Flintlock to gridlock
One hundred and fifty-six years ago our country was plunged
into a Civil War which claimed the lives of 620,000 American souls in the Union
North and in the Confederate South. Slavery and the economy were the principal reasons,
but so was a sharply divided American society. This cultural division was
rooted in the desire on the part of the South to maintain the status quo and in
the North to upend it (except for those truly wealthy power-brokers that wished
to maintain it there, too).
America's future hung suspended for four long agonizing
years. The same was true of her economy and balance of power. It was commonly
thought at the time that the country could never recover from a Confederate or
Union-led government. If the South won, the way of life in the North would be
destroyed, and if the North won, the South would cease to exist. So split were
the feelings of traditional, rural, agriculture-based America towards the
'barons of industry' in the North. There was no room for compromise, though
many tried before the first shots were fired at the Battle of Fort Sumter on
April 12th of 1861. There was no going back. There would only be carnage until
1865.
This is what happens when people are hopelessly deadlocked
and give up trying to iron out their differences. We often forget that the
worst can always happen and that which we are trying to preserve can
disappear, quickly and without warning. These many years later we find
ourselves living in the nuclear age where a 620,000 death toll that took four
years to accumulate then can be accomplished in a matter of minutes, now. Our
politicians are huddled at the farthest reaches of their parties, never
venturing forth into neutral territory to even consider each other's ideas or
proposals. Gridlock is the new flintlock. Intransigence and the policy of
personal destruction have replaced discourse.
People today say that America could never again experience
another civil war, that we have become too civilized and wouldn't dream of
taking up arms against our brothers and sisters. In my heart of hearts I believe
that they're right. Unfortunately, there exists the real and present danger of
a major breakdown in law and order accompanied by a shrill vocal opposition to
our government's policies. This is leading to a political and intellectual disconnect
and an unwillingness to live in peace. We needn't look any farther than our
most recent Presidential election and the ascendency of Donald Trump to the
Presidency to see the division among our citizens.
A seemingly unstoppable wave of protests has taken place
since January 20th, protests that have found their raison d' être in a
fundamental belief that America is broken and that the political Right is to
blame. The loss of an election, when three million more popular votes were cast
for the Democratic Party candidate, did nothing to ameliorate the growing
unrest in the country. Few people calculated that the anger of the American
Left was so overwhelming and so widespread that it would lead to a wholesale
loss of faith in the electoral process and an unwillingness to accept a duly
elected President. The flames of this resistance have been fueled by identity
politics, the media and by many Democrats in Congress and the Senate, and
things are rapidly reaching a flash point. By giving their tacit approval to
protest groups (by not condemning them) these people have lost their right to
be viewed as innocent bystanders. They are now unindicted co-conspirators and
are guilty of courting disaster by encouraging a further loss of confidence in
our country's institutions.
Those who donate large sums of money in support of sometimes
violent protests are ignoring the dangerous consequences of their actions and
the irreparable damage that can result from angry mobs. By providing the 'red
meat' of financial support and the social media repetition of phony news
stories, such donors are using the First Amendment as a shield to protect
themselves. Pandering is their politics, and incitement to disrupt peaceful
Americans' daily lives should not be condoned or rewarded by looking the other
way or by compromising our laws. It is ironic that the Left doesn't understand
that by spreading dissension they are actually hurting themselves and their own
causes and may be moving us closer to Civil War 2.0.
When order breaks down, the nightsticks invariably come out
and the uniformed protective services are called in to keep the peace. We have
seen this happen throughout history, and it never ends with a whimper. Now is
not the time to ignore our laws. Instead, we should all be thinking of ways to
make them work for everybody. The loudest voices must not be allowed to silence
the thoughtful ones or we've all lost...not just the battle but the war.
Stephan Helgesen is a
retired U.S. diplomat, now author and political strategist. He has written over
600 articles and six books on politics, economics and social trends. He can be
reached at stephan@stephanhelgesen.com
