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Can a Disintegrating America Come Together?
Townhall.com ^ | 11/03/2020 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 11/03/2020 1:30:18 AM PST by MacNaughton

On the last days of the 2020 campaign, President Donald Trump was holding four and five rallies a day in battleground states, drawing thousands upon thousands of loyalists to every one.

Waiting for hours, sometimes in the cold, to cheer their champion on, these rallygoers love Trump as few presidents have been loved. This writer cannot recall a president and campaign that brought out so many and such massive crowds of admirers in its closing days.

And who are these cheering, chanting loyalists who have brought their children out with them to see and remember “the great Trump” — in the eyes of our dispossessed elites?

They are people who belong in a “basket of deplorables,” sneered Hillary Clinton: “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” bigots, and a sub-species of humanity that is “irredeemable.”

Today’s election is an us-versus-them choice unlike any other, for the issues in dispute are broader and deeper than ever before.

And those issues raise questions: No matter who wins, can this nation come together again? And if it cannot — a real possibility — what form will America take as it disintegrates?

Even as voters were mailing in ballots in the millions, stores in our great cities were being boarded up against rioters, looters and arsonists.

Suburban residents, fearful that the urban mobs may one day be coming for them, were stockpiling guns and ammunition.

How divided are we?

The New York Times “Sunday Review” devoted its entire section to Donald Trump, as seen from the eyes of its columnists. On the cover page of the Review ran the headline, “All 15 of our columnists explain what the past four years have cost America, and what’s at stake in this election.”

Each of the 15 trashed Trump from his or her perspective.

Since World War II, America has held elections where the country seemed at sword’s point. Not all were like 1960, where scholar Arthur Schlesinger Jr., felt compelled to write the book, “Kennedy or Nixon: Does It Make Any Difference?”

Schlesinger felt he had to explain that despite the similarity of the candidates, both in their 40s, it made a difference who was elected.

Yet, even after the most divisive elections of the post-war era — 1952 and 1968 — the country pulled back together. President Dwight Eisenhower, from 1952 to 1956, and Richard Nixon, from 1968 to 1972, restored unity to the nation during their first terms by ending the Asian wars into which their predecessors had taken the nation.

New leadership ended the wars and brought the United States together.

The difference today?

Americans are not divided over war. One of Trump’s successes has been to keep us out of new wars, even if he has not yet extracted us from the wars he inherited.

Today, we are divided over ideology, morality, culture, race and history. We are divided over whether America is the great nation we were raised to revere and love or a nation born in great sins and crimes — such as the near annihilation of indigenous peoples and their cultures and the enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Black peoples from Africa.

Are we the nation of 1776 and 1789, or the nation of 1619, whose institutions are still infected with the “systemic racism” of our birth?

In this divided country, at times, Americans seem to detest each other.

Indeed, if the United States did not exist as one nation, would this diverse people ever agree to form a compact to come together, or would we seek to retain our separate identities?

In tearing down the statues of explorers such as Christopher Columbus or the Founding Fathers and their successor presidents, from Andrew Jackson to Abraham Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the contempt for the country these men helped to bring into being, and for what this country stands for today, is manifest.

A significant slice of America’s young believes that the nation to which they belong was detestable from its birth, and that the Western civilization from which it sprang is not worth saving.

In his farewell address, President Ronald Reagan spoke of the America where he was raised and which he cherished:

“The hope of human freedom — the quest for it, the achievement of it — is the American saga. And I’ve often recalled one group of early settlers making a treacherous crossing of the Atlantic on a small ship when their leader, a minister, noted that perhaps their venture would fail and they would become a byword, a footnote to history. But perhaps, too, with God’s help, they might also found a new world, a city upon a hill, a light unto the nations.”

How many Americans still believe what Reagan believed? How many yet see America as “a city upon a hill, a light unto the nations”?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: demographics
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© 2001

1960 U.S. Census: white slice of the population pie = 88%
2010 U.S. Census: white slice of the population pie = 62%
2010 U.S. Census: at current birth and immigration rates, the white slice of the population pie is projected to reach 50% by 2042.


1 posted on 11/03/2020 1:30:18 AM PST by MacNaughton
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To: MacNaughton

No, we cannot coexist with those who hate this nation, hate individual liberty, hate capitalism and hate our constitution.

They also hate us in the same way that they hate Trump....many would happily slaughter us for supporting individual liberty and capitalism.


2 posted on 11/03/2020 1:35:20 AM PST by Erik Latranyi (The Democratic Party is communism)
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To: MacNaughton

I LOVE The Great One.

We are not losing, we are winning.

The strategy of the left is to make it look like we’re disintegrating and losing.

We hold the senate and will keep it AND The President.

My district is going BACK to R and Nicole will win it here in Staten Island.

Don’t count the House out yet.

I see 10s an 10s of thousands of people show up at Trump rallies because they DAMN WELL don’t think it’s over.

And they’re right.

And we need to vote in huge numbers.

Cause it ain’t over till it’s over.


