Is There Common Ground?

Politicians often talk about common ground in politics. But I wonder if there is common ground on a variety of issues.

The Civil War was fought because there was no common agreement on slavery. Southern states believed in the institution of slavery. Northern states believed slavery was a great evil and needed to be made illegal. Some believe the War was fought over states rights and there is truth to this, but the reality the rights Southern states wanted to preserve was the institution of slavery.

If the South had woke up one morning and realized slavery was evil and needed to be abolished, the War would not have happened. However, if did happen, for about four years from April of 1861 to April of 1865. During that time period over 620,000 American men died though some historians believe the number killed was over 700,000. This does not include the over 50,000 civilians who died because War. About 2% of the American population died during the war. If it happened today, that would be over 7 million Americans.

For the record, slavery is one of the two greatest evils in which this country has participated. The other is gradual extermination of the Native American tribes. Three and four are racism and sexism that continue in our country today.

Though there were people in the South who thought slavery should be abolished and people in the North who thought slavery should be continued, overall the Civil War was geographic, North against the South. Today we have issues on which there is no common ground and though there exceptions, generally it is Democrats versus Republicans. Family members, friends, communities and states are on opposite sides and I do not see any common ground.

Separation of Church and State: This is a founding principal of our country and stated in the Bill of Rights. Our Founding Fathers with good reasons founded this country with freedom of religion. The Christian Nationalistic movement in this country to put the movement in religious terms, is blasphemous. For the record, Jefferson and Franklin were Deists and it is likely Washington and Madison also had Deist believes. The dominant religion was Protestant which was broken up into several denominations. Minority religions included Judaism, Catholicism, Native American and African religions. Deism could be a separate faith or there were Protestants who incorporated Deism into their faith. Any movement to paint the US was founded as Christian country is blatantly false. There is no common ground on this issue. The US was founded with religiously freedom.

Equality: The concept of equality was novel at the time of the Revolutionary War. All the immigrants who came to the American Colonies had been living in Monarchies where they were subjects to the King and Queen. The Founding Fathers did not get it totally right as equality only applied to men with property, not men without property, women or slaves. However, over time the US did it get it right affirming quality for all citizens regardless of sex, sexual preference, race, or wealth. Today there is a movement to reduce equality in our country. Either all of us are equal or none of us and that includes women’s ability to self-determine their own health care. There is no common ground on this issue.

No Taxation Without Representation: This was a motto of the Revolutionary War. Today, the very wealthy, especially billionaires, control our elections by giving obscene amounts of money to candidates who support their narrow and self-beneficial interests. We need to end the influence big money has on politics and guarantee each citizen has equal access to voting. If you cannot vote for a candidate, you cannot give money to the candidate. There is no common ground on this issue.

Climate Change: There is no common ground on climate change. Against over whelming evidence including the increasing cost [human and economic] and intensity of natural disasters, Republicans continue to deny climate change exists. As part of this denial, Republicans reduced the funding two of our primary tools for fighting the increasing effects of climate change, NOAA and the National Weather Service. This is beyond ignorant. Climate change is affecting us today and has the potential of destroying our grandchildren tomorrow. Denial is not a river in Egypt. It is a lack of intelligence.

Education: Thomas Jefferson stated, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,” Jefferson believed in public education for both males and females. Jefferson understood being rich did not make you smart especially if you were born into it, nor did being poor make you dumb, especially if you were born poor. Many of our problems, conspiracy theories, rejection of vaccines, blaming the government for extreme hurricanes or cloud seeding for record floods takes place because we have too many uniformed citizens. Some are lazy, some want to blame others for their problems and some are simply missing a lot of french fries in their personal happy meal. Rather than defunding the Department of Education, we need to increase its funding to equalize educational opportunities regardless of wealth or geographic location. In addition, educational standards academic agenda at all levels should be set by professionals each academic discipline not by politicians or school boards. In short this means that if creationism is taught, it is taught in a philosophy class, not as a science.

Again, the Civil War was geographic with the North winning. If the South had won, our country and the world for that matter would look much different today. There will be a winner and loser today also. If Republicans win we will have increasing ignorance, inequality, and a country governed by the very wealthy. I doubt if either or economy or democracy will survive if Republicans win these issues. So each American will have to make a choice, there is no sitting this one out.