Welcome to the ruins of the United States, where the long-developing breakdown of society accelerates with each passing day. Like many who yearn for the return of a more stable and civil nation, I am dismayed to witness its degeneration into a bastion of intolerance, denialism, and partisan violence. Such is America now—destabilized, divided, and descending further into chaos—as if the Civil War’s end in 1865 were merely a pause, not a conclusion.
On one side, members of the political Left view President Trump as a deceitful, ignorant, belligerent, inhumane, unscientific, bigoted, politically compromised neo-fascist man-child whose unwanted presence in the White House degrades the very office of the President of the United States. To people who perceive him as such, Trump—and all Republican politicians who support him—lack any semblance of credibility whatsoever. His every word is disbelieved, his every action is condemned, and he is largely viewed as a wholly inept and morally bankrupt individual whose presidency evinces the overwhelming negativity that courses thickly within the detestable Republican Party and its sycophantic minions.
On the other side, members of the political Right view President Trump as a champion of American workers, Christianity, and national security whose efforts to improve the country are being curtailed by orchestrated, widespread, and wholly anti-American interference campaigns conducted by the reviled masses of the blatantly destructive political Left. To those who believe in him, Donald Trump is a savior, a man standing tall at the battlements of freedom in defense against uncontrolled immigration, violent crime, rampant wokeism, unfair foreign trade practices, climate change fallacies, inherently unfair DEI practices, and the villainous forces of the Democratic Party and all those who wrongly support them.
Disturbingly, both sides seem to agree that President Trump's slogan, "Make America Great Again," means uniting those voters who believe in him—and all that he stands for—under the MAGA banner; accepting his highly combative, unconventional, and often disruptive leadership as crucial to their personal success and that of all Americans; and eliminating all meaningful opposition to his actions, especially from Democrats, who often feel politically marginalized or under attack. Clearly, America is not a land united in perception and purpose, and it continually teeters on the edge of self-destruction.
This ideological and perceptual chasm is no longer confined to rhetoric or policy—it now manifests in physical conflict. Both the Left and the Right assail the other with invectives that often meet or exceed the threshold of harassment or threatening behavior, and physically violent actions between the opposing political camps are becoming ever more frequent and deadly. Sadly, America appears to be reverting to the social climate that existed prior to the American Civil War (1861–1865). During that period, Americans considered themselves to be a part of their respective religions, political affiliations, states, and territories far more than they considered themselves to be part of a union of states. Accordingly, parts of America would battle within themselves well before the true Civil War, with the conflicts known as Shays's Rebellion (1786–1787), the Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794), Fries's Rebellion (1799–1800), Bleeding Kansas (1854–1859), and the Utah War (1857–1858) standing as prime examples of America's past ills.
Still, despite this country's bloodied history and present-day hostilities, we cannot forget that ours is a shared national identity. I may dislike hate groups and other destructive forces within America with every fiber of my being, but that does not mean I want them dead, or their surrounding communities destroyed. It doesn't mean that I could just review the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Hate Map, and hope that every state with a plethora of hate groups is horribly destroyed. I can't, because I'm an American, and long ago this nation learned that its people can't bring widespread harm to their fellows without tearing the country apart.
America's renewed exhibitions of intolerance, polarized thought, and widespread division are not signs of a cohesive society marching boldly into the future. That Abraham Lincoln's famous words, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," have relevance today lays bare the sad truth of the nation's reversion. Lincoln saw America's future as one of promise and hope, and though he did not live to see the true end of the Civil War or the national reunification he fought so hard to achieve, his dream of an America where one's respect for their countrymen would propel the nation forward in brotherhood lived on.
Let's not kill Lincoln's dream.
-TR
Note: Portions of the above were taken from a now-deleted blog on Weebly.com.