George Rebane
‘There are more things that unite Americans than drive them apart.’ This shibboleth, or one in a similar vein, is often heard when conversation-lite turns to the polarization now visible everywhere in our land. Unfortunately, these conversations don’t go much deeper than the participants sagely nodding their heads before abandoning the topic and hurriedly shifting to more comfortable topics. Such tactics have always been eschewed in these pages, so let’s take an inventory of the things that unite and separate us. Readers, as always, are invited to augment my inventory with edits and additions of their own.
The things that unite us –
- We’re all Homo sapiens;
- We co-habit within the same borders;
- We drive mostly same kind of cars;
- We eat mostly same foods;
- We breathe the same air;
- We dress similarly;
- We enjoy same sports (mostly);
- We vote in the same elections;
- We use the same currency.
The things that divide us –
- Language
- History
- Organization of society/economy (capitalist, collectivist, elitist, …)
- Governance (role of nation-state, democracy, …)
- Rights and Privileges (the armed citizen, Bastiat triangle of rights, voting, …)
- Free speech
- State of the nation (racist, imperialist, shining city on a hill, …)
- Role of government (guarantor of freedoms, national security, economic security, …)
- Role of education (trained/competitive workforce, common history and traditions, social contract, …)
- Role of media (news, sports, entertainment, maintain common culture and currency, …)
- America’s future (sovereignty, globalism)
- Nature of Man (sexual diversity, gender identification, …)
- Values (family, parenting, traditions, risk tolerance, …)
- Ethics (racism, discrimination, equality, prejudice, …)
- Individual Responsibility
- National Sovereignty
- Religion
- Understanding of science
- Awareness of current events
- Patriotism (role of sacrosanct national totems, willing to defend, …)
- Foreign Policy (world hegemon)
- Logical thinking
- National security (military, borders)
- Private property (ownership, disposition, heritance, housing, …)
- Wealth and Income (taxes, merit, enforced equality, …)
The only way that I can see healing such a devastating ideological breach is through education. That requires the replacement of legions of incompetent socialist union shills with qualified teachers. Even then it would take at least two generations to repair the damage. And that is not going to happen. So, given the Democrats’ most recent Great Leap Leftward, there is no palpable or plausible means that this polarization will cease, and we again become a more cohesive and unified people who can peacefully and productively live in one land.
Ergo, common ground between the two sides has long disappeared in the rearview mirror, and only two possible futures remain for Americans to determine their own path forward – the Left wins and forcefully subjugates the remaining Right (for we will not go quietly into that dark night), or the Right is able to convince the Left that we need to negotiate a Great Divide on the North American continent. What then remains to be seen is how/whether the people of Canada and/or Mexico want to figure into the new North American order.
[I expand on each of the points which divide us in a downloadable pdf – Download E Pluribus Unum]
[2aug20 update] This 8-minute video – 'The Deadliest Virus in the World' – explains in more graphic detail the historical crossroads at which we again find ourselves.
rebanesruminations.com 
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