DISCUSSION: What Could Bring Americans Together?

Today’s post is about a publication that brings together the left and the right in a kind of pro-Trump, anti-woke Marxism.

But a Communist revolution is unlikely to happen, much less solve our current political polarization. What might bring us together?

Here are two examples from history of a divided nation became unified:

(1) The attack on Pearl Harbor. Wars that are direct attacks on the country–not optional wars, but defensive wars–have a way of bringing citizens together.

(2) The presidency of Ronald Reagan. After the Vietnam war, Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis, and the ruinous economic stagflation, the nation was in a state of what the hapless Jimmy Carter called “malaise.” The U.S.A., was demoralized, traumatized, and paralyzed. But the genial yet tough Reagan proved a breath of fresh air, affecting even those who opposed him for being too conservative. The change in the national mood was palpable.

I suspect if Putin nukes America, as he has threatened to do, the country would come together. Or maybe a new president could make a difference, though I’m not aware of anyone of either party on the horizon who has Reagan’s intangible qualities. Though perhaps you do.

What could bring us together? Some things that might work, such as World War III, would be undesirable. It would be better to have disunity. Other things, such as the Second Coming, would be impossible for us to engineer. And in our current conflicts, if one side wins and completely squelches the other, that would not create unity, as such. That might happen, but first there would need to be a larger national consensus about doing so.

Or, on the other hand, do we really need to be brought together? Are our divisions such that they cannot be reconciled? Is the best that we should ever hope for–to avoid tyranny, idolatry, and utopianism–is to have a divided nation and a divided government that just muddles along?

So our discussion question for this weekend is this: Does our nation need to overcome its polarization, and, if so, how might that be accomplished?