E Pluribus Unum – Still? Really? (updated 2aug20)

George Rebane

‘There are more things that unite Americans than drive them apart.’  This shibboleth, or one in a similar vein, is often heard when conversation-lite turns to the polarization now visible everywhere in our land.  Unfortunately, these conversations don’t go much deeper than the participants sagely nodding their heads before abandoning the topic and hurriedly shifting to more comfortable topics.  Such tactics have always been eschewed in these pages, so let’s take an inventory of the things that unite and separate us.  Readers, as always, are invited to augment my inventory with edits and additions of their own.

The things that unite us –

1. We’re all Homo sapiens;
2. We co-habit within the same borders;
3. We drive mostly same kind of cars;
4. We eat mostly same foods;
5. We breathe the same air;
6. We dress similarly;
7. We enjoy same sports (mostly);
8. We vote in the same elections;
9. We use the same currency.

The things that divide us –

1. Language
2. History
3. Organization of society/economy (capitalist, collectivist, elitist, …)
4. Governance (role of nation-state, democracy, …)
5. Rights and Privileges (the armed citizen, Bastiat triangle of rights, voting, …)
6. Free speech
7. State of the nation (racist, imperialist, shining city on a hill, …)
8. Role of government (guarantor of freedoms, national security, economic security, …)
9. Role of education (trained/competitive workforce, common history and traditions, social contract, …)
10. Role of media (news, sports, entertainment, maintain common culture and currency, …)
11. America’s future (sovereignty, globalism)
12. Nature of Man (sexual diversity, gender identification, …)
13. Values (family, parenting, traditions, risk tolerance, …)
14. Ethics (racism, discrimination, equality, prejudice, …)
15. Individual Responsibility
16. National Sovereignty
17. Religion
18. Understanding of science
19. Awareness of current events
20. Patriotism (role of sacrosanct national totems, willing to defend, …)
21. Foreign Policy (world hegemon)
22. Logical thinking
23. National security (military, borders)
24. Private property (ownership, disposition, heritance, housing, …)
25. Wealth and Income (taxes, merit, enforced equality, …)

The only way that I can see healing such a devastating ideological breach is through education.  That requires the replacement of legions of incompetent socialist union shills with qualified teachers.  Even then it would take at least two generations to repair the damage.  And that is not going to happen.  So, given the Democrats’ most recent Great Leap Leftward, there is no palpable or plausible means that this polarization will cease, and we again become a more cohesive and unified people who can peacefully and productively live in one land.

Ergo, common ground between the two sides has long disappeared in the rearview mirror, and only two possible futures remain for Americans to determine their own path forward – the Left wins and forcefully subjugates the remaining Right (for we will not go quietly into that dark night), or the Right is able to convince the Left that we need to negotiate a Great Divide on the North American continent.  What then remains to be seen is how/whether the people of Canada and/or Mexico want to figure into the new North American order.

[I expand on each of the points which divide us in a downloadable pdf - Download E Pluribus Unum]

[2aug20 update]  This 8-minute video - 'The Deadliest Virus in the World' - explains in more graphic detail the historical crossroads at which we again find ourselves.

Comments

[Gregory]

Perhaps the divide is primarily between rational scientific Modernism ala John Locke, and irrational unscientific postmodernism ala Derrida, Lyotard and Marx (Karl, not Groucho).

It's postmodernist drivel that's ruined the Humanities and the body politic.

[George Rebane]

Gregory 557am - that’s probably a good summary.

[paul emery]

Gregory, George

Do you consider our President Trump to be a proponent of "rational scientific Modernism" ?

[George Rebane]

PaulE 122pm - As the only available prophylactic to the socialist autocracy proposed by the Left, YES!

[Gregory]

Punchy 122pm

Do you? Why or why not?

Do you think or suspect Biden might be a postmodernist? Sympathetic to postmodernism?

[Scott O]

Gregory 2:38 - Look at Biden's track record. He goes with the flow. He's just a bumbling Dem party hack.

[Gregory]

scott o 316pm

His pledge to appoint a woman, probably a POC, as his running mate (is that a sexist term?) in my opinion puts Biden in a postmodern camp.

Trump has the gall in 2020 to have an old white guy sharing the ticket. Not very postmodern.

punch 122pm
"Do you consider our President Trump to be a proponent of "rational scientific Modernism" ?"

Do you think it's required to be a proponent of something to be aligned with it, or aligned in opposition to its foes?

[Scott O]

Gregory 3:37 - "His pledge to appoint a woman, probably a POC, as his running mate (is that a sexist term?) in my opinion puts Biden in a postmodern camp."
Well, yes - but Biden simply opened his eyes one morning and there he was in camp.
His handlers and poll watchers have counseled him to that decision. Look at his speeches and voting record. He's whatever he needs to be for the moment. Is he 'in' the post-modern camp? Well sure - now he is.
Did he make some sort of conscious move to that side?
He doesn't even know what it means.
It's the educational system and leftist proponents normalizing post-modernism and melding it into every societal and governmental decision point that moves our country in that direction. Helped along by graduates of journalism schools run by post-modernists, our news media is filled idiot reporting that comes up with descriptions of violent riots as: "peaceful demonstrations that intensify".
There is a large and ready market for the new, new, new, Joe Biden with 'his' new post-modernist ideas.
He's a placeholder. A 'thing' to attract eyes and ears while the real action can then go on in the back room.

