessary but healthy for a country to have an environment where debating and allowing for the articulation of differing viewpoints in a reasonable manner is encouraged.  An environment where censorship and suppression exist, and where only one viewpoint is tolerated and any differing viewpoints are met with threats and personal attacks, is one of totalitarianism.

Return to God.  If you want to hear a true message of unity, how about looking to the Bible?  Christianity is often attacked by the world as being too rigid, restrictive, close-minded and bigoted…but consider this passage from Galatians 3:28 in the Bible:  “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Is there a more unifying message than that?  If ever there was a message of unity, this is it.  And it is not restrictive at all…the invitation is open to everyone.  There is no racism, sexism, discrimination or other division in Christianity.  That is because every single human being (including the unborn, by the way) is God’s creation.  And if we were all to look at each other that way, all of the labels and categories which create division under things like identity politics and multiculturalism all come tumbling down, and we can see each other as God’s special creation.

And as for America, this nation has been blessed by God whenever we have turned to Him and placed our trust in Him.  And God provides to us this promise from 2 Chronicles 7:14 in the Bible…“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

If the majority of us in our nation will act on this promise, we will see this country unify and heal.  There is our path toward unity…and now is the time to take it.

___________________________

¹ “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death: ‘Let This Moment Radicalize You’” by Ian Schwartz, posted on RealClear Politics website on September 19, 2020.

² “Don Lemon: ‘We’re Going To Have To Blow Up The Entire System,’ ‘Get Rid Of Electoral College’” by Ian Schwartz, posted on RealClear Politics website on September 21, 2020.

³ “Rob Reiner Rages Over RBG Replacement Battle: ‘This is War. Dems have powerful weapons. Now is the time to use them.’” by David Ng, posted on Breitbart website on September 19, 2020.

⁴ “Map: Sanctuary Cities, Counties, and States” by Jessica M. Vaughan and Bryan Griffith, posted on Center for Immigration Studies website on August 25, 2020.

⁵ “Black Lives Matter co-founder describes herself as ‘trained Marxist’” by Yaron Steinbuch, posted on New York Post website on June 25, 2020.

⁶ “Unvetted: Michelle Obama Hosted Former Terrorist Bill Ayers” by Aaron Klein, posted on Breitbart website on April 28, 2020.

⁷ “Black Lives Matter ‘What We Believe’ page that includes disrupting ‘nuclear family structure’ removed from website” by Anthony Leonardi, Breaking News Reporter, posted on Washington Examiner website on September 21, 2020.

⁸ “BLM leader: If change doesn’t happen, then ‘we will burn down this system’” by Mark Moore, posted on New York Post website on June 25, 2020.