By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com
I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address
Several things are notable about Lincoln’s address. The first was its total lack of partisan rhetoric. Instead of beating the drums of division, Lincoln sought to focus the nation’s attention of the shared hopes and dreams of all Americans – and to appeal to the ‘better angels of their nature’. The country was approaching a civil war – the battle over slavery was about to be joined. But, in a deeper sense, the battle over the role and prerogatives of the federal government was about to come to a full boil. The nature of the union – the obligations of the individual states towards it – the meaning of the Constitution – all of these questions were coming to the fore.
Lincoln, who was almost universally hated or feared in the South, sought to offer a way forward that might avoid the carnage which he knew would be the result of civil war. And so he appealed to the better angels of Americans’ nature. History shows that his appeal fell on deaf ears – and that the carnage and destruction which he feared was the result. One could have only wished that Americans had listened to Lincoln’s entreaty.
Today we are in a similar situation. As Lincoln observed elsewhere, “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. The jingoistic tendencies of both political parties have morphed the idea of patriotism with into the idea of loyalty to party and candidate. Now each side stridently maintains that what is good for their party’s future is good for America. But Americans need to recognize the fault in this reasoning and listen again to Abraham Lincoln. George Washington, James Madison and many other founding fathers were of the opinion that political parties would threaten the Union – that they would divide the country into groups which would then put the welfare of their ‘tribes’ above the welfare of the nation. Thomas Jefferson and then – somewhat ironically – Abraham Lincoln – were the two Presidents who most advanced the two party structure. Jefferson with the Anti-Federalists and Lincoln with the Republican Party were the primary advocates of the division of the county into two political camps. Many of the surviving founders were appalled at Jefferson’s embrace of the Ant-Federalists. In the founders’ minds, the welfare of the country was not tied to the welfare of any political party but only to the welfare of the country.
But Lincoln had a second meaning in mind when he issued his appeal to “the better angels of our nature”. He saw Americans on both sides slandering each other in order to advance their side’s cause. Lincoln himself was a primary target of such slander. What appalled him most was that very idea that there was a common cause that bound all Americans seemed to have gone by the way. Lincoln saw a ‘house divided against itself’’ and rightfully feared for its survival.
Today our country suffers from the same malady. In some ways our current condition is far worse than the one Lincoln faced. The two tribes are fracturing and becoming four – or five – or six. Americans – and particularly the political class – seem to think that we have the luxury of a house divided – seem to believe that – in a world which is more and more globally integrated every day – American society can be divide into smaller and smaller cabals – which fight among themselves – without any negative effect or cost. But nothing could be farther from the truth – the effect of such divisions are already and will continue to be massively negative.
And what is it that drives this division and subdivision of American society? It is the loosing of the ‘worse angels of our nature’ – through a politics that appeals to the dark side of our nature – the destructive side. When politicians advance – and often, win elections – by slandering and tearing down their opponents, they are also slandering and tearing down the American flag and chipping away at the very foundation of our Republic. As long as Americans see their elections as some sort of sporting event – some sort of spectacle – this politics of the negative will continue to erode those foundations. As long as we tolerate the appeal to the ‘worse angles of our nature’ – we will be enablers of that destruction. By tolerating such politics, Americans are participating in the destruction of their own country.
Partisan politics is a tough addiction to break. You might get a short-term high when your side lands a ‘blow’ on the ‘opponent’ – but you need to recognize that that blow was also struck the flag, the Constitution and the very foundations of our Republic. If you really think that smut, scum slinging, unfounded innuendo, political and personal hachetry and the like are the true currency of American politics, I suggest that you read the histories of National Socialism, Marxism and Communism. In each case, the divisions within a society solidified, one side gained ascendancy and the world was plunged into war. You cannot engage in or tolerate such things and not be complicitous in the destruction and denigration of the great gift that the founders gave us.
The current election cycle finds us at a critical turning point in American history. We have to decide whether we are all Americans – in it together – who will work with good will and tolerance to find common ground and a way forward that is best for the future of our country – or whether it is more important that we are republicans, democrats or independents – and that the future of our clique is more important than the future of our country. In an important way, we need to decide whether we will be true to the vision of the founding fathers or cast that vision aside. The formulation that ‘what is good for one of these sub-groups is good for the country’ is self-serving trash of the most insidious type. It insults and degrades the very foundations of our Republic – contradicts the entire idea of ‘we the people’ and posits a ‘master class’ whose interests trump those of the rest of the society.
If Americans decide that they prefer the gruel and drivel of partisan politics to the fine cuisine that the founders offered us – it they prefer to eat at ‘separate tables’ and divide the house until the funeral dirges raise to thundering levels – then we have stopped listening to “the better angels of our nature”. If we punish negative campaigning and support those with a positive vision which includes all Americans, we hold faith with Washington, Madison, Adams and Franklin – and reaffirm American exceptionalism – reaffirm the American dream – and set the ship of state back on a course which is founded on the very idea that we are all Americans and, by that, are all bound to respect, support and honor each other’s commitment to the founding ideals of the Republic.
Dr. Smith is a political and social theorist who lives in Washington, DC
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