Polarized
We are alive in a divided nation. We are so divided, we can’t even agree if the almost 160 million votes in the Presidential election were cast accurately. Illogically, we accept the results from those same ballots for other offices. We are so splintered, the deaths of more than 270,000 Americans in the past nine months hasn’t created a unified front. And we are so polarized, when offered a “cure” for the pandemic, forty percent of us won’t take it (Gallup).
The experts tell us that by March 1, 2021, another 200,000 Americans will die from COVID (IHME). That’s at our current rate of “mitigation”. We need to take care of each other by doing the “stupid, simple” things: wear masks, social distance, don’t travel. Because of our divisions we simply aren’t doing them, and more people are dying.
If an American President committed to an unjustified war that would cost 200,000 lives in the next four months, we would all rise in righteous indignation. More Americans will die in this year of COVID than died in all of World War II. But we are so splintered, we won’t stop it.
Before the War
America was a divided nation before World War II. Franklin Roosevelt brought the nation together to recover from the Great Depression, but he was unable to unify us to battle Nazi Fascism. The horror of the trenches of World War I, and the crushing disappointment in the failure of the peace afterwards, convinced Americans to “isolate” behind our ocean “walls”.
Even America’s heroes warned against war. Marine General Smedley Butler, two-time Medal of Honor winner, denounced intervention. Charles Lindbergh, the hero of “The Spirit of St. Louis” was against involvement in European battles. And the US ambassador to Great Britain itself, Joseph Kennedy, was recalled because he didn’t think America should fight.
The radio was the great public medium of the 1930’s. And Father Coughlin spoke to the nation night after night against entering the war. He broadcast on WJR from Detroit, a “clear channel” station that at the time was so powerful that most of the nation could listen to it directly. The CBS radio network further spread his voice across the rest of the country. He did not create the divisions, but he knew how to inflame them. He was more popular and more powerful than a Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity of today. His power was like a Donald Trump. Many in the nation listened and believed him.
It wasn’t until December 7th, 1941 that the tide turned. The Japanese direct attack on Americans at Pearl Harbor proved to unite Americans in a single effort. It took the loss of American lives, 2,403 on that December day, for America’s “righteous might” to respond in an all-out effort to save freedom in the world.
What Now?
Our ocean “walls” did not protect us against COVID either. In fact we know that the virus was already in the United States before it was “identified” in Wuhan, China in January. Research now shows that Americans in America were already infected in December of 2019 (NPR). COVID was in the streets of New York before we even knew about the “wet markets” of Wuhan. It was here before we knew it, and before any efforts to stop it.
So it really no longer matters whether we stopped flights from China, or anywhere else. What does matter is what America will do now.
Joe Biden has already evoked wartime efforts when talking about the pandemic. But can any President unite a nation that doesn’t even believe in the same news, the same set of facts, or even the same creed? In essence, is America ever going to be “unite-able” again? Have we reached a point where we are in fact two nations, irrevocably divided by the message of our modern-day Father Coughlin, Donald Trump?
After Pearl Harbor Americans lined up to volunteer for the military. My parents’ generation was willing to give their lives for the cause. What will it take to get us lined up for a simple shot? Will the cause of saving the lives hundreds of thousands of those at the greatest risk be enough? Or will the “Father Coughlin” of our time continue to exploit the divisions among us.
