By Peter Pavarini
My small corner of the blogosphere has been quiet lately. At first, I attributed my reticence to some family issues I needed to address. But as Joe Biden’s “dark winter” turned into an unusually fickle spring, I realized the cause of my disheartened state was something more profound.
Those who know me wouldn’t describe me as a pessimist. Opinionated, yes, but generally confident that any problem I face should be dealt with through prayer and perseverance -not despair. So, for me to conclude that the political divide in America is no longer bridgeable, I’ll admit I may be yielding to the negativity of the moment.
A Tipping Point
Was there a tipping point? Perhaps, but it wasn’t just the results of the 2020 election. Nor was it the government’s mismanagement of the COVID pandemic or the destruction of the U.S. dollar by profligate spending. Such things should have been anticipated given the contentious political climate of the past several years. If there was an “ah-ha” moment it came when I realized that even the few remaining fair-minded moderates and liberals I know have become blind to the Left’s Blitzkrieg on American values.
I always assumed that an unholy alliance among competing factions of the Democrat Party led to the emergence of one of the weakest tickets in US history. But I foolishly believed that, in the end, the politicos surrounding Biden would eventually remind him of his campaign pledge to seek bipartisanship.[i] However, against the post-election backdrop of increasing racial turmoil, techno-censorship and a mainstream media desperate to fill the void left by Donald Trump, all hope of finding a common ground seems to have been lost.
As a critical thinker, I have been trained to consider the possibility that my opinions about some issues such as climate change, critical race theory, and systemic racism could be wrong. I have purposely written blogs on these subjects to challenge myself into considering counter-arguments to my positions on such things. Many who have read my blogs have remarked (often dismissively) how even-handed I try to be when tackling controversial subjects. Sadly, this analytical approach no longer appears enough to change anyone’s mind – including my own.
Why We Can No Longer Agree to Disagree
The governing principles and values that gave rise to the American way of life are now under relentless attack by a radical ideology grounded in Marxism and other “isms”[ii] that were never part of our foundational fabric. The “wokest” members of our society are on a crusade to destroy the institutions of faith, family, free enterprise, and limited government. On these fundamental issues, opposite sides of the debate can’t both be right. Nor does the current popularity of Progressive ideas, particularly among the young, legitimize them.
“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”
Saint Augustine
The Augustinian principle of right and wrong needs to be squared with our God-given right to think freely – what for centuries was called “free will”.
“When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.”
Charles Evans Hughes
Today’s free-thinkers who claim to be grounded in “science” should heed the warning of one of the Twentieth Century’s most-celebrated free-thinkers:
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
Isaac Asimov
Nor can we allow society’s desire to redress past sins (e.g., slavery, genocide) impair its ability to “form a more perfect union”.
“Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
When compromise is no longer attainable, unwavering adherence to one’s principles and values is the only path forward.
Have Americans Polarized Faster Than the Citizens of Other Democracies?
Even though the growing divide between the Left and the Right is said to be a global phenomenon, studies have found that the US is polarizing faster than other Western democracies.[iii] Others contend that it’s not rank and file Americans who have changed much in the past 50 years, but the political class which has polarized.[iv] The 500,000 elected officials in the US represent only 0.2% of the total population. Even if you include political activists and regular donors (5-10%), as much as 55 percent of the general public continues to identify as “moderate” or “don’t know”.
Whether our present situation is a matter of polarization or what academicians call “party sorting”[v], no one can deny that hyper-partisanship has imbued every facet of American life. One can no longer watch the Academy Awards or a Major League Baseball game for enjoyment without being lectured on social issues that have nothing to do with the show or the game. Political identity in America now functions in place of religious identity, what previously was called “sectarianism”.[vi] As religion has become less important to a large percentage of people, it has been replaced by political sectarianism that causes them to see the other side as not only wrong, but evil.[vii]
The consequences of this trend were clearly visible in the nation’s response to the COVID pandemic. Not only did we witness a battle between the maskers and the non-maskers, the lockdown states and the non-lockdown states, the vaxers and the anti-vaxers, but the most partisan members of society came to believe their circumstances justified antidemocratic behavior, such as the violation of election laws, the suspension of Constitutional protections, and the promotion of civil unrest. Acts of violence and criminality, once rare, suddenly became everyday occurrences in many American cities.
Both Republicans and Democrats admit that political extremism is a major problem which unsurprisingly they blame on the opposing party. Polls also confirm the widespread view that social media have contributed to the rise of hyper-partisanship.[viii] Whereas 50% of Americans said they were neutral about the opposing party in 1980 (the year Reagan was elected), only 20% say that today.[ix] This dramatic shift in public opinion illustrates why the issue is much more than “politics as usual”.
Approaching a Point of No Return
At the heart of this hyper-partisanship are the same frustrations and feelings of hopelessness which have caused other societies to overthrow their governments by violence, destruction of property, and systematic suppression of dissent. When 77% of conservatives said in response to a recent Gallup poll they are afraid to share their political beliefs publicly,[x] it is easy to conclude we have already reached a point of no return.
