A Nation Divided
When States Became Countries
Last week we learned again just how divided we are as a country. The phrase in the preamble of the constitution, “to form a more perfect union,” seems to have lost its very meaning. It has become not just red states and blue states but a far more divisive hyper-partisanship dynamic in the United States. In a recent poll of Republican voters, 38 percent believed it was better that Russia interfered with our election if that’s what it took to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. The explosive news that Vladimir Putin and Russia were indeed trying to alter our 2016 presidential election becomes just another skirmish between the right and the left. Wasn’t national security an American issue that brought all of us together no matter what state we lived in? The United States of America by its very name was to be distinct from our neighbors across the Atlantic.
In Europe, one of the ways separate countries united was around the European Union and the euro. Europe wouldn’t just be an array of various countries but a collection of nation states in a union with common goals. When Brexit happened in June, that notion became more unrealistic. Britain voted to leave and the union and not participate in the economic treaties it had benefited from in the past. A wave of populism, immigrants pouring into Europe, and nationalism were cited as reasons for why this was happening.
At the same time, Donald Trump brought a right-wing populism in his campaign for the presidency. Embracing anti-immigration rhetoric, Trump struck a chord with people who wished to cling to a past of American exceptionalism. That past did not include immigrants, globalism, and most of all multiculture inclusion. We had already formed our union over 200 years ago and fought a civil war to keep it. In America, unlike Europe, we are already a conglomeration of states. Now that thought appears assailable as partisanship continues at the expense of our national interest in certain states. Moreover, citizens are finding that civil rights can vary from state to state.
