Think About It

On May 20^th, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a fiery and impassioned speech denouncing the evils of slavery. Two days later, while working at his desk in the Senate Chamber, he was attacked by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Without warning, Brooks savagely beat Sumner with a walking stick, until he collapsed to the floor bleeding and brain-damaged.

The country’s reaction was predictably polarized.  The Southern papers applauded the assault, saying that a good “thrashing” was the best way to deal with abolitionists.  The Northern papers rightly denounced it as a criminal act and an attack on the Freedom of Speech.  The incident is known as the end of “reasoned discourse,” the point of no return, the day that reason and debate gave way to passion and violence, sowing the seeds of an inevitable conflict.  Less than five years later, the United States would plunge itself into the bloodiest conflict in its history; a Civil War that would kill or wound one out of every twenty Americans.

Political discourse has always been a full-contact sport.  People are passionate about their views and the rhetoric often becomes contentious and nasty, but it must never rise to the level of violence.   Today, it’s suddenly 1856 again.  Our political dialog has deteriorated into an endless babble of name-calling and race-baiting.

A California Congresswoman encouraged her supporters to threaten, harass and intimidate members of the administration and their families when they’re out in public.  A former Secretary of State and Presidential Candidate insists that civility toward the opposition party must be suspended until her party regains power. A DNC spokesman openly called for violence against Republicans, and the people are listening.

A man in California was arrested for trying to stab a Congressional Candidate. An assault on two GOP candidates in a Minnesota restaurant left one with a concussion. In Washington DC, Representative Steve Scalise was shot and gravely wounded while playing baseball. And the violence is spilling onto the campuses and streets of America. Individual’s civil liberties are being routinely trampled by angry mobs who use shout-down tactics and violence to suppress the freedom of speech, and a patriot prayer gathering in Portland Oregon somehow provoked mass assaults and rioting. This country is literally losing its collective mind. There is no longer any civility in our political debate, all “reasoned discourse” has ended. What happened?  How did we get to this point? The simple answer is, “The Diversity Lie.”

The United States is the most diverse society on earth because it is the only nation in history that was designed and created for the individual. Think about it.  The Declaration of Independence espouses the truth that all human-beings are created equal.  The Bill of Rights enumerates the rights and freedoms of the individual. America is about the individual, not about the group.

Over the centuries, millions have immigrated here bringing with them their traditions, culture, and values, and we take the best of these and weave them into our national fabric.  However, it’s individual human beings that immigrate, not groups.  Individuals whom come not to supplant our culture with theirs, but to assimilate, to become Americans, to become a part of the only civilization on earth where the rights of the individual are more important than the power of the state. Our national motto is “E Pluribus Unum,” meaning from many one.  We are one nation, and one people, comprised of 325 million unique individuals united by the truth that we are all created equal. Our nation and our society will always be as unique and diverse as the individuals who call themselves Americans. However, this is not the diversity that the political class has been force feeding us for the past decade.  The diversity that they’re peddling is a ploy, nothing more than a smokescreen for “Identity Politics.”

Identity Politics segregates and groups people by race, gender, age, ethnicity and sexual orientation, into monolithic voting blocks.  It’s the cynical and manipulative way that politicians look at the world.  Why do they do it?  They do it because it’s easier to pander to a group than to persuade an individual.

If a politician can convince you that you’re a victim, that you’re a member of some marginalized, downtrodden and exploited group, they can become your champion, your defender and protector, and once that happens, they own you.  It is much easier for a politician to convince you that you’re a victim than it is for them to present a lucid, well-reasoned argument for why their ideas, plans and programs will work for the betterment of everybody. No, it’s far simpler to say that America is bad, and that you’ve been screwed, then it is to have real solutions that actually work. The purpose and truth of identity politics is that it divides people into groups and pits them against each other, so they are easier to manipulate and control.  It’s all about the power, seizing and keeping power.

Our country is more divided today, than any time since the Civil War because we are besieged by the trifecta of tyranny. A political class that has grown entitled and corrupt playing identity politics and catering to the special-interest groups that pay for their elections.  A progressive movement that is actively working to undermine the sovereignty of the United States and push us towards a one-world government which they’ll control.  And an electorate that has become too complacent and lazy to pay attention, and participate in a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The extremes on both the right and left are rising in popularity because the status quo is failing.  The political class has isolated itself from the concerns of the American people and grown contemptuous of the very people they are elected to serve.  They care only about power and are engaged in a death-struggle to attain it and are plunging us into a civil conflict in which there will be no winner.