Can we still avert catastrophe by seeking to compromise with our adversaries? As I said at the beginning, there is no common ground between diametrically opposed viewpoints incapable of reconciliation. Therefore, the struggle comes down to a pure power play. One side must yield to the other.
Leftists have made their convictions clear – the Republican Party “is the problem”, and it must be defeated. To end the ongoing culture war, they say the Left must win.[xi] They believe this can only be achieved by eliminating or sharply reducing Christianity’s influence on American society. New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz believes whatever problems we face will be solved by “more Marxism”, not less. [xii] Sad to say, if Mr. Levitz represents the Left (and I think he does), there’s no room for most of Americans who consider themselves right of center to compromise with the likes of him.
Why the Creed of the Right So Infuriates Leftists
Exactly what does the Right believe that is so abhorrent to the Left? Putting aside the shibboleths the Left uses to describe the Right (e.g., racist white supremacists, anti-immigrant, pro-gun violence), the three primary values which define Americanism as set forth in Dennis Prager’s Still the Best Hope are an existential threat to Leftism.[xiii] These cardinal principles are:
- Liberty. The greatest principle is liberty which encompasses all of our Constitutional rights and guarantees that Americans should be as free as possible from the control of the State. This necessitates that the government be as small as possible.
- In God We Trust. America was founded as a God-based country with a non-sectarian government. God, not government, is the source of our liberty; however, our Founders understood this required a people willing to adhere to a God-based morality.
- E Pluribus Unum. From many – one. This was our Founders’ understanding of diversity and inclusion which the Left hates with a passion because it is premised on America’s exceptionalism.
What the Right believes about the nature of mankind and the nature of government just happens to be the antidote to the Left’s witch’s brew of social justice nostrums, pseudo-science, self-hatred and godlessness. Lefties despise whatever suggests their destructive ideology is the root cause of their misery and dependence on big government. Simply stated, Americanism stands in the way of the Left’s dreams of a Marxist “utopia”.
The Great American Experiment was premised upon a belief that some things are so fundamental we must be willing to die for them. In his speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1775, Patrick Henry said:
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
I believe it has come down to that again.
[i] Bipartisanship is now dismissed by the Left as an artifact of the mid-Twentieth Century when most African-Americans were still subjugated to authoritarian white supremacy. See Eric Levitz, “The GOP Is the Problem. Is ‘Human Identity Politics’ the Solution?”, New York Intelligencer, May 16, 2020. See also Matt Margolis, “Jen Psaki Makes a Stunning Admission About Biden’s ’Unity Pledge’”, PJ Media, April 26, 2021.
[ii] See Dennis Prager’s Still the Best Hope – Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph, Broadside Books (2012) which contends that three ideologies are competing for the allegiance of mankind: Leftism, Islamism and Americanism.
[iii] A study by Brown University’s political economist Jesse Shapiro and Stanford University economists Levi Boxell and Matthew Gentzkow found that the US is polarizing faster than other democracies because the two major parties have become more closely aligned with certain races, religions and political ideologies . Evan MacDonald, “A Polarized America: How the Partisan Divide Grew Over the Decades”, www.cleveland.com, August 30, 2020.
[iv] Joe Schuman, “America Is Not Polarized”, www.dividedwefall.com, September 12, 2018.
[v] See Jocelyn Kiley, “In a Polarized Era, Fewer Americans Hold a Mix of Conservative and Liberal Views”, Fact Tank, News By the Numbers, October 23, 2017; also see the work of Morris P. Fiorina described at https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/fiorina_3_finalfile.pdf which finds that political parties are no longer “big tents” – they are more ideologically homogenous and less welcoming of those who do not fully subscribe to their orthodoxy.
[vi] More than ever, Americans can choose to live in a neighborhood, be employed by a company, engage in recreational activities, and watch news shows compatible with their lifestyles and beliefs. This segregation into pockets of like-minded individuals has made us ideologically inbred and incapable of understanding people who live just a few miles away. These divisions are further amplified by regional differences, particularly urban vs. rural areas.
Vii See “The Political Divide in America Goes Beyond Polarization and Tribalism”, https://insight.kellogg.nothwestern.edu, October 29, 2020.
[viii] Christie Aschwanden, “Why Hatred and Othering of Political Foes Has Spiked to Extreme Levels”, Scientific American, October 29, 2020.
[ix] “Political Sectarianism in America”, Vox, November 10, 2020.
[x] Christopher F. Rufo, “The Courage of Our Convictions”, City Journal, April 22, 2021,
[xi] Eric Levitz, “The GOP Is the Problem. Is ‘Human Identity Politics’ the Solution?”, New York Intelligencer, May 16, 2020.
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] D. Prager, supra.
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