Polarization
The United States has, since it’s inception of a common government, hosted political views that weren’t always in unison. The Founders were seldom in agreement about how and what type of government to establish, and the very fact that it took 6 years to ratify a Constitution following the 8 year War of Independence, is testimony to the process and debate between men who were independent thinkers. While the Founders may have been polarized politically at times, they were mostly if not nearly unanimously in agreement that Mankind was beholden, and responsible, to a Creator God for his actions in this life. They also understood the gravity of their moment in the history of Mankind and what it would mean to posterity. They fully comprehended, as John Jay said, “The Americans are the first people whom Heaven has favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing the forms of government under which they should live.”
Noah Webster wrote, “When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.” [Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, �49.] (http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=80)
This was the regulating factor alleviating the political polarization of early America. This concept is readily availed within the opening and closing paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence and in the numerous documents and letters forged by those that we call “The Founders“.
How to kill a Giant…
The United States of America has, without question, been the single most powerful Nation the world has ever seen. No military force ever fielded could have successfully invaded and taken this country by armed conquest. No philosophy or ideology conceived or contrived has been able to break this Union of States or the American Spirit, which has bound her people with one resolve. The ability of her people to assimilate into the great American “melting pot”, each culture of origin of her immigrants brought a flavor of their homeland which served to enhance, but not overpower, the uniqueness of what the entire world has aspired to, and what we have known simply as “America”.
America is not an empire; the concept is not temporal but spiritual; its very essence of greatness has been borne by an idea which has become but a whisper for fear of it vanishing. No nation, kingdom, or empire ever ascended to such heights of glory and power as the United States of America, and yet afforded or preserved her citizens such individual rights and liberties. This is the beauty and singular ideal that has separated America from all other countries and empires and kingdoms of the world; yes even for all of human history!
Until now.
…Divide and Conquer
What has become of America? How have we become such a balkanized, polarized, divided population? We are not even an “American people” any longer. The great melting pot of assimilation has become a TV dinner, cold and segregated lest any segment of our society actually merge with another. The push for “Multi-Culturalism” and “Pluralism” have resulted in the exact opposite of the promised outcome. We are more racially divided, our immigrants do not seek to assimilate into American language or culture and pretty much demand that we allow them to retain a separate community, culture and language, and if we ask them to come join us we are labeled as racist, xenophobic, hateful bigots.
There was a time, in fact up until recently, that immigrants to this country raised their children here to assimilate into American Society, insisting they learn the language and culture, and become American. I personally know one such family who came here from Southeast Asia, narrowly escaping the Communist “cleansing” (genocide), which swept unbridled through the region post US/Vietnamese involvement, with the shirts on their backs and lost many family members on the way out. These friends speak their language of origin in the home and as far as I know stick to a traditional diet in the home. (It is awesome Asian food!) I once asked the father why the elders of the family have Lao names and all the children have American names. His answer was profound. “We were born in Laos. We have Lao names. Our children were born in America; they are Americans. They have American names.” (Not once did he utter “Asian-American”.) The children, all equally bilingual, are productive and vivacious young citizens who are happy to be Americans, cognizant of the American ideal, fully assimilated, yet retain a uniquely Laotian influence, while working hard to provide for themselves. My friends do not demand that they be given special recognition, special rights, or that the rest of America make provision for them.
Modern America is the only nation in the world that acquiesces to, and encourages such nonsense, and our governmental policies ensure that these divisions are kept in place and those lines of separation remain clear. Why?
The answer is very simple: a divided people are much easier to control than a united one. It’s classic Saul Alinskey- Create a state of chaos by overloading the system. Use the politics of personal destruction to embarrass your enemy and exploit their own human faults.
If politicians can keep us labeled as “African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-American, and now even sexual preference merits the designation “Gay-Americans”. (I remember when just about everyone I knew were “gay” because we were happy about most things in life.) Now I am hearing the term “Muslim-American” so now we can be further divided by our religion. I have noticed, however, that when the media, or politicians, use these pandering terms it is never to integrate any people group with another, but to differentiate between people groups. This type of labeling does nothing to unite or integrate society, but has a divisive connotation and serves to further fracture our society. It is no accident.
I have no problem with people celebrating their heritage; I like to experience “cultural diversity” as well as the next person. But while all people are created equal, and should be treated as equal, not all ideas are. This is why “Pluralism” is a failure.
Pluralism assumes that all religions are equal and that each is as valuable as the next. The fact is, all religions, ideologies, cultures, and political systems are not equal. Such equity would naturally require “Moral Relativism”. Moral Relativism which does not contrast by judgement of good and evil, also doesn’t differentiate between Adolph Hitler and Mother Theresa. Definitively, (if that is “morally relatively” possible!) there is no absolute truth, no right or wrong, and we should all tolerate, if not embrace, any behavior of others no matter how destructive, even when we find it objectionable or wrong. Oh, wait…hmm…sounds familiar doesn’t it?
The Last Great Virtue
“Tolerance” and apathy have been called “the last great virtues of a dying society”(Aristotle). By tolerating evil whether it be in the form of “religion”, ideology, or culture, America has allowed it’s greatest legitimate virtue of a free and open society, to become the very avenue by which the enemy has gained access. The cancers of tolerance and apathy have metastasized.
The very laws of nature demand and demonstrate truth. An acorn always becomes an oak tree; it can’t decide it is going to be different than all the other acorns, and grow into a maple tree. A stalk of wheat cannot bear a head of rice. A kangaroo cannot eat a dingo, and a dingo cannot nest in a tree. A bird cannot breathe water, and water always seeks its own level. Failure of a wildebeest to exercise caution at the watering hole can result in being eaten by crocodile or lion. Such are the laws of nature, set in place by nature’s God.
The Laws of Nature and Nature’s God have been a template for mankind since the beginning. Unyielding and absolute truth tempered by the merciful character of God as set forth in the Bible, set the parameters for a civil and just human government, and when these boundaries are breached, chaos follows. Thomas Jefferson referred to this template in The Declaration of Independence, and men like John Locke and William Blackstone, both scholars in law and Scripture, influenced the thinking of America’s founders, so much so, that the type of government created was so unique that it has been referred to as “The American Experiment” for nigh onto 250 years now.
This experiment commands the vigilance of an attentive people, so that “government of the People, by the People, and for the People, shall not perish from the Earth”. That was the nature of the experiment, and a failure by the People to attend to those requirements has resulted in what seems to be impending doom. When Benjamin Franklin was asked by a citizen just after the Constitution was ratified, “Well Doctor, what have we got; a Republic or a Monarchy?” “A Republic,” answered Franklin, “If you can keep it.”
George Washington said, “Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.” He also warned against government expansion, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Or in more contemporary language, “government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take everything you have.”
We seem to have lost our Republic, Mr. Franklin.
