Excerpt From the State Lines blog of Wilmington writer R.E. Smith Jr.:
McClatchy Washington Bureau reporter David Lightman recently wrote an article titled, “Two Americas.” Mr. Lightman focused his attention on demographics from congressional districts — Republican compared to Democrat. As he describes them: “redder-than-ever” and “bluer-than-ever,” respectively.
The surprisingly rapid-changing cultural differences in this country account for our wearing either red or blue political colors — less “white” left in the fading red-white-and-blue America in which we oldsters grew up. …
All this explains the chronic complaint that Congress “Can’t get anything done.” In this republic our legislators historically found “common ground” to pass laws. Now they have deeply divided cultural constituencies and ideologies.
Frankly, in my opinion, under those conditions, it’s best that the U. S. Congress not enact legislation. We already have too many laws and regulations that favor political-interest groups and social “concerns” — not in the best interest of all our citizens who once thought we lived in a unified country.
Come to think about it, that idea has been largely a myth promoted since the War Between the States. Despite the patriotic rhetoric and propaganda, that unnecessary war divided America into two countries in the 1860s. A multicultural civil war that began in the 1960s with President Johnson’s Great Society, sometimes called the “War on Poverty,” further fragmented our nation. With those federal damages done — and current destructive schemes — we can never be united States again.