One of Lincoln’s most famous speeches was his “House Divided” speech.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
Well, my friends, we are once again a house divided — substitute Red vs Blue for half slave and half free.
and this time we actually are about to fall (if we haven’t de facto fallen already). Simply put, Red is clearly putting Red above country — above the Union. And its not just politicians, it is the zeitgeist of the whole Red movement.
One of the fundamental axioms on the Red side is “American exceptionalism,” which goes something like this. We are the mature responsible grown-up on the world stage (the “strict father” if you will). We are the biggest, most powerful nation because we deserve to be, and we take that responsibility seriously and are a force for good. Democracy and capitalism — freedom — are the foundation of our exceptionalism and if people are against us it is because they are against freedom.
And what was the biggest threat to America? That we would lose our freedom, either by being conquered (e.g., by the Soviet Union now Russia) or that we would give ourselves up to a new world order headed by the UN. The fear of this was more than just a fear of being conquered — it was an existential fear — if we lost in any way, we would lose our exceptionalism and since, in some points of view, it was G-d that had bestowed exceptionalism on us, losing exceptionalism meant we would also lose G-d’s favor.
There has always been a conservative vs liberal tension — but it grew exceedingly ugly and brutal starting with Newt Gingrich and then it grew into outright sedition (in my mind) with McConnell’s plan to obstruct everything that President Obama would propose. Things got uglier and we entered a post-truth era and now are just a month away from having a narcissistic gas-lighting psychopath as president.
And now, though suspected all along, we have a clear statement from the CIA that Russia meddled in our election. Russia. Meddled. In. Our. Election. For the party that was once — and still claims to be — the guardian of American exceptionalism this should be a call to war. And yet there is very little outrage about this act per se. A few R congress people seem to be willing to be dragged into saying we should do something. Most of us on the Blue side are outraged there is no outrage on the Red side (or so it seems) and want to use it to oust Trump. I think it should be used to oust Trump — because he is clearly complicit — there was admission of communication between Russia and his team during the campaign.
We need to force this issue with every Republican in Congress. Don’t even bring Red vs Blue into it. Simply call and ask do they believe the CIA report. If not why not. Call their patriotism and belief in exceptionalism into question if they just let this go. If we all do let this go, Lincoln’s vision may finally be thwarted. If we do let this go — if Trump becomes president — then not only do we have a narcissistic gas-lighting psychopath as president, but we have a country that would let this happen when it is clear that it will usher in the fall of our house.