Divided States of America

With the devastating news from Wall Street compounding the already staggering problems we face as a nation -- faltering healthcare & educational systems, widespread foreclosures, an endangered environment -- one would hope that we would follow in the footsteps of generations past and rally as a nation, finding solidarity in times of profound crisis.

Apparently not.

Rather than move forward and embrace the across-the-aisle dialogues, we desperately need to address these concerns; we are digging our partisan heels in on our respective sides of the political aisle and staying put, ensuring that the problems we face today will still be here tomorrow. Only bigger and more difficult to overcome.

How have we become so politically divided that we are no longer able to discuss the very issues that have the potential to devastate us all?

I went from coast to coast and interviewed Americans from all walks of life and all parts of the political spectrum to try to find an answer to this very question. The result of this journey is Split: A Divided America. Balancing opinions of everyday Americans with some of the most recognized voices analyzing government and society today, Split is a non-partisan investigation of the factors contributing to this political and cultural split -- modern day campaigning strategies, the media, the role of faith in our politics, among others.

As I traveled, I did indeed find that many echo the chorus that we are now Two Americas -- a political landscape that pits "Urban versus Rural" and "The Heartland versus the Coasts." The belief of it's us versus them was reiterated and reinforced from Scranton, PA to San Francisco, CA.

Most surprisingly, however, was that we seem less troubled by the fact that our country is so divided that civil discourse has all but disappeared from the public square. Whether due to a hold over from junior high civics or the nostalgia of more elevated dialogue (real or imagined) from a bygone era, the belief in healthy debate of our differences is rooted deep in our sense of who we are as a nation and that the competition in the 'market place of ideas' no longer matters because no one is showing up to watch the race struck a sour note with citizens in all states -- a sense of loss for profoundly meaningful to American Ideals.

We are simply turned off by the ugliness of the politics we see in America today -- inside the beltway and in our own homes.

This may very well be why so many Americans responded so positively to Senators John McCain and Barack Obama's earlier promises of ushering in a post-partisan era in Washington. This need for bi-partisan cooperation has only been more deeply underscored by the events of the last two weeks and these trying times will be a true test of whether they have the mettle to resist the conventions of divisiveness and stand by their words to the American people.

But if our political leaders are unable or unwilling to stand by their convictions in establishing this new tone in our politics, I discovered in making Split that American citizens, while divided, are eager and ready to shift from attacking one another to tackling our challenges - and ultimately move to a more productive era in our national conversations. Yes, despite the polls, my own journey has given me hope that in November, Americans will not just vote on the differences but on what makes us one nation, indivisible.

Comments

[ShawnMichel]

Here is where I disagree vehemently.

Here's the thing. You either have principles, or you don't. You either have a backbone, or you don't. We're a divided nation for a reason, and that reason is fairly clear. The worst president in the history of this nation has just destroyed this nation; and his sheepy followers are unwilling to see that destruction and halt it. In fact, reading through piles and piles of their garbage, they want to continue it.

Do you negotiate with the Devil? With Hitler? With Stalin? You don't.

There was a time when the Republican Party was responsible, centrist, honest. No longer.

Do you negotiate with a psychopath? With a sociopath? You don't.

This being a divided nation is a good thing. It demonstrates that there are still people of principle out there, unwilling to drink the postmodernist Kool-Aid, and unwilling to back down from a fight. That's a good thing. Because the Republican Party has degenerated utterly, with nary a man or woman of principle in it. And you don't negotiate with principleless, greedy, foul, warmongering liars and sycophants: you kick ass and take names.

Peace, love, and understanding? I don't think so.

[wolfgangmo]

I'm not willing to compromise on habeas corpus, torture, theft, corruption, or war.

And I do not suffer fools gladly.

[jhNY]

The trouble with our bi-partisan band-together past is it's almost pure nostalgia. Real interests of real people competing for a top spot on the national agenda have fought among themselves on the public stage for the nation's time and attention from the earliest days of the republic. Most of the setting-our-differences-aside stuff we read about, has been written years later by people who remember the cooperation and forget the enmity of many of the actors in our national affairs, probably because they have an abiding faith in cooperation, and see it wherever they can.

[bkindie]

I think we are divided, except by the fact we all will have to bail out Wall Street. When will people bail out Americans who also took risks, made bad choices..i don't get it. and i am glad the Congress put the brakes on a plan to write a blank check worth 700 billion dollars. thanks for this piece...speaks volumes to why we got in this mess in the first place

[tompoe]

I disagree. We don't have divided states of America. We have corporate welfare trying to justify its existence, which disappeared this week. We're united states of America looking for the missing justification for corporate welfare.

[TXfemmom]

The discourse has reached the level where I think this can no longer be a functioning union. The states all need to vote and have options and the states which desire to become a moderate, well-educated, and common-sense country could join, and the rest can become the land of the uneducated, intolerant, Republican-backing donkey behinds.

[fairwitness]

Isn't it Vermont which has a sizable percentage of citizens who desire to secede? They are remarkably perspicacious up there, it would seem. Go for it, Vermont, and give us an alternative when the US falls into neo-it-can't-happen-here-fascism

And what about New Hampshire..."Live Free or Die' would seem to be rather non-negotiable..and good for them, they will need such an attitude in the next few years if Republicans are not thrown from power immediately.

[shep1900]

Yes, that's very helpful and bipartisan on your part.