I believe it was President Lincoln that first expressed the obvious; “A country divided against itself can not stand”. More recently it was Rev. Graham that said “It isn’t Donald Trump that has divided this country. It has been divided a for a long time.”
Why is it divided? Because of people. People have different beliefs, and ideas, and opinions. That covers almost all subjects from how big government should be, abortion, gay rights, immigration, race, to minimum wage. The list of subjects that divide is nearly endless. Of course, the list has changed over the years. Women’s voting rights have gone away and gay rights have emerged. Dozens of other changes have occurred, but the fact that there are, and always has been, dividing factors is a given. It is an affliction that affects all cultures, all societies, and all countries. So what is different now? It isn’t that there are marches and demonstrations. That has happened over the years stemming from the rise of unions, women’s voting rights, and race relations. The difference now is not even the violence sometimes associated with it. In the rise of unions, there were some broken heads on picket lines, and race relations certainly had its times of violence, and of course the civil war was the extreme example of when differences can’t be settled by negotiation and compromise. Perhaps the biggest difference now is the fact that the media is playing it up, creating more dissension in doing so. We are hammered hourly with news broadcasts and news/email input over our computers and cell phones.
I doubt that even the most radical liberals would argue that Trump is creating the divides. Their argument is that he is making those divides worse. I doubt that. I think those groups and the media that are playing up the divisions are making them worse. He hasn’t taken any rights away from women. He hasn’t told law enforcement to single out any group or race for harassment.
Yes, he is against open boarders and allowing people into our country that may have evil intent. Why would anyone even be against those positions? We can’t take in tens of thousands of people to feed and house when we can’t even take care of our own citizens, some of which have risked their lives to protect our freedoms. Don’t our citizens’ rights come before any others?
Presumably, the demonstrators have now vented their spleens and it is now time to go home and give our elected officials a chance to do their jobs without the unnecessary distractions that further demonstrations bring.
Ken, your article touches the cords of anyone who will read this post. It is sad that people do not see the need to look at our country for its greatness. Instead it’s about protesting in a way that is dividing our country continuously and in an unending way with uncertainty in sight. I continue to pray as I did before the election hoping for peacefulness.