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