WORLD NEWS & PROPHECY
The Divided States of
America A Dangerous Crossroads
The nation’s division is so obvious that growing numbers of people expect violence, bloodshed and perhaps even another civil war. What’s behind this, and what does it mean for you?
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Republicans belong to their party because “they oppose the other party’s values” and not because they stand for what their party represents. Political scientists refer to this level of polarization as “negative partisanship,” in which political factions draw together more out of hatred of the other side than a common sense of purpose. This negative partisanship explains more than a political divide in the nation today. A functional political process should lead to resolution of conflicting ideas. In the best of times there’s a better chance of accomplishing this. When I say “best of times,” I’m referring to a period of 60 or more years ago. Partisan politics in America has always been raucous, but at the end of the vote the differing factions sought to reach across the aisle and make a clear path forward for the good of the country. Yet that was when there were clearly shared values and a commitment to form a common community. That was also a time when there was a commitment to the idea of America as laid down in the nation’s founding documents. But that has changed. The presidential election of 2000 appears to have marked the emergence of irreconcilWhere might “irreconcilable differences” lead? able differences in the body politic, beginning the slide Partisan politics highlight this divide. A 2022 Pew to our place today. That election had to be decided by Research poll found a majority in both parties view mem- the Supreme Court, ending in the election of George bers of the other party as “more immoral, dishonest, lazy, W. Bush. It seems that from that rancorous election the unintelligent, and close-minded than other Americans.” country entered an era of political acrimony that has only Curiously, 40 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of accelerated to the present crisis. y dear mother was a child of the American South. Decades ago, on visits to Alabama to see relatives, we always stopped at the site of the Battle of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest conflicts of the American Civil War. “Those poor boys,” she would mourn, “bleeding to death in this pond.” She would blame “those Yankees” for being where they shouldn’t be. She remembered times when the cultural divide split the nation into two warring halves. She wanted me to understand and never forget. I think about her stories when today I hear statements that America is again deeply divided in ways that could lead to another civil war. Indeed, some feel that we are already fighting that war along political, cultural and social fronts and that, in time, without healing, we could very well see division occur with states opting out of the union. Polls indicate that more than two thirds of Americans perceive strong threats to the continuing existence of American democracy as we currently know it. They feel that a civil war could erupt and that only a strong leader could either prevent or lead the country out of the crisis.
4 Beyond Today
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by Darris McNeely
