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The Polarization of American Ideology
There have been huge polarizations and ideological differences in
America for many years, especially between the Democrats and the
Republicans. The political-ideological divisions are evident in both the
House of Representatives and the Senate.
For decades, Democrats and Republicans have become
deadlocked, refusing to compromise on important issues. Those issues are
at times vital to America and our future well-being.
Let's face it, there have been times when finding a rational
solution, meeting in the middle of the great divide, or reaching a
compromise seemed beyond the realm of possibility in Washington, DC. The
two parties came up with mere talking points to talk past one another.
It is also evident that our U.S. Government is becoming more
dysfunctional, making it harder to accomplish anything of importance.
The Republican leaders are seen by the Democratic Party as
being hijacked by the extreme conservative fringe. The Republican
leaders, on the other hand, view the Democratic Party as the
ultra-liberal progressive party.
A conservative talking point on Facebook is the claim that
Democrats want to change America into a socialist country. Another post I
read said liberalism is a mental disorder, and what is needed is a
return to our biblical roots. The liberal side is arguing that
conservatives want to rewrite history to push their ideological agenda
on the American people. Conservatives say the same about liberals.
Perhaps they believe that if they post their assertions enough times
online, they will become factually true.
Some of the religious right posting on social media have gone
as far as to say our Nation’s founding fathers were orthodox
Christians. However, there is no historical evidence to support their
claim, and history has proven time and time again that most, but
not all, of our nation’s founding fathers were Deists, not Christians.
Conservative leaders enjoy weaving into their speeches that
Abraham Lincoln was our greatest President and the first Republican
President. Most historians would not dispute that claim, as Lincoln was,
by far, a great President. They also bring up that Ronald Reagan never
wavered from his Christian orthodoxy and single-handedly brought down
the Soviet Union.
Many historians would agree that Ronald Reagan was indeed an
above-average President but to say he was orthodox in his beliefs and
that he single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union is a bit of a
stretch.
Many of the religious right postings on social media also
seem to lack historical knowledge, especially with their outlandish
claims that Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan were born-again
Christians. There is no historical evidence to support that claim
either. Perhaps, they believe their speeches will rewrite history.
Marco Rubio, our US Secretary of State, once said in a speech
that Liberalism is a social disease. I would politely disagree. The
problems facing our country are not caused by Liberalism or conservatism
but rather by the polarization of ideologies within the government.
Many people sincerely believe our Nation was founded on
conservative Christian orthodoxy. They should, however, take time to
learn about our country’s heritage rather than trying to push their
religious agenda.
Liberalism is not a social disease, nor is it the sole cause
of the discord in Washington, DC. The main problem is our government’s
inability to compromise, to reach across the aisle, and put the needs of
the American people foremost.
Liberal ideologies fill the pages of our history books; the
delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 were, for
example, considered radical liberals. Especially those who didn’t want
to rock the boat and enter a war with England. Most religious leaders at
that time argued that a war against England could not be won.
In Thomas Jefferson’s time, during the formation of our great
American experiment, the Roman Catholic Church declared democracy an
immoral form of Government. Pope Pius IV at that time believed that
America does not recognize Christ and the church as its moral and
governing authority, therefore its government is worldly and immoral.
Thomas Jefferson was considered the greatest liberal of all with his
radical idea of erecting a wall of separation between church and state.
Conservatives at the time declared him an
atheist even though he considered himself a Deist.
Those who condemned slavery in the 1850s were also considered
bleeding-heart liberals. Unlike today, many Democrats were staunch
racists during the abolitionist movement of the 1800s, but their party
was divided. That division led to the first Republican to win the
Presidency in 1860. Abraham Lincoln received only 40% of the popular
vote in the 1860 election. His two opponents received 60% of the votes,
with 30% going to each. His two opponents were pro-slavery, and if the
1860 election were a two-way race, Lincoln would have lost due to his
liberal ideals, and history would have turned out quite differently.
