Yes, Americans are pretty angry at each other right now. Sometimes is seems as if the growing differences between conservative and liberal, red stater and blue stater, Fox News fan and NPR listener will dangerously challenge our national unity in ways that frighten most American. No one likes in-fighting, especially at a time when foreigners are doggedly attempting to blow us up. That being said, all things truly do cycle. Take comfort in two historical examples:
At the dawn of the 19th century, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists nearly tore each other, and the country, to shreds. With radically different views regarding a course for the new Republic, agrarian gentlemen and capitalist high-Anglicans battled it out for the soul of America. Some even begged Washington to be a king, and Alexander Hamilton ruminated over the possibility while laying the groundwork of a standing army fit for Napoleon. Washington just barely adverted a coup attempt by unpaid military officers. With no sense of what "America" meant before the age of nationalism, it feel to Washington to hold the young republic together. The politics of the era matched the emancipated colonies' dark and tortured mood. Accusations in a typical circa 1800 newspaper (then much like supermarket tabloids) made today's politics seem warm and fuzzy. Jefferson's sex life, Washington's mental fitness and John Adams' weight were all fair game and regular topics of heated discussion. At least no one has called Bush fat.
50 years later, The Civil War seems to be a self-explanatory example. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering how ugly the national situation had become even before Ft. Sumter and secession. Canings on the Senate floor, bloody engagements between Kansas settlers, and wholesale rioting across the fruited plains now seem extreme when contrasted to current divisions. The country was coming unglued, because as before, Americans possessed little fellow feeling toward their antagonistic countrymen. A major catalyst for regional angst was an unpopular war with Mexico instigated by President Polk, during which many state legislatures, politicians, citizens and media pundits fiercely protested what was seen as an "unjust war". Deja Vu, anyone? Or am I blogging to the wall? Later under the leadership of the now beloved Abraham Lincoln, Americans were frequently and loudly displeased with their president's conduct and policies. Elected with less than 50% of the vote and suffering from a string of staggering military victories and inept generals, Lincoln narrowly survived political death before succumbing to the deadly forces arrayed against American unity.
What do these distinctly ugly periods have in common? America survived all of them, only to emerge stronger and more united. This nation has survived revolution, invasion, natural disasters, civil war, world war, depression, scandal, the threat of nuclear obliteration and now, terrorism. And while it would be nice to say that the people of the U.S. always confront challenges with one brave and bold front, such romantic revisions of history are neither true nor helpful to understand our own troubled times. Furthermore, our quarrels are not necessarily bad or unhealthy things. The beauty of a democratic system is personified when voters and 527 groups supplant gunmen and hangmen as the agents of dialectical change. Now 230 years old, America has evolved and matured as a democracy, and can therefore handle pluralist differences of opinion and, frankly, some pretty vicious political conflicts. We will continue to grow and survive as one people, so long as Americans can continue to accept the impossibility of perpetual agreement between us. Flexibility in the face of trials spawned by peril and punditry will always allow these united states to stand together. After all, things have been worse.
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