CIVIL WAR? — The Weekly Opine

Three retired U.S. generals say a divided America is dangerously close to another Civil War. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Are we there yet?

If you watch enough cable news, or visit any number of websites, you’ll run across experts and non-experts opining that the United States is on the path to another Civil War. When voicing this dire outcome, pundits are presumably speaking of a “traditional” Civil War, such as the one that played out in America from 1861-1865. Lines are drawn (and crossed), bullets are fired, and people die.

No doubt, things in this country are – as we like to say – slim shady. While Trump and Fox Lies are responsible for providing the spark that lit much of what has turned sour in America the past decade, there is also no doubt that for many Americans, feelings that simmered just beneath the surface have been unleashed by the Trump/Fox pack of lies. This includes many people in the Republican Party who have succumbed to false rhetoric about everything from who the boogeyman is to election fraud to the pandemic is a hoax.

Nowadays, to qualify as a Republican requires displaying the type of intense fealty once reserved for criminal enterprises like the Ku Klux Klan and the Mafia. Congressional Republicans intent on keeping the base happy, so they get reelected and retain power, are showing us their true selves. Somewhere within their souls, these people apparently already harbored a connection to the cowardly, treasonous behavior espoused by Trump and Fox Lies. And they hate America.

In contrast, most of us, if asked to display racism against another race of people as the means to succeed at work, would respond with an emphatic “no thanks.” If a male boss implored you to mistreat women, as the surest way to climb the corporate ladder, most of us would decline (not respectfully).

Calling for racism, misogynism, or any other -ism, with the same ease you’d call the local pizza parlor for a delivery, is beyond most of us. It goes against what we were taught growing up. However, GOPers have demonstrated an unfettered willingness to take the route of plundering at the expense of everyone else.

The pandemic has exacerbated differences between intelligent citizens and ignorant citizens. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

A helping hand

Even GOP do-gooders, like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, were (on some level) guilty of supporting Trump’s divisive MAGA act. Check their voting record. In the case of Liz Cheney, check her record when her dad, former-Vice President Dick Cheney, was part of another Republican Big Lie – that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had developed weapons of mass destruction.

I do not recall Liz Cheney calling out the Bush administration for spoon feeding America – indeed the world – a Big Lie that cost America trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. Not to mention padding the bank accounts of scandal-ridden companies like Halliburton, whose former CEO was none other than Dick Cheney.

At the end, countless innocent Iraqi citizens, guilty of nothing more than everyday activities like attending a wedding reception or shopping, died when bombs were dropped on them.

Certainly, we applaud Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their tenacity seeking truth and facts related to the Jan. 6 coup attempt. It is critically important that we uncover the who, what, why and when, and then vigorously prosecute and imprison those responsible. Cheney and Kinzinger’s aggressive participation as part of the Jan. 6 Committee has been exemplary.

Kinzinger has become one of my favorite politicians, fortified when he was the only House Republican to vote for the resolution asking yellow-bellied Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from the presidency.

But the fact remains – for all Republicans who claim to sit on the right side of history – there were 16 other candidates for the Republican nomination in 2015-2016. And Republicans went with Trump. A deliberate, conscious choice.

Following Barack Obama’s surprising presidential victory in 2008, Republicans acknowledged a strategic need to expand their base by welcoming ethnic diversity. Instead, stoked by Trump and Fox Lies unlocking the closet that contains bottomless hatred, Republicans pivoted to unabashed racism, misogyny, and classism.

Now the GOP doubles down, in the process burning the bridge behind them so there is no turning back. If their plan doesn’t work, it will take a generation (or more) for Americans to put behind them Republicans’ attempt to destroy American democracy.

Of course, the GOP fetish for censoring history books would make it easier to whitewash what Republicans are attempting to do during the first three decades of the 21st Century.

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are separated by a schism that threatens democracy. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Another speech. Action?

Most of us enjoy hearing a great speech. Whenever Obama gave a speech, Democrats reacted as if his next destination was Mt. Rushmore. Admittedly, the man delivered the goods, speech-wise, and did so often. President Joe Biden is also quite adept at giving a rousing speech.

Sometimes, the trouble with a great speech is the same problem as holding a meeting. Meetings inherently include pontification. Pontification kills time and leads to inaction, often in the form of setting up more meetings.

Biden’s speech Tuesday in Atlanta felt perfunctory. Conceptually, it hit all the right notes regarding voting rights. Unfortunately, Biden did not spell out, specifically, what tools he will employ if the filibuster is not removed, or if Sen. Manchin and Sen. Sinema block him. Will the president use funding from his massive infrastructure plan as a cudgel? It remains within the federal government’s purview to deny funding to states that are restricting citizens’ right to vote.

One of my reasons for supporting progressive Democratic candidates during the last presidential election is they are not wedded to nice-nice traditions, as are many Democrats. Playing nice right now won’t cut it.

Think about Gen. William Sherman’s march through the South, when his Union Army destroyed everything in sight. Was it brutal? Yes, it was. Was it necessary? Yes, it was. After the war ended there was time to make nice, which the Union did, as evidenced by Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee being spared from hanging from a tree.

The 21st Century American Civil War has already begun. The goal is to end it before bullets start flying.