Pundits on the right and the left are bewailing the lack of restraint by their opponents on the other side. Some of each persuasion have even gone so far as to assert that we are careening toward a civil war in America. Clashes between far left and far right have left many injured and enmity has been increased.
But, is a new civil war imminent? Some commentators, seeing no letup in the harsh rhetoric, and referencing the violence seen in recent months, believe it will eventually come to that as the “alt-right” and the “alt-left” seem to feel that only violence will end the conflict of ideologies. However, the overheated emotions are not enough to spark such an outcome. A short history lesson about the causes of the Civil War, 1861-65, will show how far events will have to go to inaugurate another such conflict.
The first Civil War was brought about mostly by the institution of slavery. With no apologies to those who feel that only state’s rights and Southern defense against evil Northerners were the chief cause (including a member of my own family!), without the moral issue of slavery, there would have been no war. These “deniers” call that time the War Between the States, or the War of Northern Aggression.
Human history records the incredible cruelty man inflicts on his fellow-man. Wars of aggression and wars for conquest have seen countless lives lost. Many times those peoples who lost such wars had members of their society taken into slavery. Those ancient cultures that have lent us some of our American values kept slaves to do their hard work. Greeks and Romans, among many others, practiced the getting, selling, and trading of slaves.
For the New World, slavery began when European nations realized that some of the backbreaking work needed to till the sugar, tobacco and cotton plantations were better done by black Africans, who were said to more suited to such labor than whites. In 1619, the first slave ship deposited their cargo into Jamestown colony, in what is now Virginia. It was not long until the practice spread and became a part of the culture and the law in the colonies that were producing the agricultural goods desired by European consumers.
Early on, some in the northern colonies where the crops were not labor intensive began to feel that keeping humans in bondage was wrong. One religious group, the Quakers, were against the “peculiar institution” on moral grounds. The first abolitionist society was established in the late 18th century, and such sentiment continued to grow. By the early 19th century, a split between the Northern way of life and the Southern culture was obvious, with slavery as a major component of the differences.
Political power between the slave and free states became a major part of the fabric of public life. Three times tensions were great, only to be diffused by compromises. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise kept the balance of power fairly equal, and only when a compromise was reached in the early 1830s was the split between North and South averted over the nullification crisis involving South Carolina. Gaining land from the Mexican War sparked another crisis over the looming imbalance of power between the sections, but the Compromise of 1850 pushed back the conflict for another decade.
American History 101 tells us how the Civil War came about in 1861. By that time, Southern politicians realized that eventually Northern political power would end slavery by law, so in December 1860, after the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, a man dedicated to limiting its spread, states began seceding from the Union. States, eventually eleven in total, left the Union, and in each state’s secession declaration, the abolition of slavery was a central reason for leaving. Although couched in terms of preserving the Union, by September of 1862, the War was officially declared a war to eliminate slavery when Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which was made permanent on 1 January 1863. This conflict became a moral crusade to make the black population in America free.
When the guns were finally silenced in the Spring of 1865, the total of deaths attributed to the War reached 620,000 to 640,000 (although a book I am presently reading puts the number much higher, 750,000). The lower figure equates to about 2.3 % of the adult white male population of the United States. To put this in perspective, a comparable number now would be about 3.8 million deaths if it were to occur today.
To those, both right and left, who talk of the threat of a new civil war, a question needs to be asked: what is gained by this overheated rhetoric? There is a division in American today, but is it the kind that will be ended by force? What purpose is served by making your readers and listeners fear an imminent conflict?
Let us look at the two sides and imagine what this war would look like. Since Social Justice Warriors have several facets to their groups, this is how it might play out.
The LGBTQ community would like all to accept their attitude, and any who do not become targets in this conflict. An army of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers face off against the testosterone fueled motorcycle gangs. Who will win?
Or those of color who want to defeat all who enjoy “white privilege” may finally get what Charles Manson wanted almost fifty years ago, Helter Skelter, a modern race war. They, of course, would be minus those many who are conservative, and would be opposed by whites, who outnumber them at least five to one.
Can you imagine that enough people who want unlimited immigration, legal and illegal, can form an army to face off against the nativists amongst us? Again, this motley crew would be overwhelmed in numbers.
One item overlooked by those who want our culture changed is the strong resistance from those on the other side of the culture chasm. These will be the millions who voted for Donald Trump, those called by Hillary Clinton, in the basket of “deplorables”, who are “irredeemable”. These would also include those, who in the words of former President Barack Obama, “cling to their guns and Bibles”. My guess is that words of a new civil war are just part of the hot air from both left and right, without any real expectation of that happening or understanding of what might ensue if it did occur.
Given that on both sides there is some modicum of intelligence (a large leap of faith), we can justly ask, why do we hear that talk of a coming catastrophe? Several reasons come to mind.
One is to demonize the other side. Conjuring up the images of the Civil War must mean the enemy is so immoral that only a radical intervention will save the union. If your foe is so far beyond the pale, they must be made to seem without redeeming qualities. Demons on the right or left need not be listened to, for their ideas do not deserve a hearing.
So that brings us to another reason, allied with the first. Silence the opposition and the only voice heard is “ours” and those who are the other side will only be exposed to the “correct” ideology. Eventually, this one-note message will have an effect, and whoever is silenced will lose the culture war.
Purists on both sides of the culture war do not want any constructive dialogue with those who disagree with them. When the left claims we are hurtling headlong toward another civil war, the right will not be willing to sit down and try to come to an understanding and accommodation with the left. And, of course, the opposite occurs. Thus all that is accomplished is to shout at each other, all heat and no fire.
Solutions in our form of government are usually the result of compromise after consultation. When any effort to do so is met with opposition from the extremes of right and left, no solutions will be found. This has been graphically demonstrated when most Democrats and all leftists have vowed to “resist” anything proposed by Donald Trump and the Republicans. Gridlock ensues.
Since the vast majority of Americans do not want anything even approaching another civil war, what are we to do? Some have seriously suggested that a third political party be formed, of those who are center-right and center left. Enough study has been done to make that seem like a possible solution, at least in numbers of voters. But the entrenched interests in each major party would fight tooth and nail to keep their privileges and power to make that eventuality remote.
At the present time, it seems to me that the situation we have will be the new normal until some catastrophic event binds us together. Before the Civil War in 1861, it was seriously suggested that we pick a fight with a European power to unite North and South; fortunately, Abraham Lincoln rejected that scheme. Yet a war might just do that, but no sane American would want that to come about. If such an outcome were to occur, the old divisions would reappear as soon as peace breaks out and we have vanquished our foes.
If it looks like, after reading the above, you believe that I believe we are going to just muddle along as we have in the recent past, you are right. But from an historical perspective, our political system has always been one of confrontation and conflict; it just has become worse in recent years. Perhaps our jobs, as ordinary Americans, is to continue to pray that our freedoms are protected in spite of the mess in Washington, D. C., and our foreign enemies continue to be kept at bay. Maybe in the far future, some objective historian can sort out the good guys and bad guys in the first decades of the 21st century.