The Divided States of America

It has become increasingly clear to me in the days following Election Day of November 3, 2020 that the United States of America (USA) has truly become the Divided States of America (DSA).  As the final counts come closer to being concluded, it seems an astounding 74,222,958 registered voters of the USA opted to choose loyalty to a single man over loyalty to the Constitution of the USA, the governing document that has been the foundation of who we are as a sovereign country for more than 200 years.  On the opposite side of the hardening red and blue wall that now divides friends from friends and family from family, just like what we experienced in the 1860s, more than 81,283,098 registered voters of the USA opted to vote for the Presidential Candidate who represented loyalty to the Constitution.  But, were all of those voters voting for the Constitution or were they voting for a Party?

As my awareness to the existence of multiple realities began to come into focus over the past several months, I have come to wonder how many different realities might exist among the 81 million who found themselves on the same side of the wall as the Constitution.  How many of the more than 81 million would choose loyalty to other things, such as a Political Party or a person, above loyalty to the Constitution like the 74 million on the other side of the wall did?  Can we find a way to dismantle the wall that divides us and keep the USA together, or will the DSA win out in a way similar to the blue and gray division that created the Confederate States of America in the late 1850s into the 1860s?  How many Civil Wars can our Constitution endure before experiencing its ultimate defeat?  Is the Constitution relevant in its current form to sustain us through the remainder of the 21st Century, or should we look for ways to modernize it to better serve our current needs?  For example, does the Electoral College continue to serve the purpose for which it was created more than 200 years ago, or has the world of the Internet removed that purpose?

Like in the 1860s, we can survive the current atmosphere of divisiveness and alternate realities that are driving us apart.  To even have a chance at doing so, however, we must bring families and friends back together by destroying the wall that divides us and finding ways for our different realities to coexist within the same physical plane.  It won’t be easy.  Building and maintaining a democracy was never meant to be easy.  Perhaps our successes of the past have made our lives too easy and we have forgotten how to work hard for the things that matter most to us.  Where do we start?  How do we start?

Restoring a Constitutional Government where elected representatives represent their constituents, the portion of We the People they were elected to represent, rather than a Political Party is likely a good place to start.  Group Think is not the right way to operate a democracy.  Differences of opinion with an accompanying free expression of those differences are an absolute necessity to keeping our nation strong and flourishing.  Consensus isn’t something you can demand.  It must be earned.  It requires hard work and hard conversations.  Does every Democrat in New York State think the same way as every Democrat in California?  Does every Republican in Texas think the same way as every Republican in Montana?  If that isn’t the case, which I suspect it isn’t, then why is it that every Democrat in Congress votes one way on every issue brought before them while every Republican votes the opposite?  We the People have always had more in common than not.  However, the practice of lockstep, Party loyalty trumping loyalty to our Constitution that is enforced by the bully network that is our Congress is doing nothing but adding more and more bricks to the wall that currently divides us.

Since it has become apparent that we are living in multiple versions of reality (fake news/real news, loser wins/winner loses, etc.), relearning how to cooperate and compromise is going to be essential if we are to survive as the USA.  It is necessary to understand that the different realities we find ourselves living within tend to occupy the same physical space.  That means conflicts between realities must be resolved before the realities can coexist.  For example, two people living in two different realities can’t own the same piece of physical property without destroying the property or each other.  We must find a way to connect the realities, at least for a moment, to come to an agreement about how the property is to be used by each.  The complex question here for another time is this:  is there a need to build bridges between realities for greater understanding and cooperation, or can living separate realities without bridges make each of us more prosperous?

The time for a second period of Reconstruction is upon us.  Can we do it again as we did after 1865?  If the Government of We the People doesn’t get down to the business of representing We the People, then I fear the USA will permanently become the DSA.

Donald J. Trump’s War Against the United States of America

On July 4, 1776, the Colonists that comprised the thirteen States of the British Colony in America chose to “declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved”.  That Declaration of Independence created 13 independent States in America.

Nearly twelve years later, on June 21, 1788, Delaware became the ninth of thirteen States to ratify the Constitution of the United States which began, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”  That ratification by Delaware officially established the framework by which the United States of America would be governed.

Finally, on March 4, 1789, governing of the United States of America was transferred from the Confederation of States to the Congress that was established by the Constitution of the United States that had been ratified the previous year.  The country known from that day forward as the United States of America was born, and that country will live for as long as it is governed by the Constitution of the United States.

For nearly 232 years, many millions of Americans have sacrificed everything they had, to include their own lives, to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;” an oath intended to preserve, protect, and defend the country that had been created by that Constitution.

From January 20, 2017 through January 20, 2021, Donald J. Trump and his devoted followers have engaged in an all-out assault against the Constitution of the United States and thus the country known worldwide as the United States of America.  On November 3, 2020, it is reported that more than 74 million registered voters making up We the People gave support to Trump’s assault and corresponding attempt to overthrow the Constitution.  Sadly, a large number of those supporters were among the millions that have taken the oath to support and defend that very Constitution.   Fortunately for the United States of America, reportedly more than 81 million registered voters decided to actually support and defend the Constitution and it appears the country will live to fight another day under the governance of the Constitution.

I took my first oath to support and defend the Constitution on May 18, 1986 when I committed to serve in the United States Navy.  I took that same oath a number of times over the years since, including July 21, 1996 when I became a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, one of the dozens of Executive Branch institutions that Trump repeatedly attempted to subvert for four years.  Though I retired from Government Service on October 29, 2016, I continued to support and defend the Constitution by crossing political ideological lines to support the only candidate for President of the United States of America that has proven his support for the Constitution, so the United States of America could live to fight another day.

I have given everything I had to give for 35 years.  Though the Constitution survived this time, the Election of November 3, 2020 was a huge and demoralizing defeat to me with the realization that so many Americans don’t want to be governed by the Constitution.  We are a Democratic Republic and, to me, that means We the People get to decide when we no longer wish to abide by the Constitution.  I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened, but I never imagined I might watch it happen during my lifetime.

Feeling now as though I wasted 35 years of my life supporting and defending a Constitution that so many millions of my fellow Americans don’t support, I now plan to follow in the footsteps of President George W. Bush, the sole living Republican President under the ideology of President Ronald Reagan, and spend the remainder of my days supporting and defending my own interests.  I have been completely devastated by the events of the past four years and I intend to spend my remaining years trying to find a new purpose for my life.