Civil War Has Begun

For only the second time in our nation’s history, one of our political parties has decided to ignore the rules of democracy and go its own way.

The first time was in the late 1750s when our forebears were writing the Constitution.  Delegates disagreed on many issues, sometimes vehemently, but they stayed with it and found their way to compromise one painful issue at a time.

But when they finally had to face the issue of slavery, both sides knew compromise was impossible.  Either slavery was going to be part of our new nation or it was not.  There was no way to compromise, no way to bridge the gap between the two sides, no way to transcend them.  It eventually took a civil war to decide the question.  Fortunately, the good guys won that war and slavery is outlawed. And there has never been such a strong split-off movement since.

Until now.  Now, 175 years later, we’re at that point again.  The issue is different this time but the opposing sides are about the same.  The new Republican Party has decided it is done with democracy and wants to replace it with a fascist form of government headed by Donald Trump, and Democrats want to keep America a democratic republic headed by We the People.

(By the way, I usually use the words fascist and neo-Nazi instead of any of its synonyms, such as autocrat,  because fascist and neo-Nazi are the most accurate words to describe Trump’s direction. He was a disciple of Hitler, head of Germany’s Nazi Party, and that’s whose advice he’s openly and studiously following. See The Hitler-Trump Connections, 10/16/23.)

Anyway, the two sides, democracy and fascism, are incompatible, so once again we find ourselves in a situation where there is no way to compromise, no way to bridge the gap, and no way to transcend the differences.

Does that mean we’re in for a second civil war?

I think it does.  I think we’re already in one. The shooting hasn’t started, but the war started in 2020 as soon as the presidential election was decided, and probably some time before that.  Violence is not guaranteed, but it may again be the end game.  All the signs are there.

Evidence:  On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Rudy Giuliani, speaking to a cheering crowd, called for a “trial by combat” to decide who should be elected president.  Later that morning Trump told his followers they needed to “fight like hell” if they wanted to save their country.

Also, Roger Stone, Trump’s original and longtime political adviser, was caught on tape the day before the 2020 elections as saying he had no interest in waiting to tally the actual votes before contesting the election results.

“Fuck the voting,” he said.  “Let’s get right to the violence.”

More evidence:  A recent NPR study revealed that four of every 10 Republicans believe that Democrats are so extreme that violence may be necessary to prevent them from taking over. They believe a government in Democrats’ hands would destroy America.

And they are led by Donald Trump, a violence-prone person who is not likely to walk placidly into a federal prison cell when he is convicted in open court of one of his many felons.  He cares nothing about the courts.  He’s the king, and kings tell courts what to do. Courts do not tell kings.

Trump is a violent person and he has a lot of violence-prone henchmen ready to go to war for him should he issue the call.  He’s already shown his contempt for the courts by flaunting a judge’s gag order, and that defiance is bound to get worse as his convictions draw nearer – especially now that an appeals court has lifted for two weeks a judge’s gag order on him, thus freeing him to spout as much hatred as he wants.

It must be said here that the feelings of disdain run deep on both sides.  A new study by the University of Virginia’s Center of Politics shows that about 70 percent of voters who prefer either Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be the next president say electing officials of the other party would hurt the country.  About half of those on each side said the other party represents a threat to the American way of life.

But it’s the Republicans by far who are calling for violence.  MAGA Republicans in Congress even threaten violence against their own kind, their own congressional Republican siblings, who vote the wrong way on issues that are important to them.

Republicans who voted against Trump-favorite Jim Jordan’s candidacy for House speaker were bombarded with profanity-filled death threats from furious MAGA supporters.

The wife of Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) started sleeping with a loaded gun under her pillow after receiving menacing calls and texts from MAGA Republicans.

And on it goes.  Remember what happened to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, when he refused to commit a felony that Donald Trump demanded of him.  There are many, many cases.

They especially go after Democrats they particularly dislike.  They’ve mercilessly bombarded Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis with death threats and other viciousness because she handled criminal cases against Trump.

So yes, although violence is not a foregone conclusion, the threat of it cannot be ignored. The signs today are the same as they were in early 1861.

And if the MAGA Republicans see violence as their only way, as the South did in 1861, then bring it.  It would be sad, but if that’s what it takes to protect our democracy, bring it.  America has plenty of law enforcement officials and National Guardsmen to handle it, and it would take us into the election with blood on the Republicans’ hands. Voting places would be guarded as never before, we’d have a fair and open election, and democracy would be restored.

There are good reasons to believe things are looking up.  Democrats’ chances of taking over the House in next year’s election are brightening every day.  Lower courts are throwing out the draconian gerrymandering methods that Republican legislatures have employed to make some districts impossible for Democrats to win, and the U.S. Supreme Court appears ready to agree with them — in most cases, anyway.

The court is almost certain to toss out the congressional map drawn by Alabama’s Republican legislature, and that would give Democrats an extra seat.

Louisiana Democrats could gain another seat if the courts rule their way in a similar case.

North Carolina’s legislature recently finalized a map that would guarantee Republicans would win 10 and maybe 11 of the state’s 14 congressional districts.  Under the current map, the seats are split 7-7.  Democrats are lining up to challenge that one.

South Carolina also has a case before the court, but the outlook for that one is cloudy.

So although we may be in the darkness right now, here comes the dawn.  But we must use this time well to make sure it happens.  We must awaken that large percentage of Americans who are still asleep to the impossible-to-overstate importance of the 2024 General Election.  We must remind them, especially the nonvoters among them, of how valuable their vote must be because Republicans are pouring so much money and energy into preventing them from using it.

We need to reach those people who Republicans are trying so hard to keep from voting, namely Black people but also other groups that might vote for Democrats, and help them overcome whatever obstacles lie in their way.

Democratic Party headquarters always need volunteers. .

If you are so inclined, look at  ACLU’s “Events Page” and attend one of its workshops on how to be an effective advocate for civil liberties.

It’s crucial that we keep a clear eye on what’s at stake here: nothing less than whether we’re going to have a fascist government or a democratic republic.  Whether decisions will be made by Donald Trump or We the People.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries summed up a few days ago what Democrats will stand for in the House, but his words stand for the hearts of all democracy-loving Americans.  I quoted these words last week, but I quote them again here for emphasis. House Democrats, he said, “will continue to protect Social Security, protect Medicare, protect Medicaid, protect our children, protect our climate, protect low-income families, protect working families, protect the middle class, protect organized labor, protect the LGBTQ community, protect our veterans, protect older Americans, protect the Affordable Care Act, protect the right to vote, protect  the peaceful transfer of power, protect our democracy and protect a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive health care decision.”

It’s a dream worth fighting for.  And the ever-growing odds are that if we do fight for it – meaning simply that if we vote and do what we can to get others to vote — we will win.

Quoting Jefferies again: “Our country has often confronted adversity and the good news is we always find a way to make it to the other side … we always overcome.”

Heather Cox Richardson, historian and author, and popular blogger, would agree with that.  Richardson writes in her latest book, Democracy Awakening, that democracy will survive in America.  She writes:

“The true history of American democracy is that it is never finished.  Reclaiming our history of noble struggle reworks the polarizing language that has done us such a disservice while it undermines the ideology of authoritarianism.”

This column has been edited from its original to correct a typographical error.  The original said our forebears wrote the Constitution in the 1800s.  The Constitution was written in the 1700s.

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