3 posted on 11/03/2020 1:36:59 AM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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To: MacNaughton

Once we send the leaders of this failed coup to club gitmo things will get back to a real normal real fast.


4 posted on 11/03/2020 1:42:53 AM PST by shoff (Vote Democrat it beats thinking!)
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To: dp0622

I’m optimistic we take back the House as well.


5 posted on 11/03/2020 1:46:20 AM PST by 11th_VA (Democracy dies in darkness)
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To: 11th_VA

If it’s true that blacks and hispanics are gonna turn out in larger numbers for Trump than last time...it’s definitely possible.

I DO NOT see a 30 percent black vote for Trump.

I’ll take 17 to 20 and be SO HAPPY. Black women...their man IS the federal government..the husband and the father of their kids...but black guys..quite a few seem to like him.

If white high school grads turn out big again, we can.


6 posted on 11/03/2020 1:49:07 AM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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To: dp0622

I agree about black turnout. If anything they are playing with the Dems head letting them know that the Dems didn’t work hard enough for them this cycle.

Hope your busy day is trouble free. Taking others to vote is full of its own rewards!


7 posted on 11/03/2020 1:53:29 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Why can't we just get into the running car?)
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To: mad_as_he$$

Especially when the average age is 88 :)

And uncle Jimmy still kisses me like we’re in Sicily.


8 posted on 11/03/2020 1:58:01 AM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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To: dp0622

I would be worried if a older Sicilian stopped kissing me!!! But you would know more about that than I would!! ;-)


9 posted on 11/03/2020 2:00:36 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Why can't we just get into the running car?)
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To: MacNaughton

Much of the cultural division in this country is not organic, but is being ginned up by old time communists radicals. Slam them shut and most of the cultural divisions go away.

But now, it will take a generation for the effects to be overcome.


10 posted on 11/03/2020 2:05:06 AM PST by odawg
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To: mad_as_he$$

Forget about it.

He possibly saved my life and definitely let me avoid serious injury at least twice when I had my vending machine route.

He had to have sit downs with the other guy’s boss (the guys I had a problem with) and together they handed down judgements and decisions.

They were the court system of the mafia :)


11 posted on 11/03/2020 2:05:15 AM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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To: dp0622

;-)


12 posted on 11/03/2020 2:06:20 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Why can't we just get into the running car?)
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To: MacNaughton

The MSM is the divider...they preach the hate and divide.


13 posted on 11/03/2020 2:07:39 AM PST by CincyRichieRich (2020: Broken glass election : Republic or no Republic.)
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To: dp0622
If white high school grads turn out big again, we can.

Evidence it’s happening from freeper LS:

VA: crazy #s from whites, over 50, men and non-college

MN: MN is VERY close. In northern tier Trump is winning men by 30+ points

Baris: Late breakers in PA 3:1 in favor of Trump

14 posted on 11/03/2020 2:11:49 AM PST by 11th_VA (Democracy dies in darkness)
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To: 11th_VA
And this from LS:

Plus we know this electorate hits all the Trump variables: older, whiter, male, etc.

15 posted on 11/03/2020 2:15:47 AM PST by 11th_VA (Democracy dies in darkness)
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To: Erik Latranyi

When I was young we would play pick-up baseball in a field that faced a row of houses occupied by retired fishermen from the Azores Islands. They would traditionally have a long sundowner, drinking wine from the inevitable barrel found on front porches. We would often wonder what they were thinking. Then, one day one of our bravos went over and asked them what they talked about. The response: “We thank God for this wonderful country where young men can play foolish games and not spend all day at sea or mending nets.”


16 posted on 11/03/2020 2:15:51 AM PST by Bookshelf
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To: MacNaughton

“Deplorables” was projection. I would put our side up against their side one by one and you would find most of their side couldn’t feed or take care of itself and its elites are supported physically by what they take from us by the votes of people who know nothing and do nothing but things that cause them to spend half their lives in prison. I mean, how many Republicans can you find in prisons?


17 posted on 11/03/2020 2:18:57 AM PST by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Reverse Wickard v Filburn (1942) - and - ISLAM DELENDA EST)
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To: MacNaughton

If Biden wins (or “wins”), I won’t respect his Presidency. I think many others on the right feel the same. The Left is too far gone. If there is any chance for America, it must be resisted.


18 posted on 11/03/2020 2:23:26 AM PST by Stravinsky (Politeness will not defeat the Marxist revolutionaries)
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To: Erik Latranyi
No matter who wins, can this nation come together again?

Freedom and Communism cannot peacefully coexist.

19 posted on 11/03/2020 2:23:51 AM PST by nonsporting (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: 11th_VA

I’m hoping for great news but I’m gonna be frank.

Been on the board a long time and LS is hit or miss.

I got no horse in the race when it comes to him.

Just calling it as I see it.

We win NC, FL, MI, IA, AZ and OH and it’s over.

Don’t need PA, MN, VA or even WI.

Everything else would be gravy and nice though.


20 posted on 11/03/2020 2:34:30 AM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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