{"id":1110,"date":"2018-08-19T08:55:51","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T12:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2018-08-19T08:55:51","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T12:55:51","slug":"polarized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/08\/19\/polarized\/","title":{"rendered":"Polarized"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polarized<\/p>\n

Slavery was the \u201c\u2026serpent under the table\u201d at the US Constitutional convention.\u00a0 It awakened as the critical issue during the decades long lead-up to the American Civil War.\u00a0 Legislators over the first half of the 19th\u00a0<\/sup>century reached a series of compromises that pushed the crisis down the road, but, as mid-century was passed, there was little room for compromise left.<\/p>\n

The last \u201cGreat Compromise\u201d in 1850 tried to divide the new territories acquired in the Mexican-American War into slave and free areas.\u00a0 California entered the union as a free state, Texas as a slave state, and the territories of New Mexico and Utah were granted the right to decide by vote, popular sovereignty.\u00a0 This maintained the precarious balance of slave and free in the Congress.<\/p>\n

But to \u201csweeten\u201d the deal for the slave states, the Compromise also included the Fugitive Slave Act.\u00a0 This law required that runaway slaves that made their way to free states must be returned to their masters in the South. \u00a0Federal marshals and other officials who did not fulfill that duty were subject to fines.<\/p>\n

The Act was anathema to the abolitionists in the north.\u00a0 \u00a0There were dramatic protests and legal arguments, and folks jailed for refusing to obey the law.\u00a0 It was the \u201cwedge\u201d the drove anti-slave and slave farther apart, with the South demanding the law be enforced, and the North outraged at the forced immorality it required.<\/p>\n

By the late 1850\u2019s the split was further exacerbated by the Supreme Court, who in the Dred Scott Decision, ruled that slaves had no standing in court to sue.\u00a0 If slaves (or former slaves) could not go to the Court to enforce freedom, then ultimately it would be impossible for \u201cfree\u201d states to remain free.<\/p>\n

And popular sovereignty, allowing territories to determine their own status of slavery, turned out to be a recipe for violence.\u00a0 The Kansas Territory ended up in a state of civil war, as both sides violently fought for their cause.\u00a0 It was a rehearsal for the national battles soon to come.<\/p>\n

By 1860 there was little middle ground left.\u00a0 The Presidential candidate of the center, Democrat Stephen Douglas, received few electoral votes.\u00a0 The results for the candidate of the North, Lincoln, and the one of the South, Breckenridge, showed the divided nation.\u00a0 War was only a few months away.<\/p>\n

The middle ground is slipping away today as well.\u00a0 The \u201cRepublican Party\u201d of Lincoln and even George Bush has been co-opted by President Trump.\u00a0 The remaining old-school Republicans have found voice only in retirement, with Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake of Arizona and John Kasich of Ohio the best examples.\u00a0The traditional views and values of the Republican Party have been left behind.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Party is only marginally better.\u00a0 The current split between \u201cleft\u201d and \u201clefter:\u201d Progressives versus near-Socialists, has left the traditional centrist Democrats with no where to go.\u00a0 \u00a0There is little room in either party for a supporter of individual rights and fiscal responsibility, the traditional stand of the \u201cBlue Dog\u201d Democrat or \u201cRockefeller\u201d Republican.<\/p>\n

And our current means of communicating, with a choice of tailored news outlets that give the news that fits your views, serves to drive the wedge in deeper.\u00a0\u00a0 Seldom is heard the \u201cother side,\u201d and if so, then critical commentary quickly follows.\u00a0 The power of the \u201ctweet,\u201d so effectively used by Trump, has narrowed our political discussion to 240 characters, and obliterated the value of the truth in our discussions.<\/p>\n

The United States, created in compromise at the writing of the Constitution, is finding itself unable to reach a middle ground.\u00a0 Those who try to reach agreement in the political sphere, now find themselves struggling to survive primary elections where extremism is the winning strategy.\u00a0This is not just an ideological issue, it has become part of our structure with the gerrymandering of political districts that reward that extremism.<\/p>\n

Are we on the verge of some kind of modern-day Civil War?\u00a0 Whether President Trump is stopped and potentially removed, or his term is fought out in elections and tweets, is there some point where one side or the other will find the political arena unsatisfactory, and move to other, more dangerous venues?\u00a0Are we so polarized that there is no path to the center?<\/p>\n

The potential is there: \u00a0a Congress that is unwilling to act, a Supreme Court soon to be dominated by a marginal, far-right view promulgated by the Federalist Society, and a President who is demonstrating a willingness to embrace authoritarianism.\u00a0 We are quickly moving to a political scene where there is no room for the center. \u00a0And when there is no compromise, then one side or the other will seek some other way to redress their grievances.<\/p>\n

But there is still hope to avoid an existential crisis.\u00a0 An election in November could start to fill in the center (though it could also further divide.)\u00a0 There are still courageous leaders, willing to stand up for what they believe regardless of the consequences.\u00a0 Non-political voices like John Brennan and Admiral William McRaven, and the remaining moderates in both parties are still there, though muted.<\/p>\n

There are a large majority of Americans who still fall in the political middle.\u00a0 They need representation as well, and those representatives could serve as the balance to the extremes of both sides.\u00a0 We can hope that America, founded in compromise, might find its center again.<\/p>\n

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Polarized Slavery was the \u201c\u2026serpent under the table\u201d at the US Constitutional convention.\u00a0 It awakened as the critical issue during the decades long lead-up to the American Civil War.\u00a0 Legislators over the first half of the 19th\u00a0century reached a series of compromises that pushed the crisis down the road, but, as mid-century was passed, there … Continue reading “Polarized”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPolarized : Our America - 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