Red, Divided and Blue Fly This Independence Day
From
The National Journal - By Ronald Brownstein, July 3, 2013
It
seems entirely revealing, if dispiriting, that the days before the
July Fourth holiday showed Red America and Blue America pulling apart
at an accelerating rate.
Of
all of our national holidays, Independence Day is the one most
intimately rooted in our common history and shared experience. Yet
this year it arrives against a background of polarization,
separation, and confrontation in the states and Washington alike.
With municipal politics as the occasional exception, the pattern of
solidifying agreement within the parties—and widening disagreement
between them—is dominating our decisions at every level.
On
almost all of our major policy choices, the common thread is that the
election of 2012 did not "break the fever" of polarization,
as President Obama once hoped it might. Last November, Obama became
only the third Democrat in the party's history to win a majority of
the popular vote twice. But congressional Republicans, preponderantly
representing the minority that voted against Obama, have conceded
almost nothing to his majority—leaving the two sides at a
stalemate. Meanwhile, beyond the Beltway, states that lean Democratic
and those that lean Republican are separating at a frenetic pace.
Consider
a few recent headlines. The Supreme Court decision upholding the
lower-court invalidation of California's Proposition 8 restored gay
marriage in the nation's largest state. It also capped a remarkable
2013 march for gay marriage through blue states, including Delaware,
Minnesota, and Rhode Island (with Illinois and New Jersey possibly
joining before long). The consensus is solidifying fast enough that
2014 could see several blue-state Republican gubernatorial candidates
running on accepting gay-marriage statutes as settled law. Former
California Lt. Gov Abel Maldonado, a likely 2014 GOP gubernatorial
contender who this week reversed his earlier opposition to support
gay marriage, may be an early straw in that breeze.
The
story in red states, though, remains very different. Almost all of
them have banned gay marriage. Some activists believe Justice Anthony
Kennedy's embrace of equal-protection arguments in the decision
striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act might enable
litigation challenging those bans; but if not, it may take a very
long time for the support for gay marriage among younger voters to
dissolve the resistance to the idea in culturally conservative
states. Absent further Supreme Court action, the nation could remain
a "house divided" on gay marriage for longer than many may
expect: The high court's ruling striking down the remaining 16 state
laws banning interracial marriage came in 1967—nearly two centuries
after the first state had revoked its ban (Pennsylvania in 1780).
Meanwhile,
as gay marriage advances in blue states, red states are competing to
impose the tightest restrictions on abortion since the Supreme Court
established the national right to it in Roe v. Wade. In Ohio this
week, Republican Gov. John Kasich signed legislation requiring
ultrasound exams before abortions, effectively cutting off funding
for Planned Parenthood and making it more difficult for abortion
providers to transfer patients to public hospitals. In Texas, after
the dramatic filibuster by Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis
temporarily disrupted his plans, Republican Gov. Rick Perry this week
opened another legislative special session that is likely to ban
abortion at 20 weeks and impose stringent new safety requirements
that would shutter most of the state's abortion providers. All of
this follows a cascade of legislation restricting abortion in
Republican-run states from Arkansas and Louisiana to Kansas and North
Dakota—most of which are already facing legal challenges.
In
Washington, there's little sign of convergence. Hopes for a budget
"grand bargain" are flickering. In the Senate, the two
parties have worked together to pass a farm bill, and more
dramatically a sweeping immigration overhaul that won support from
all 54 Democrats and 14 Republicans. But House Republicans, who
recently collapsed into chaos when they couldn't pass a farm bill,
are pledging to block any reform that includes a path to citizenship
for illegal immigrants—an indispensable component of legislation as
far as Democrats are concerned. On big issues, the Supreme Court
looks just as chronically divided, and the split often comes down to
Republican- and Democratic-appointed justices.
All
of this reveals a political system losing its capacity to create
common ground between party coalitions divided along economic,
racial, generational, and even religious lines. Some variation in
state policy is healthy, but states are now diverging to an extent
that threatens to undermine equal protection under the law. The
stalemate in Congress reflects genuine differences, but the
reluctance to compromise—most intractable among House
Republicans—prevents us from confronting common challenges.
In
all these ways, our contemporary politics is ignoring the simple
truth that none of us are going away—not the cosmopolitan coasts,
nor the evangelical South. Our choices ultimately come down to
bridging our differences or surrendering to endemic separation in the
states and stalemate in Washington. This week we celebrate the moment
when the authors of the Declaration of Independence concluded they
had no choice but "to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another." It's an excellent opportunity to
consider how ominously our own "political bands" are
fraying.
My
Comments:
The
real Blue, Red divide is the godless Blue versus those in the Red who
still want to honor God. The divide is over God, His Christ Jesus and
His Word. Ironically America began from those who wanted religious
freedom. Today, the religion of Secular Humanism, adhered to by “Blue
America,” has become a Tyranny. The Secular Humanists are imposing
their morality on the whole nation. And those who honor God will
never succumb to this Tyranny.
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