A Nation Bickering-More Fragile Than A House Divided

Posted by LK on 4/13/09 • Categorized as Anarchy, Conflict, Culture War, Two Americas

In 1858, upon being nominated for the Senate by the Republican Party, Abe Lincoln gave a speech containing one of his many memorable lines, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. History shows him to be correct as the nation was ripped asunder a short time later by Civil War. The “house divided”, following 4 bloody years of fighting, reunited, and like a broken bone that heals and is then stronger than it was prior to being fractured, went on to become a dominant world power.

A divorce followed by a re-marriage may be preferable to the cacophonous, never ending, and unprecedented bickering this polarized union’s going through. What I’m hearing isn’t spirited debate, it’s poorly disguised hate speech.

I get daily news feeds from both Newsmax (an up and coming right wing rag whose only redeeming quality is that Ben Stein writes a monthly column for them) and Air America (the left wing policy wonk platform with fewer listeners than employees). The vitriol within their headlines and content point to a national marriage that would be dissolved in a New York minute due to irreconcilable differences.

Examples, first from Newsmax:

Obama Nomination Papers are Perjurious, Gingrich: Obama’s Attack on Medical Civil Liberties, Rove Calls Biden Liar, Obama Wrongly Called Our Nation Arrogant, Castros Want to Help Obama, Obama Lies To Gun Owners As Holder Reveals Gun Attack Plan, The fight to save our county from Obama starts in Here and Now, Rush Tells NY to Drop Dead, Obama Readies Plans for Social Chaos, and the topper: O.B.A.M.A. One Big — Mistake America

And from Air America:

Al Qaeda and Taliban Hosted by US Companies, Hundreds More $140 Million Obsolete Jets Ordered, Marc Maron to Glenn Beck: You Are a Fascist Clown, Here’s How To Call for Rove’s Arrest, and this slice of through the looking glass journalism: Fox News today announced that it will adopt a Malawi child to show the world how cool news organizations “do it,” the company said in a press release. “The idea,” Fox News Channel President Roger Ailes said, “is that we can be as cool and newsworthy as Madonna.”

Ratings over rationality, popularity over productive discourse. Punditry over people and the quality of their lives. If this continues, let alone escalates, we’re up the proverbial creek.

But wait; checking my inbox this morning, I find, miracle of miracles, a glimmer of hope, as Newsmax, counter to its usual tendencies, declares: