divided by two equals undone
Well, the mid-term votes are in, and the “red wave” of corruption never appeared, giving dismay to those who believed their party was the answer, only to one day in the future be crushed when the nation stands on its last leg. Erstwhile, the blue sea of deception wasn’t drained, allowing those who follow like bobbers to await their opportunity to be pulled under, and drowned. For each, the other side is the divisive force, the lie against their truth. A house divided, through party, on purpose.
Yet, a question begs: As politically divided the nation currently is, can it continue to prevail? Per Abraham Lincoln, on June 16, 1858, in a speech (Illinois Republican State Convention), he proclaimed – A house divided against itself cannot stand. Except, one-hundred-sixty-four years later the nation remains, shakily standing. And, his words, biblically pilfered truth, today, the use of them, a violation of allowable norms in the ongoing separation of church and state regarding the battle for the nation’s heart and soul:
Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall (Luke 11:17)
Now, add in the hyperbolic hyperbole leading up to election day, and one should ponder if truth is just an oxymoron, dependent on one’s agenda. Those who present false truisms to those apathetic to learning, thereby making a proposition without substance, truth. To propose, I believe in the history of the world, there have been two nations God breathed. The first, Israel, the other, America. Our nation, which once stood on an abstract moral ground. But God is no longer permitted in our societal norms, even though the government still prints on coins and bills: In God we trust. An oxymoron. Or, has government become the god, and the trust it professes is in itself, even though the Framer’s put constraints on government becoming what it’s become. Add press manipulation to coerce an outcome desired, if WE THE PEOPLE do not reflect:
It is not yet forgotten that well-grounded apprehensions of imminent danger induced the People of America to form the memorable Congress of 1774. That body recommended certain measures to their constituents, and the event proved their wisdom; yet it is fresh in our memories how soon the press began to teem with pamphlets and weekly papers against those very measures. Not only many of the officers of government, who obeyed the dictates of personal interest, but others, from a mistaken estimate of consequences, or the undue influence of former attachments, or whose ambition aimed at objects which did not correspond with the public good, were indefatigable in their efforts to persuade the people to reject the advice of that patriotic congress. Many, indeed, were deceived and deluded ... (Federalist 2)
Power, being synonymous with deceit, has an ability to blind or morally weaken the holder, especially in relation to the force one is willing to exert to obtain their claimed power. The Framer’s, even though they failed in part constructing the nation’s framing document, understood the desire of ill intent and placed a constraint on individual power in the Constitution. The purpose being, to protect the overall, allowing a compilation of branches to perform externally while maintaining internal union through check and balance, with power held in many hands, not just one:
If, on the other hand, they find us either destitute of an effectual government, (each State doing right or wrong, as to its rulers may seem convenient,) or split into three or four independent and probably discordant republics or confederacies, one inclining to Britain, another to France, and a third to Spain, and perhaps played off against each other by the three, what a poor, pitiful figure will America make in their eyes! How liable would she become not only to their contempt but to their outrage, and how soon would dear-bought experience proclaim that when a people or family so divide, it never fails to be against themselves. (Federalist 4)
America is split, an intentional wedge driven to divide the people by and through party. The Framer’s, never having paid for their compromise to ratify the Constitution, left for posterity the Civil War. Their mistake, acquiescing, otherwise, their outcome if having stood resolute, a divided, broken nation then. And yet, while they are condemned, party powers now demand absolute submission. A greater potential for downfall today, with obfuscation, and ill intent perpetrated, being an opportunity to change national course through deception of truth, cast about by those sworn to uphold and protect:
A man must be far gone in Utopian speculations who can seriously doubt that, if these Sates should either be wholly disunited, or only united in partial confederacies, the subdivisions into which they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests with each other. To presume a want of motives for such contests as an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties situated in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages. (Federalist 6)
While mid-term contests continue to close, and the “red wave” proved barely a ripple, the blue sea will become more emboldened, national division strengthened. Without dependence on any vote outcome, whether red or blue holding power, though of different means, would produce the same end, a purposely broken country. Yet, throughout the campaign season, in all the political vitriol espoused, one topic was never presented or discussed: the Constitution, and what it means. It’s become an abject, needless document, unnecessary in the remake of a nation born from the ashes of war, only now set to die amid the dictates of party power warfare, a house divided. While WE THE PEOPLE allow the weakening of the nation for party superiority, a poetic reflection describing America and its history:
Stupid is a virtue, at least I thought it so, I grabbed it like a lion, and never would let go. It beat me, and it pummeled, it tore me up and down. And when at times I did bite back, it slammed me to the ground. Mistakes I made aplenty, in troubles I was bound, the woes of what I did, are woes for most unfound. I struggled through my youth; I struggled with being couth, I struggled just to struggle, as stupid was my truth. The years have quickly flown, the strength of youth has passed, my lion's grip has left me, and stupid I’ve surpassed. From the start I believed in the One, where those now claim He never was. They say the truth is in the news, and Christ is just a show. The price I now must pay, goes way beyond regret. But when I finally stopped to think, my future I had met. And what I thought was mine alone, and wish I could forget: Yes, stupid’s not a virtue, but many are in its debt.