"NEVER BEEN MORE DIVIDED"

                             

It has become fashionable in the media to say that America has never been more divided, or at least, not so divided since the Civil War.  Some have even ominously said that they can see our political divide leading to another Civil War arising in our country sometime soon.  While it is certainly hard to argue with the truth that red states and  blue states want very different things for this country, and often seem to live in different worlds (much less a country), to me the idea that America could ever again wind up in a violent conflict between different states seems outlandish.

The important thing to remember about the American Civil War is that the Southern states were all united in their desire to leave America and form the Confederacy.  While there has been some rumblings about states succeeding recently (Texas leaders flirted with it during the Obama presidency, and California leaders during Trump's) the idea that eleven states would join together to leave the country all at once like the Confederate states did back in eighteen sixty is crazy.  There is no way of knowing just how to even begin that process in our modern world.  And forming a whole new country in this day and age would be a massive undertaking that would displace millions of people.  I just don't see that happening.  Also, it should be pointed out that the Southern red states that might want to split off from the rest of the country would flounder without the federal government dollars that flow to their states every year.  While Southern politicians can score political points when they rail against California, losing the shared revenue that comes from a state that has the fifth biggest economy in the world would be devastating to them, and they know that.

What happened on January sixth is a good example of what I'm talking about; yes, it was a disgrace, but it was also utterly ineffectual as any kind of power grab.  It (thankfully) resulted in only a handful of deaths and injuries, and did nothing to change the election.  It was hardly the start of any kind of civil war, it was just a bunch of fools committing foolish acts of vandalism.

If you really want to see a country divided, look at what went on in the nineteen sixties as the Civil Rights movement and the anti war movement often ripped this country apart.  Here are just a few examples: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. sparked riots all across the country, lasting days and resulting in forty three deaths, thousands of injuries and tens of thousands of arrests.  The assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy just as he was likely to win the Democratic nomination for president, was  another shocking blow to the nation.  In Chicago, the Democratic convention saw pro and anti war delegates in shouting fights on the convention floor while outside thousands of anti war protestors were subjected to a heavy handed police force that resulted in days of rioting and thousands of injuries and arrests.  The election of Richard Nixon saw him successfully use the so called "Southern Strategy" of racially coded words exploiting the divisions in our country.  The amazing thing about all the events I just listed is that they all happened in a single year!  Yes, nineteen sixty eight saw more violent, divisive events happen in this country than Trump, for all the strong feelings he's inspired,  brought out in the four years of his presidency.

And nineteen sixty eight was just one year from that era when the country seemed mired in violence and chaos.  Earlier years saw big riots in places like Watts, while later years saw the rise of The Weathermen, a left wing anti war terrorist group that carried out bombing attacks against government buildings.  And somehow, despite all the craziness of those times, with Southern states openly defying the federal government's desegregation and voter's rights laws while the younger and older generations fought (both verbally and physically) over the Viet Nam war, the country was not torn apart.  It held together, just as it will continue to now.

So yes, saying that America is on the verge of all out civil war is an easy way  for newscasters and pundits to scare viewers and get them to keep watching, but it will never happen.  Oh sure, I'm as scared as anybody that some Trump supporters might try to get violent again, but it couldn't rise to the level of sparking a war.  America will continue to muddle along, with deep political divides but little actual physical political violence, just like we always have since the end of the Civil War.