America’s a Country Divided, Though Some Dream of Civility
by Carol Lea Clark
Yes, in America’s just-held midterm elections, the outstanding take away is that we are a people divided. The Senate stands at 50 (Democrats) to 49 (Republicans), with a December run-off in Georgia that cannot change the Democrat’s majority. The House is at 217 (Republicans) and 205 (Democrats), with a Republican majority almost certain.
This is a stunning result from an historical perspective. In midterm elections from 1934 to 2018, the president’s party lost, on average, House seats and Senate seats. If Democrat Raphael Warnock should prevail over Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate run-off in December, the result will be even more striking, for the president’s party has gained midterm seats in the Senate on only occasions.
The outcome of the election is expected to result, as it has in the past when at least one of the houses of Congress is held by the opposing party, in the inability of the president to pass major new policy initiatives.
But how will the division in Congress affect average Americans? Will it result in greater civil unrest and violence? Perhaps.
However, there are a few indicators that a new civility between political leaders is possible. I wrote in my last posting about how most losing candidates for Congress reacted, not with accusations of a “stolen election,” but with a concession speech that included good wishes for the winning candidate.
Moreover, a new book, Divided America, issued by the Associated Press, includes a chapter called “Yearning for Unity, Enduring Divisiveness” that highlights the lives of two very different women, Lauren Boebert and Dorothy Johnson-Speight:
Boebert owns the gun-friendly Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado, and wears a handgun.
Johnson-Speight fights for gun control laws after the 2001 murder of her 24-year-old son Khaaliq Jabbar Johnson, shot seven times in a dispute over a Philadelphia parking spot.
The two talk in similar terms as they “lament the fracturing of America.” This is what they said:
Americans must “come together, be non-judgmental about people and their opinions,” says Johnson-Speight. Americans must “come together as one,” says Boebert.
It’s not that each wants everyone else to believe as she does. Rather, it is that they want people to come together and listen, respecting others’ viewpoint.
That’s civility. It is my hope, as it is that of these two women and many others around the country, that we might learn, as a country, to talk to each other again in a civil fashion, with respect. That would be a start toward what ails this country.
Sources:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/analyses/the-2022-midterm-elections-what-the-historical-data-suggest
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/analyses/the-2022-midterm-elections-what-the-historical-data-suggest
https://www.ap.org/explore/divided-america/yearning-for-unity-enduring-divisiveness.html
Originally published at https://everwondering.substack.com on November 15, 2022.