Part 2: The New Replacements – Issues and Freedom Replaced by Cultural Leadership

 

Part 2: The New Replacements – Issues and Freedom Replaced by Cultural Leadership

Pick a side; there is only “or,” not “and.” Irreconcilable Differences

“This is a war. We are at war. And that’s why the gloves are off. And I say: Bring it on.” 

 Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democratic governor, appearing in Albany with fleeing Texas lawmakers

China has really never had true democracy. India is struggling under PM Narendra Modi’s Hindu Nationalist near-autocratic rule. And the third most populous nation in the world, the United States, is hopelessly divided between two diametrically opposed factions, each seeking to impose its vision for America on the “other.” One, primarily white Christian nationalist, seeks to redesign the nation as an exclusionary power where its government is based on MAGA values under culture warriors with wide discretion, a clear mandate to rule efficiently, ruthlessly if necessary. This vector is essentially a form of governmental “do-over,” in what has become a rolling coup d’état, that seems to have begun after the 9/11/01 attack on the Twin Towers in NYC and the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C.

The other faction, secular and egalitarian, still clinging to a belief in the rule of law under the Constitution, is watching its cherished institutions under unending attack by a populist minority driven by the angry, passionate religious zeal. A zealous minority that controls all three branches of the federal government: Congress, the Executive Branch and the Judiciary. All of this suggests that nations with very large, highly fractionalized populations just might be ungovernable. The complexities that arise – from highly impactful climate change, the rise of new diseases that can effectively cull overpopulated humanity, the challenges of artificial intelligence sweeping aside jobs increasingly controlling daily life plus the rising unchecked desires of the wealthy to “make more” without restriction – further challenge the notion of a unified nation in today’s world. Simply, the house divided is not standing.

The above 1812 political cartoon gave birth to the word “Gerrymander.” On February 11, 1812, Gerry, then governor of Massachusetts, “signed legislation that created an oddly shaped voting district with its southern tip in Chelsea, then heading east to Marblehead, and north along the Merrimack River towns to Salisbury. The convoluted district, most of which was in Essex County, was drawn by the Massachusetts legislature to favor Gerry’s incumbent Democratic-Republican party over the Federalist party, which had traditionally been in control.” Historicipswich.net.

Today, these two red-blue factions occupy the same American land mass. Some of their centers of power are in reasonably delineated areas (the great red-blue divide) while others (“swing states”) create regional conflicts and ambiguities. In 2013, the Supreme Court (in Shelby County v. Holder) negated most of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (as amended), notably ending federal supervision of named states (including Texas) that had an historical pattern of voter racial discrimination) under section 5 of that law.

Almost immediately after that ruling, the once-regulated states began reimposing more subtle, but equally effective, variants of racial discrimination against their minority constituents. In 2021, the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court all but repealed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which still made explicit racial discrimination legal, but otherwise left control of federal elections in the rather wide discretion of the states. As the Court swung to the populist right, virtually all of Trump’s emergency appeals to the Supreme Court have been successful, only amplifying his powers. In short, the Court is rewarding states that manipulate elections away from voters. Red now had the power to punish blue.

In an excellent deep dive into our current partisan deep disconnect, Aaron Zitner, writing for the August 8th Wall Street Journal, presents his analysis of our current redistricting battle, under the title, Gerrymandering by Both Parties Is Deepening America’s Political Divide Less than 20% of Americans live in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance: “America’s identity as a unified nation is eroding, with Republican- and Democratic-led states dividing into separate spheres, each with its own policies governing the economic, social and political rules of life.

“The bitter fight over redrawing U.S. House maps, triggered by President Trump’s effort to protect his party’s majority in the 2026 midterm elections, is the latest example of how the dominant party in many states is making extraordinary efforts to impose its will… In 40 states, a single party controls the House, Senate and governor’s office—a so-called trifecta—or else has enough power to block vetoes from a governor of the other party. That leaves less than 20% of Americans living in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance.

“The result has been a deepening of differences in red and blue America. Abortion is now banned or heavily restricted in about one-third of states, all of them controlled by Republicans, while abortion access is protected or allowed in every Democratic trifecta state. Every GOP trifecta state has passed bans or limits on gender-affirming care for minors.

“Red and blue states have moved in sharply different directions on employment law, gun regulation, immigration enforcement and other policies. When Louisiana passed a law last year that required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, later struck down by courts, 18 GOP-trifecta states filed a legal brief in support.

“‘You’re seeing this divide—trifecta blue states and trifecta red—and it’s creating this remarkable contrast in which you’ve got radically different policies from state to state,’ said Jay Richards, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, who tracks legislation regarding gender, marriage and religious liberty... Redrawing House districts for maximum partisan advantage would probably deepen the nation’s political divide further, wiping out some of the remaining Democratic House members from red states and Republicans from blue states, leaving the minority party in each state with less representation.

“‘The two parties will become more geographically sorted, and the different interests of blue voters in red states and red voters in blue states will get lost in the wash,’ said Ben Williams, who once tracked election legislation for the National Conference of State Legislatures and is now with FairVote, a nonpartisan voting-regulations group.” With Trump’s explosion of executive orders, his funding of his private ICE army (willing to deploy anonymous officers to arrest without a warrant) through his massive tax-cut-for-the-rich Big Beautiful Bill combined with his administration’s willingness to ignore or sidestep federal court orders, the Constitution is shredding into oblivion. Red is having its way with its blue enemy, most clearly targeting California unlike any other state. None of this is good for America.

I’m Peter Dekom, and these unreconcilable differences embolden our traditional enemies and are clearly unraveling what has been, up to now, the greatest nation on Earth.