Civil Wars In America   -   August 29, 2020

The First Civil War – Fought to Preserve the Union

Now, we’re in a second civil war, as anti-American forces seek to destroy the Union.

Today’s America emerged from a ‘melting pot’ of immigrants from Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, Australia and North America (indigenous and migrant stock).  These peoples of many cultures, colors, religions and ethnicities became one people as they assimilated into the unique American culture.

The world marveled at this nation founded “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”  Soon after its founding Alexis de Tocqueville came to study America and wrote “Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”  Less than a generation later Abraham Lincoln observed “America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

These forebodings may be coming to fruition.  Forces and ideologies inimical to American values have been infiltrating our institutions for generations, chipping away at the values underlying American freedoms.  They’ve worked to impede and reverse assimilation to create and widen schisms among Americans.  And they’re escalating to violence and anarchy to destroy every reference to historic values, understandings and ideals.

Americans have again been brought to war with each other, and unconditional surrender of the other seems to be the only acceptable outcome for each side.  Foreign (and some domestic) actors pour money and disinformation into the fighting with the objective of destroying America’s standing as a significant impediment to their own agendas.

Lincoln struggled to preserve the Union.  If we still care about the state of the Union, we’d better join the current ‘war’ against those seeking to destroy it.

(For more, preview Rise and Decline here.)