Unlike today, the Republican Party in the mid- to late 1800s
was a liberal progressive party. The Democratic Party back then was the
religious conservative party that campaigned on bible quotes. They
believed slavery was justified on religious grounds because the bible
says so.
Steven Douglas, who ran against Lincoln, accused him of being
a Deist because he never referred to god’s biblical words in his
speeches. Lincoln’s response, “…. when I do good … I feel good …… when I do bad, I feel bad. Therefore, I do my best to do what is
right, ….. to follow the rules of goodness at all times, this is the religion I live by.” Lincoln went on to say in response to Steven Douglas, “……
I cannot conceive a superior intelligence, which we refer to as God,
that would concur with my opponent’s (Douglas) feeble, mediocre
ramblings.” Lincoln took a huge gamble by alienating himself against
the religious conservatives, but he spoke honestly, and many historians
believe Douglas won the debate among the pro-slavery crowd.
Lincoln was hated and despised as President because he did
not set out to please the citizenry by making the popular choices. He
put preserving the Union above all else. He understood history depended
on the tough, unpopular choice he had to make. He brought our country
through the greatest and bloodiest conflict our Nation ever faced. Some
historians put the death toll in the Civil War at seven hundred and
twenty thousand. North against South, brother against brother, every
household experienced a great loss due to the death of a loved one. The
South experienced the most carnage and punishment by the northern
forces, and each side passionately believed God was on their side.
A reporter asked Lincoln, “Mr. President, both sides say God is on their side. How can you both be right?” Lincoln’s response, “God is always on the side of humanity, urging us to concede to the will of our higher angel, dwelling within all of us.”
In the end, Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 elevated our 16th
President to secular sainthood. His death occurred on Good Friday, a
Christian observance. In some way, his death symbolized and represented
the loss and pain that the country endured throughout the war.
North and South mourned the death of Abraham Lincoln.
History, however, does not always concur with the myths and legends that
continue to surround our 16th President in popular culture. He
represented all that was worst in humanity and all that was best in
humanity. His goals for the Southern Reconstruction were not fulfilled
as he had hoped. It was due to his assassination and the staunch racism
and hatred of his successor, Andrew Johnson. Unlike Lincoln, the 17th
President, Andrew Johnson, was on the wrong side of history.
Afro-Americans were treated poorly in the South, and Southern
whites got away with horrendous crimes against Southern blacks.
Southerners used people of color as scapegoats for the Civil War and
took out all their hate and animosity against them.
The Ku Klux Klan, commonly called the KKK or simply the Klan,
was made up of both democrats and republicans. When the KKK emerged,
segregation soon followed, becoming the norm under the new Jim Crow laws
that were established in the southern states. It would take decades for
the civil rights movement to take root, leading to extraordinary social
changes.
The mid-1950s and throughout the 1960s brought the civil
rights struggle to the national mainstream. Enlightened voices and
extraordinary oratory from people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and other
civil rights leaders brought the struggles of Afro-Americans to light.
Television visualized the injustices waged against people of color and
the dissonance of white supremacy.
President John F Kennedy tried to pass massive civil rights
legislation through Congress, but conservative republicans and democrats
blocked the bills. It wasn’t until JFK’s assassination that President
Lyndon Johnson was able to push Kennedy’s civil rights bills through
Congress, and the Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964, bringing
an end to segregation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, making
it illegal to interfere with a person’s right to vote. The Fair Housing
Rights Act of 1968 became law, making it illegal to refuse to rent or
sell property to a person based on that person’s race.
Many southern Governors opposed the new civil rights laws,
like Governor George Wallace (January 1963 – January 1967) of Alabama, a
proud racist. He had no qualms about announcing his racism on national
television. He said, “There was segregation, yesterday, they’ll be
segregation, today, and they’ll be segregation, tomorra', as long as I’m
Govana’ of the mighty State of Alabama.” George Wallace ran for
Governor on that very slogan and won his first term in November of 1962.
