FEARS GROW OF A SOCIETY COMING APART; SOME EVEN PREDICT THE
POSSIBILITY OF CIVIL WAR
BY
ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
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In
his “House Divided” speech, Abraham Lincoln spoke of the dangers of a
society coming apart. He borrowed from a biblical passage in the Gospel
of Matthew: “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every
kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city
or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
Our
society at the present time, in the opinion of many, is more and more
reminiscent of the years leading up to the Civil War. A recent survey
by pollster John Zogby found that a plurality of Americans (46%)
believed a future civil war was likely, 43% felt it was unlikely and 11%
were not sure. War seemed more likely for younger people (53%) than
older ones (31%).
In a
report published by the Brookings Institution, “Is The U.S. Headed for
Another Civil War?,” William G. Gale and Darrell M. West conclude that,
“We should not assume it could not happen and ignore the ominous signs
that conflict is spiraling out of control. Even if we do not end up in
open combat, there could be an uptick in domestic terrorism and armed
violence that could destabilize the country. It is time to take steps
to safeguard democracy, address societal concerns and defuse our current
tinderbox.”
According to
an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 80% of American voters “ think things
in the country are out of control.” Conservative commentator David
Brooks, writing in The Atlantic, notes that, “Levels of trust in this
country—-in our institutions, in our politics, in one another—-are in precipitous decline. When social trust collapses, nations fail.”
I
remember when our politics worked, when Republicans and Democrats did
not view themselves as “enemies,” but as Americans engaged in the common
enterprise of governing. They disagreed about many issues, they formed
coalitions across party lines. They compromised. Together, Republicans
and Democrats won World War 11 and the Cold War and advanced the civil
rights movement. Republicans like Ronald Reagan worked closely with
Democrats like Tip O’Neill and became friends.
I
worked in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for a number of
years. In those days, there were no metal detectors at each entrance. I
don’t remember a single member of Congress receiving a death threat.
Now, we have seen a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol by those unhappy
with the results of a free and fair election. Members of Congress have
received many death threats and travel around with security details.
To further divide voters, in recent primary elections, we have seen
Democrats provide support to the most extreme Republicans, thinking they
would be easier to defeat. Republicans are engaged in purging members
of their own party who diverge from some ordained party line. In both
parties, independent thinking is frowned upon. The nation faces serious
problems——inflation, gun violence, global warming leading to massive
forest fires, an increase in crime. With our political parties unable
to work with one another to confront these very real problems, it is no
wonder that so many Americans are in despair.
Anti-social
behavior, unfortunately, is not confined to our political life. It can
be seen throughout our society. Mitch Daniels, the former Republican
governor of Indiana and now president of Purdue University, writes: “In
public school systems, disruptive, sometimes barbarous conduct is
blighting the futures of innocent children and inflicting lasting damage
on our society. One doesn’t have to be elderly to recall times when
even minor misbehavior was grounds for removal from the classroom, and
maybe from the school itself. The schools didn’t carry the whole burden
of keeping order. In proposing a bill, as Indiana’s governor in 2008,
to protect discipline enforcing teachers from lawsuits, I observed, ‘If I
had ever gotten in any big trouble at school, my dad would have come
down there. But he wouldn’t have been looking for the principal.’ And
that was when a mere disrespectful remark justified banishment from
class.”
Daniels laments
that, “Today, when an astonishing 10 per cent of public school teachers
report not just misbehavior but threatened or actual physical violence
directed at them, the damage to the young lives exposed to this conduct
is irrefutable and tragic. In one of many such studies, the National
Bureau of Dconomic Research found that classroom exposure to just one
disruptive boy in a class of 25 reduced test scores, the likelihood of
receiving any degree and lifetime earnings—-all by significant margins.”
In
our political life, we have sunk to the level in which the disgraced
former governor of Missouri, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate
nomination, Eric Greitens, has been running a ‘RINO hunting” ad. It
depicts a heavily armed Greitens, joined by a squad of heavily armed men
in military uniforms, busting down a door and throwing stun grenades to
kill “Republicans in name only.” Greitens urges, “Get a RINO hunting
permit, there’s no bagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save
our country.” The Missouri Fraternal Order of Police has condemned the
ad as “deplorable.” The conservative Eagle Forum PAC called it “deeply
disturbing, authoritarian and anti-conservative.” Former Republican
Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia described it as “sick and dangerous.”
Early
in July, the Gallup organization reported that only 27 per cent of
Americans expressed confidence in their institutions—-the lowest level
of trust since the questions were first asked a half century ago. The
institutions included in the poll were: Congress, the presidency, the
Supreme Court, the military , business, police, media, churches, schools
and more. The average confidence level, 27 per cent, has declined from
46 per cent in 1989. Only 25 per cent of those polled have confidence
in the Supreme Court.
Responsible
leaders in both of our political parties would do well to consider why
Americans have come to have so little regard for our institutions.
Narrow political partisanship, contempt for compromise, refusal to
accept the results of elections, the inability to disagree without being
disagreeable and the rejection of basic norms of civility, have taken
their toll. As Abraham Lincoln understood, a nation divided in this way
cannot stand. What, one wonders, would Lincoln think of the state of
the American society today.
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