I wrote a column in 2011, as the presidential politics of the upcoming year were starting to unfold, with the headline “Why 2012 looks a lot like 1860.”
The deep fracturing of the American electorate — remember the Tea Party? — leading up to the 2012 presidential election was starting to look like what happened in the presidential election in 1860, which occurred amid another massive splintering of the American electorate.
The issue of slavery in the 1850s — whether or the extent to which it should or could be tolerated in America — tore apart the fabric of common values in the nation, and the result was collapse.
There were presidential candidates in 1860 running on four different party tickets — the newly formed Republican Party, the Constitutional Union Party, and Northern and Southern parts of a split Democratic Party.
Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, emerged victorious with just 39.82% of the popular vote. Immediately upon the Lincoln’s declared victory, seven Southern states seceded from the Union.
Soon there would be a bloody civil war.
A vibrant, free and democratic nation thrives with differences of opinion. But there is a difference between differences of opinion on specific issues of policy and fracturing of discourse because of absence of common ground of values and principles.
For a nation to function, there must be some common denominator of shared values and principles.
This common denominator of shared values and principles is dangerously eroding today, and animosities are sharpening and deepening.
Am I predicting another civil war? God forbid.
But the depth of animosities now is looking less like the healthy discourse of a free country and looking more like unraveling of our social fabric. It’s dangerous, and we should be aware of what is going on.
A new survey released by Pew Research Center bears out this trend, showing animosities between those identifying with the two parties getting increasingly sharp and increasing numbers of Americans, particularly younger Americans, not happy with either party.
Per the Pew report, in 1994, 21% of Republicans had a “very unfavorable” view of the Democratic Party. Today it is 62%. In 1994, 17% of Democrats had a “very unfavorable” view of the Republican Party. Today it is 54%.
Seventy-two percent of Republicans now, compared to 45% in 2016, say Democrats are more dishonest than other Americans. Sixty-three percent of Democrats, compared to 42% in 2016, say Republicans are more dishonest than other Americans.
According to the survey, in 2022, 27% of Americans now have unfavorable opinions of both parties compared to 6% in 1994 who held unfavorable views of both parties.
This is all consistent with a new survey from Gallup showing that more than half, 52%, of young Americans born between 1981 and 1996 identify as independents.
Forty-four percent of those born between 1960 and 1980, 33% of those born between 1946 and 1964, and 26% of those born between 1928 and 1945 identify as independents.
Just as the presence of slavery challenged the core values and beliefs on which the nation was founded, so today issues such as abortion, sexual identity, and the nature and existence of marriage and family are dividing the common ground on which we stand.
Related to this is the core question of government and its role in the lives of private Americans.
When our divisions become so deep that civil discourse can no longer mend what has unraveled, we need to tread carefully.
Another recent Gallup poll shows 53% of Americans saying they worry “a great deal” about crime and violence.
How can a nation remain intact when large parts of the population have absolutely nothing in common with each other regarding how they see the world?
Limited government and individual freedom are the classic American answers. Unfortunately, we seem to be going in the opposite direction.
Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
To fully advance the Lying, Treasonous, Demonic, Socialist Democrat Party’s destructive beliefs and agendas is to divide our citizens with hate and promote – racism, open borders, radical feminism, abortion-on-demand, the LGBTQ lifestyle, unfettered sexual identity, transgender, same sex marriage, child indoctrination into sexual confusion and perversions, the pagan Liberal left Democrats must do away with GOD, our Constitution, common sense, morality, Christian values and free religious exercise altogether.
Under the Disguise of “anti-discrimination.”
The corrupt, treasonous Democrat elite and the Democrat Party never take responsibility or are held accountable for their own treasonous, unlawful, destructive, dishonorable, immoral actions and agendas. Democrats always Lie and blame someone or something else for their own actions and policies. Even if the Democrats are caught “red handed”.
Judge the political parties by the content of the character and their actions.
When judging Don’t be subjective, Be objective.
If not a civil war then likely a complete capitulation from the GOP/conservative side. The left will never give in and why should they. Their side is consistently growing from the influx of illegal aliens, the sold out media and the corrupted school system.
I HOPE we simply don’t capitulate, to the commie take over…
Every time senile Biden does something that favors the radical democrats, he and they, are pushing this country towards that civil war that people have been talking about for a number of years now. This nation is sitting on a powder keg, and the explosion is coming, and it will tear this nation apart, just as it did in the 1850’s. If we don’t purge every democrat from our governments, at all levels from county to federal, we will lose our republic and have their version of a socialist government shoved down our throats. The United States of America will cease to exist. Is that really what we want?
Puppet Joe is not making any decisions, the puppet master is!
THEN WE need to find that puppet master, and send in the daleks.. EXTERIMINATE!!!
I saw a Commercial to vote democrat while I was in Virginia. It showed the Norman Rockwell version of black people working ,Loving 2 parent household. But in the Republican side hate men carting burning crosses, violence. Not one black Republican was shown and not one white person on the democrat side. I call it crt for voting democrats.
The biggest Con Job in modern history is the way the Democrats, Party of the Klan, Dixiecrats, exploiters of fringe members of society, outrageous graft and BROKEN PROMISES have been able to convince people of color that they somehow are their protectors, and embrace their votes, then without fail completely ignore same almost from the day after the election. There’s 12 percent of our population that have been patsies since the Great Depression and thanks to “Community Organizers” and well-paid “Clergy” bought and paid for by rich (and getting richer) white men stay disappointed and angry but never seem to understand who their nemesis really is. It is NOT the Republicans, their own flaws notwithstanding.
AND it saddens me to no end, that blacks as a whole, CONTINUE TO BUY INTO those lies…