A House Divided

Abraham Lincoln famously said that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” in a speech he made after being selected as the Illinois Republican U.S. Senate candidate in 1858. At the time he was speaking about the legal and moral implications of slavery and the affect that it was having on the country in general. It is interesting that the speech was not well accepted and many thought it was too radical and did nothing to help Lincoln with his campaign to become a Senator.

Lincoln did lose that race but continued speaking all around the country until he began to gain support for the presidency and the rest of that history is relatively well known. What I find particularly interesting about that particular speech is that Lincoln realizes that there is a storm brewing and that the legal rhetoric of the time is merely symptoms of the issue driving a wedge between the states. It bears a striking resemblance to the underpinnings of modern U.S. politics and the same legal undermining and backlashing that has become the ever present normal in our nation’s capital.

It seems to me that as time goes on our political gauge is on a pendulum. As we all get louder and have new platforms from which to shout we are driving the pendulum further and further away from the center. It is probably pretty ironic that I am using that same platform for my own devices, none of us are perfect and perhaps by not yelling my voice could be heard the loudest.

I was speaking of pendulums though. As I see it the driving factors of the last three elections had a lot to do with the failings, perceived or otherwise, of the presidents that were in office during the election. In 2008 the very poor opinion of George W. Bush did nothing to help John McCain especially against the strident support for Barack Obama. The policies and strongly conservative stance of Bush over the last 8 years had driven many people to believe that he was the reason for things like the sudden financial decline that was quickly destroying the U.S. economy. This drove a common theme of hope, of a new way of thinking that largely targeted young demographics and gave rise to a clamor of support in places that not many thought was possible.

Then 8 years later there was a different kind of push, this time from the conservative side. After years of Obama being regarded as weak, pandering and trying to destroy the essence of America (whatever that is) the slate of Republican candidates to oppose the mighty Democrats was enormous and frankly probably a little bloated. Too many saw an opportunity to ride the pendulum the other way and into the White House. As a matter of fact the loudest and brashest of them all gave a mighty shove and the stance of all Americans was suddenly cast as a scorecard to their fundamental self.

I remember well the months immediately following the 2016 election. It seemed that the supposedly personal question of “Who did you vote for?” was no longer sacred and people were wearing it with honor while being scorned by those that opposed them. No one stopped to think at that time that the wedges being driven between families, communities and cities were causing nearly irreparable harm.

As we take something like the opinion of who is better suited to be the leader of this country and use it as some sort of barometer of another’s character we are very certainly subjugating the entire point of this democratic experiment we call a country. No only that but we are propagating a never ending cycle of rhetoric that will continue to drive this country from one extreme to another. The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t even matter what side you are on. It doesn’t matter what side your friends, family and community are on. The simple fact of the matter is that until there is a clear dialogue between opposing sides there will never be any way for the future to come peacefully.

Lincoln recognized the pendulum swinging back and forth in his time as well. He knew that there was no way to get through unless a crisis brought the conflict to an end. I definitely don’t think that another civil war is what anyone truly wants. That being said though the pendulum just got another shove the opposite direction this year. The weight already has considerable momentum from a Presidency rife with conflict, perceived or otherwise, and if this cycle is not damped then this nation will come again to a terrible cross-roads.

I offer this opinion, not just for the sake of sharing. I truly believe that a violent resolution to our current struggles will likely never come but not for lack of trying. I, however naively many think it, feel that the strength of this nation is in its ability to overcome obstacles. We have done it repeatedly for the last two and half centuries and will continue to do so for many more years to come. What I am not sure of is the form of our country when that time comes. I fear that the America of my son’s adult years will be a shade of its former self. This is not because of a lack of adherence to conservative ideals or concepts. Nor will it be because Americans have fostered a modern progressive idealism that drives radical change. America will lose its greatness because its people stopped talking to each other about the issues that matter. They stopped trying to listen to differing opinions and come to compromises that allow for real progress.

The United States is doomed to lose its way not because it does not have a light but because no one will stop for a moment to shine it on the ground long enough to know which way to go.