How bad is the division of America? Is our nation destined to fail because of a divide in “facts” and minds? What direction need we go to find unity once again?
The Civil War
It was the last Presidential Election before the Civil War. America was so divided that there were four candidates and four political parties. We know the “main” candidates, Abraham Lincoln representing the Northern (and western) Republican Party, and his Illinois arch-rival Stephen Douglas representing the Northern (and western) Democratic Party. But the Democratic Party split at their convention in Baltimore. The Southern Democrats walked out when the Party refused to recognize their right to absolute slavery. There was a “rump” Southern Democratic Party, led by Kentucky’s John Breckenrige, the serving Vice President of the United States.
And then there was a fourth Party, the Constitutional Union Party. Their nominee was John Bell, the Senator from Tennessee. They tried to create a “middle ground”, squarely straddling the issue of slavery by ignoring it. They campaigned on the slogan that they: “…recognize no political principle other than Constitution of the country, the Union of the states, and the Enforcement of the Laws”. While they knew that Bell had no chance of electoral victory, they hoped to deny Lincoln a majority of the Electoral votes, and throw the election to the House of Representatives.
Death of Compromise
They failed. Lincoln won the Electoral College, and in the months before he took office (at that time the new President was sworn in on March 4th – think about that) the Southern states began to secede. In the Senate debate of the time, compromise after compromise was offered to avoid splitting of the nation. But Charles Sumner, Senator for Massachusetts, summed it up best. He believed there was no legislative answer to secession and that those looking to compromise misjudged the secessionist movement. “Deeming it merely political & governed by the laws of such movements, to be met by reason, by concession, & by compromise; whereas it is a revolution.”
A Revolution
The first question in our current crisis then is this: is there still a Republican Party, or is there a former Republican Party and a “Trump Party”? The answer to that question will determine our next step. Our nation can still find “common ground” with the “old” Republican Party. But the “Trump Party” has clearly stated its goal with the insurrection of January 6th. To paraphrase Senator Sumner, they cannot be met by reason, concession or compromise: they are a revolution. And unlike the secessionist movement of the 1860’s, the “Trump Party” not only has its own ideology, but it also has a whole separate world of “facts”. There is no reasoning when there is no common ground, no common basis of knowledge. No compromise can work when the parties cannot even agree on the hand counting of the votes.
Joe Biden desperately wants to be the President of unity. And our Nation faces a crisis that requires unity: COVID has already killed more Americans in less than a year than died in World War II. That “butcher’s bill” is likely to get even worse in the next few months, the “dark hours” before the vaccine can kick-in. There is a solution to avoid those unnecessary deaths. It is in unity: unity in wearing masks, social distancing, and getting the “shot”.
But Joe Biden will not reach those willing to storm the Capitol and literally hang the Vice President and the Speaker. There are not “…to be met by reason,” they are a revolution. They don’t believe that distance, masks and shots will prevent death. And millions of Americans agree with them – so how will Biden end a pandemic when they refuse to participate?
The Future
Biden is a “man of the Senate”, steeped in its culture of fierce debate followed by compromise and geniality. And perhaps Biden can reach out to the “old Republican Party” of McConnell, Grassley and Portman. But there is also the “Trump Party” of Cruz and Hawley in the Senate, and Gaetz and Brooks in the House. They have sold their souls to the Trump Revolution and there can be no turning back from that choice. How can there be compromise with such cynical and self-serving demagogues?
The future of the American experiment in Democracy will depend on the majority being willing to work together. For the near future there will still be “the Revolution”. They will be “true believers” who cannot negotiate, cannot compromise, and will not concede. It will be up to “the rest”; the “Old Republicans” and the “Biden Democrats” to find enough common ground to make America work. It will be through their success that the “Trump Revolution” will fade away. Or, if that compromise fails, our Republic will find ourselves like the Constitutional Union Party: the answer to a trivia question.