He and other Southern governors ignored the new civil rights laws. They
accused the Democratic leaders in Washington of being soft and
bleeding-heart liberals for interfering with the southern way of life.
At various times during LBJ’s presidency, National Guard units were
called into southern states to help enforce civil rights laws.
President Johnson went on to escalate the Vietnam War by
sending thousands of ground troops to Vietnam in hopes of winning over
the hardline southern conservatives. They accused the President of being
soft on communism. Those who opposed the war were looked upon as
bleeding hearts.
Most historians today would agree that the Vietnam War was a
huge blunder and that Vietnam never posed an imminent threat to the
United States.
Decades earlier, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected
President, many Republicans during the Great Depression of the 1930s
accused FDR of being a socialist for his New Deal policies. His welfare
programs also caused many Republican conservatives to accuse Roosevelt
not just of being a socialist but of being a bleeding-heart liberal as
well.
Conservatives always point to Ronald Reagan as the last of
the great conservative Presidents. However, if they took the time to
read Reagan's personal letters, a different picture would emerge. Reagan
was once asked by a reporter, “Is Jesus Christ your personal savior?” Reagan responded, “I don’t wear religion on my sleeve.”
The religious right at the time accused Reagan of being Christian in
name only because he never brought up Jesus in his speeches and rarely
worshiped in a Church on Sunday. Reagan’s personal writings, however,
show him to be ahead of his time on many social issues, and he was not
as conservative as the religious right makes him out to be. He was
highly criticized by conservatives in 1983 when he signed into law,
making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday to
commemorate Dr. King's life.
If Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan were to run for President
today, they would not be able to get their names on the Republican
ballot. The religious right would reject them for not being conservative
enough.
In 1960, when John F Kennedy’s Catholicism became a campaign
issue, Kennedy responded, “The wall of separation between Church and
State is absolute,”/ but many conservatives say Kennedy was wrong.
A religious conviction was never a prerequisite for political
office in our Nation’s early years. This has become a modern
phenomenon that diminishes the electoral process in the United States.
John F. Kennedy was correct in stating that the wall of separation is
absolute, as our founding fathers intended.
Religious litmus tests for political fitness in our country
run counter to the very core principles on which our country was
founded. I do, however, agree that the founding principles that made our
country great are becoming somewhat lost. It cannot be denied that our
founding fathers did not set out to create a Christian Theocracy; they
intended to create a just society. They also had a benevolent attitude
toward religion in general and Christianity in articular.
Our Nation’s founding fathers believed that education
grounded in reason, logic, and a virtuous upbringing is needed for a
just society to bear fruit. We cannot have a just society without a
virtuous electorate, and that too is being lost in our country.
Religiosity being cloaked in government policy by the conservative
fringe will only diminish our nation’s greatness even further. We also
need to reapply the immortal words of John F Kennedy - “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
I say this because today many are asking what our Government
can do for “ME” and that includes many of today’s politicians. Common
decency and service to our country seem to have been foremost in
Kennedy’s generation.
Service to our country and common decency are also part of
our country’s founding principles; they, too, are eroding in society.
Politicians need to move away from an entitlement mentality to a
self-worth mentality by asking themselves, “What can I do to make our country a better place to live?”
I like telling people, fools talk because they can; the wise,
on the other hand, choose their words carefully. Words do matter, and
how we communicate with one another can be just as important as what we
say to one another.
There are no easy solutions to the social issues permeating
our society, but we, as citizens, can take greater personal
responsibility for the negative issues surrounding us. We can empower
ourselves and others by voting in each and every election. We can bring
about the necessary changes in our democratic society through
education, volunteerism, and involvement in outreach and community-based
programs. Putting ourselves in the service of others not only helps our
community but also enhances our well-being.
Always with love,
Thomas F O'Neill
- Email: introspective7@hotmail.com
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