The Tale of Two Americas

The American two-party political system has been the impetus for societal division for as long as I can remember.

Nevertheless, despite that fact, we’ve somehow managed to get along pretty well…

until now.

What happened?

In a word…well, two…Donald Trump.

We’ve now entered into a world in which two very distinct Americas exist. There has never been a time, at least not during my lifetime, when the tale of two Americas has been more pronounced, exaggerated and dangerous.

America is at war, ideologically.

You have the forces of Trump, the exclusionary ones. They are the America First’ers. They eschew diversity and embrace homogeneity. They want everyone to march to the lockstep of nativism. Their idea is that only the true-blood Americans, those born and bred, or legalized, on American soil, deserve to take part in its great dream.

But it goes even deeper. They want you to embrace capitalism run amok, fear all “outsiders”, and place god and country above science and common sense. Only those willing to accept that creed are worthy of being considered part of their team.

It’s not so much about what color you are on the outside as your color on the inside…and that sure as hell better be red, white and blue!

On the other side of the battle line are arrayed the inclusionary forces of the progressive mindset. They’re a younger crowd. They fear for their future. They accept wild-eyed ideas like science and secularism. They believe that government should work for all people, not just people who hate government.

They’re considered by the exclusionary forces to be grossly immoral and lacking in any traceable levels of intelligence.

The inclusionary forces adopt a different attitude about faith and spirituality. They view those concepts as highly personal concerns that should never, ever, exert an iota of influence over civic matters. This is an area where the exclusionary and inclusionary dramatically experience a parting of ways.

It appears that “war” is inevitable. The exclusionary forces have the upper hand in that regard for they’re far more warlike. They are more than willing to force their ideology on those who oppose it with the slap of a bible, or at the point of a bayonet, or gun.

The picture I’ve painted above is hopefully only a metaphorical one. I don’t want to see American society torn asunder. Who wants that?

Do you?

But unfortunately, the tale of two Americas points to that as the direction we seem to be headed in.

And Donald J. Trump appears more than willing to lead us all directly over and into that abyss.

God help us all.