Clasping his hands and swaying unsteadily, Patick Henry declaimed, "Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs."
– William Wirt Henry. Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondences and Speeches, Volume 2. 1891
Patrick Henry used the phrase “united we stand, divided we fall” in his last public speech, given in March 1799, in which he denounced The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in which legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. The account of Henry's speech claims at the end of his oration, Henry fell into the arms of bystanders and was carried, almost lifeless, into a nearby tavern. Two months afterward, he died.
A little over two hundred and a score of years later, Patrick Henry's words fall upon deaf ears. No advanced industrial democracy in the world is more politically divided, or more politically dysfunctional, than the United States today. The preservation of the Union is in jeopardy.
What has caused this division?
Ian Bremmer is a foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large at Time addressed this very question. Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy, and GZERO Media, a company dedicated to providing intelligent and engaging coverage of international affairs. He also teaches applied geopolitics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and his most recent book is Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism.
You can read the entire article here: https://time.com/5929978/the-u-s-capitol-riot-was-years-in-the-making-heres-why-america-is-so-divided/. In this blog entry, I would like to cite what Bremmer considers the three most structural and most crucial contributing factors to today’s U.S. political divisions.
1. Race
The U.S. has been particularly slow to address the structural legacy of that racism. Steps have been taken in recent decades to begin addressing this legacy in earnest, from anti-discrimination laws to affirmative action efforts.
And, there is a great backlash. A group of white Americans – many of them white rural – are seeing their status in society threatened as a result of demographics and the recent racial reckoning. That has manifested itself both in politics – see redistricting and voter suppression schemes – as well as the violence we witnessed at the Capitol.
Years in the making, these feelings of resentment hit a fever pitch in the Trump years. Bremmer writes …
“To be clear, the U.S. is not the only country that has to deal with elements of racism in their populist movements … But given the structural way racism has been woven into the country’s fabric combined with years of neglecting the problem, race relations have contributed mightily to the current state of U.S. political affairs.”
2. Capitalism
Capitalism is evolving. At one time, “the entrepreneurial spirit of American-style capitalism in particular generated the kinds of innovations and growth that were exported around the world, helped along by globalization. America’s enduring faith in capitalism, and specifically the power of the individual.”
Bremmer says:
“But there’s the flip side to U.S.-style capitalism—this capitalist, individualist economic system generates tremendous amounts of wealth, but it has also resulted in an average American worker with less of a social safety net (especially compared to European counterparts), not to mention a political system more prone to capture by moneyed special interests.”
3. Media
The same tech companies that power our modern world have also brought a revolution in our media consumption. The evolution of social media – talk radio, cable news and blogs – were all once mass media ways of communicating that over time fragmented into more and more niche offerings until consumers could “enjoy” only those viewpoints that reinforced their own.
Bremmer explains:
“The speed of technology is such that we’ve seen the fracturing happen much quicker with social media, but the truly disruptive element tech companies have introduced is algorithms – actively designed to capture more ad revenues and attention, often achieved by promoting extremist and misleading content. And it has come at the cost of a healthy and informed citizenry.”
(Ian Bremmer. “The U.S. Capitol Riot Was Years in the Making. Here's Why America Is So Divided.” Time. January 16, 2021.)
The number of Republicans and Democrats see each other not just as political foes, but as an existential threat to the country. According to data from the Pew Research Center, 45% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats think the other party is so dangerous that it is a threat to the health of the nation.
In his book, Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next (2020), Spencer Critchley explains …
“On one side are the followers of Enlightenment, who believe in science, reason, and the rule of law. Today’s followers of the enlightenment believe in a 'civic nation,' founded on a social contract between the individual and the state …
“On the other side are followers of the Counter-Enlightenment, who believe a focus on reason is too constraining. It doesn’t account for culture, art, tradition, spirituality – the elements that bring richness to life. This group believes in an 'ethnic nation,' which is rooted in their race and culture.
(Spencer Critchley. Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next. 2020)
People who live within the two worldviews delineate by Critchley have different values and different perceptions, use language differently, and even define truth differently. Uniting the two will require that they finally do see and understand their different realities.
In order to heal, Americans must attend to the deep divisions that have gutted trust and other bonds of identity. Citizens must fight for the rights of others just as they would exercise their own fight for the rights they consider most important. Defending the Bill of Rights requires commitment and effort by all. Both so-called followers of “Enlightenment” and followers of “Counter-Enlightenment” must end this division based on both race and culture.
Can we, as Americans, agree to work together to become a stronger nation united in recognizing differences yet working to increase the common good? The injustices we seek to overcome such as poverty, racial injustice, and wealth inequity are not problems solely of one political party or one ethnic subgroup. We must attend to good work and good trouble together in order to sustain a stronger union.
I, Too
By Langston Hughes (1925)
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
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