[Gregory]

SO 609pm

So, what do you think I was getting at when I wrote,
"Do you think it's required to be a proponent of something to be aligned with it, or aligned in opposition to its foes?"

Post-modern ideas aren't new. What is fairly new is the capture of the Democratic Party by the progressive left.

[Scott O]

Gregory - "Post-modern ideas aren't new. What is fairly new is the capture of the Democratic Party by the progressive left."
Agreed.
Although it's leading to mainstream acceptance of ideas that 10 years ago would have gotten you laughed out of the most left wing faction of the Dems.
Public paid-for, on-demand, sex 'reassignment' surgery for anyone including felons in prison?
That you can demand that your birth certificate be changed to falsify a factual medical statement?
Total insanity.

[Bill Tozer]

I don’t see how one can get along with total insanity or try to come to any sort of agreement with the looney left, short of laying down and accepting extortion and throwing to the wind everything this Nation was founded upon.

—Nice charts says it all; IS LEFTISM AN ACTUAL CLINICAL PSYCHOSIS?

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/is-leftism-an-actual-clinical-psychosis.php

—BLM FASCISTS HARASS RESTAURANT PATRONS [UPDATED]
The Left has abandoned all norms of civilized conduct. Check out this video of a Black Lives Matter “activist” screaming at normal citizens through a bullhorn. It was filmed in Austin, Texas:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/blm-fascists-harass-restaurant-patrons.php

—DEM VP HOPEFUL WALKS BACK PRAISE OF FIDEL CASTRO
“Rep. Karen Bass apparently is on the shortlist to be Joe Biden’s running mate. You might be asking, Karen who? Precisely.

Bass is a congresswoman from California. She’s the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Bass is also a communist sympathizer. How else can one explain her support for Fidel Castro?

When Castro died in 2016, Bass stated: “The passing of the Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba.” Comandante en Jefe. A nice touch.”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/dem-vp-hopeful-walks-back-praise-of-fidel-castro.php

[Don Bessee]

People took a taste of it and didn't come back -

https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2020/08/02/ratings-crash-nba-mlb-after-protest-filled-debut/

;-)

[Wayne Hullett]

One problem with a divide is that the left, which is strong in the large cities, has relatively little land area (mostly the coastal large cities -- see https://www.inverse.com/article/25635-map-remakes-us-trumpland-clinton-archipelago ). If there is a divide, I would expect that the land-poor left would align with and solicit the help of foreign powers; I am sure that Russia and China would love to get a foothold on this continent.

I just watched the Deadliest Virus video. Right now the left is not as well armed as the right, but that will change if they get into power and control the military. If Biden wins, then after inauguration day it will be too late for the right -- It could become just like 1917 in Russia. And by trying to get mail-in ballots which will not be counted for weeks, the left is trying to narrow the Nov 3 to Jan 20 window as much as possible. I worry about the never-Trumpers in the Senate and asleep-at-the-switch McConnell not preventing the attempted move to mail-in ballots. They would be throwing away the country just so that they can throw their little temper tantrum over their dislike of Trump.

If Biden wins, I think a very bloody civil war is very possible, probably in 2021 or 2022 (unless the right just knuckles under, as it seems to be doing now).

For myself, I recently re-watched Dr Zhivago, and immediately went out and bought another rifle.

[Bill Tozer]

‘4 French Revolution Trends That Have Started In The United States’

“The bloody and terrible French Revolution featured attacks on religion, rewriting history, toppling statues, and abandoning tradition. Sound familiar?”

https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/31/4-french-revolution-trends-that-have-started-in-the-united-states/

[Bill Tozer]

The Lefties brave new world: surrender or retreat. Resistance is futile.

'Do As They Say’: Minneapolis Police Tell Residents To ‘Be Prepared To Give Up’ Personal Belongings To Robbers'
"We want those who live and work here to be safe!"

https://www.dailywire.com/news/do-as-they-say-minneapolis-police-tell-residents-to-be-prepared-to-give-up-personal-belongings-to-robbers

[Bill Tozer]

Foreign policy

‘Three Decades of Delusion‘
Our elites learned all the wrong lessons from the end of the Cold War

“Yet we failed to grasp that the Soviet Union did not implode because the liberal democratic ideal overpowered the tenets of communism.”......

“The Chinese communist leadership seems to have learned all too well the British imperial dictum that “we do not run Egypt, we run the Egyptians who run Egypt.””

https://www.the-american-interest.com/2020/08/04/three-decades-of-delusion/

[Bill Tozer]

Minneapolis Officials Prevent Putting The Dismantling Of The Police Department On Ballot As Opposition To ‘Defund Police’ Surges

https://www.dailywire.com/news/minneapolis-officials-prevent-putting-the-dismantling-of-the-police-department-on-ballot-as-opposition-to-defund-police-surges