Uniting America

Unite or Divide America

A View From the Middle

When America is united, there is almost nothing we can’t accomplish.  In 1776 a unanimous Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence and established this country, pulling us away from the control of the most powerful empire on earth at the time.  In World War II a United USA joined the Allied forces in Europe and changed the outcome of the war and the history of this planet, as we know it today.  After 9/11/2001, this country came together as I have never witnessed before or since and rebuilt the city of New York and kept this country safe for the next ten years.  So, if we are so strong when we work together and our leaders say that they are committed to unity, why are we such a divided country today?  I believe it is a heart issue.  It is impossible to unite a country when your leaders are calling huge chunks of the populous SOB’s, the enemy, terrorists or even demons.

There are passionate people in our country who believe strongly in certain causes and issues.  For example, our politicians divide themselves into conservative and liberal camps.  I have read both the Republican and Democratic platforms and even the Tea Party’s mission statement and the good news is that they don’t disagree on “what” needs to be done for this country.  All sides are for fiscal discipline.   All sides are for creating opportunity for all of our people.  All sides want to create jobs and improve the lives of our current working class and for our children.  No one is for reckless spending, unemployment or racism, but that is exactly what some politicians will accuse the other side of when they disagree on “how” to fix our problems.

Maxine Waters, Congresswoman from California’s 35^th district, recently told the country that the Tea Party could, “go to hell.”  This is extremely divisive rhetoric and implies that the Tea Party has different goals for this country than she does.  She is suggesting that while she is for jobs and opportunity and security for her constituents, the Tea Party is for the opposite.   They are, of course, actually for the same things and simply differ on how they plan to deliver the results.  Andre Carson, Congressman from Indiana’s 7^th district, in my opinion is even worse.  He suggested that there were members of Congress that would like to see him “hanging from a tree” or, in other words, lynched.  This is not only absurd, but is extremely inflammatory and will incite one group of Americans to actually hate another.  I would ask both Maxine and Andre if they really believed that the best thing for this country right now is to get Americans to detest each other just so that they don’t have to compromise on “how” to address our issues.  The same needs to be said to the Tea Party.

Maxine Waters and Andre Carson also fail to understand that Tea Party members are Americans too.  Tea Partiers are Americans who love this country as much as Maxine and Andre do.  They have forgotten that there are also Tea Party supporters who are serving in our Armed forces right now and risking their lives everyday for them.  Do they really want to tell them to, “Go to hell.”  Does Andre Carson really think that our soldiers who are fighting for him every day really want to see him, “hanging from a tree”?   Does Jimmy Hoffa, the younger, really want to call conservative soldiers “SOB’s”?  I think not.

What all politicians need to realize is that there is wisdom in both the liberal and conservative approaches.  We have made promises we can’t keep and we are spending too much of American’s money and we need to stop.  We also must realize that caring for the downtrodden is what makes America what it is and we can’t turn our backs on the disadvantaged.  The real answers to our problems today are going to be found in forged compromises that contain aspects of both conservative and liberal positions and a “united” America.

The biggest challenge for the next President, no matter who it might be, will be to bring this country together again.  To paraphrase President Obama, there is no black America or white America or Conservative or Liberal America – There is just a United States of America.  And the sooner we realize that, the sooner we can put this country back on track.  Finally, to quote one of my favorite Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, “If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.”  The opposite is also true.