Cold Civil War

The map for ACW III will be different than this. Much worse prospects for horrible things to happen.

Cold Civil War

The Great U.S. Culture is a “cold” civil war. As the Cold War was WW III, so too our Cold Civil War is ACW III. It’s the third American civil war in the U.S., since our Revolution was the first and the Recent Unpleasantness was the second. Three civil wars, if we don’t count Bacon’s Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion as such. Professor Charles R. Kesler of Claremont-Mckenna College wrote a great piece on “America’s Cold Civil War” in the October 2018 issue of Imprimis.

He isn’t the first to describe the Culture War as a civil war or leading to a civil war. His perception adds to the body of evidence of what the divisions across America mean.  Professor Kesler illustrates the starkly opposing and irreconcilable views of our Constitution. Furthermore, he clearly identifies five ways forward.

1. Some jarring event, like a major war or huge natural calamity – unites us all as Americans.
2. Persuasion and, perhaps, moderation create a significant majority to support one side.
3. Vastly reinvigorate federalism, as the Constitution was written, to allow states to be very different and have the Federal government to stay out – thus de-nationalize the most disruptive issues.
4. Secession of some states.
5. Violent, hot civil war.

That’s a very shocking analysis, isn’t it?

I’ve been writing for option 3, Federalism, for some time now. I’ve also written in hopes of contributing to option 2 – winning a governing majority.

Neither Professor Kesler nor other writers, including myself, want to be Cassandra calling to the wind. We need Americans to wake up. Not in the racial mythology of being “woke”, but with eyes wide open to real, serious danger.

The West Pointer officers of the U.S. Army celebrating their victory in Mexico in 1847 had no idea they would be killing each other in 1861. They never imagined such a tragedy in 14 short years. But, it happened. The politicians throughout the 1850s, Whigs and Democrats, used regional issues to get elected and stay elected. Many Northern Whigs became radical Republicans for the total abolition of slavery. Every issue became a regional fight.

Today, the politics of identity which, ironically, do the exact opposite of their rhetoric – are making every issue an identity fight. What the Left calls tolerance, inclusion, diversity becomes bigotry, name-calling scapegoating, and division.

On the contrary, the politics of ideas actually creates coalitions across demographic groups. The politics of ideas allows the Left and Right to fight issues out based on words. Identity politics lead to tribalism. Tribalism leads to barbarism.

Identity politics will lead to a hot civil war or secession with violence, if Americans don’t stop it – and build a governing majority or restore Federalism to move powers from the Federal government to state governments.

Our divided America is split over issues far more important than the talking heads’ daily chatter about Trump and Pelosi. Let’s work wisely to keep our American Civil War III cold. Please prevent another violent, tragic, awful war from bloodying again our American soil.