Americans, divided along ideological and cultural lines following the still-contested presidential election, are at a dangerous fork in the road, according to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh, on his program Wednesday, suggested that the country’s inability to unite around any common or shared vision for America’s future — or past — might actually lead to a national breakup.
It’s hard to disagree with that assessment, especially when you look at the separation between conservatives and the American left.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the country came together in an inspiring way. On that terrible day and for months afterward, every citizen of the country was a New Yorker.
But in the years since, that sense of unity has dissipated. Some New Yorkers are no longer New Yorkers following an ongoing exodus from the state’s leftist politics and taxes.
In March, when the coronavirus pandemic arrived on America shores, tribalism won the day, as the establishment media politicized the illness and weaponized it against President Donald Trump. Once-trusted media outlets have since spent the entire year unmasking themselves as leftist partisans to even casual media observers.
The Constitution itself is no longer a unifying document for the country, either.
Conservatives, generally speaking, use the country’’s founding document as a road map to play within the rules, while Democrats and the left are more prone to subverting the law and viewing that same document as a roadblock.
America is at a stalemate, and Limbaugh doesn’t see a way out.
After some discussion about media bias and a fundamental disagreement on the facts between warring factions of Americans, Limbaugh on Wednesday concluded he did not see a clear scenario in which the country finds a place of unity.
“I actually think that we’re trending toward secession,” Limbaugh said.
“I see more and more people asking, ‘What in the world do we have in common with the people who live in, say, New York? What is there that makes us believe that there is enough of us there to even have a chance at winning New York,’ especially if you’re talking about votes,” he added.
Many Americans are dug in, and per Limbaugh, a people so entrenched ideologically cannot easily meet in the middle. More importantly, the radio host questioned if people are even aware of what “the middle” is at this point in the country’s history.
“I see a lot of bloggers … have written extensively about how distant and separated and how much more separated our culture is becoming politically and that it can’t go on this way,” he said. “There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs.”
“We can’t be in this dire a conflict without something giving somewhere along the way,” Limbaugh said.
Limbaugh has always had a firm grasp on the pulse of national politics, and has one of the most vast audiences in media. With that in mind, the radio host stated that even he simply doesn’t know right now whether he would oppose a national divorce.
“I know that there is a sizable and growing sentiment for people who believe that [secession] is where we’re headed whether we want to or not. Whether we want to go there or not. I myself haven’t made up my mind,” he said.
“I still haven’t given up the idea that we are the majority and that all we have to do is find a way to unite and win. And our problem is the fact that there are just so many RINOs, so many Republicans in the Washington establishment who will do anything to maintain their membership in the establishment because of the perks and the opportunities that are presented for their kids and so forth,” he concluded on the subject.
Ironically, hours after Limbaugh’s comments on the division in the country, the tag #CivilWar became the number one trend on Twitter Wednesday evening. Naturally, the trend became a point of conflict in and of itself online, as conservatives and leftists sparred with one another in a battle of words over how badly each side saw the other losing a hypothetical conflict.
One gentleman on the platform seemed to capture the mood of those watching in disbelief:
If y’all could stop making Civil War trend pic.twitter.com/UrGyWmNEIm
— Mr. Turner (@mitchelldturner) December 9, 2020
We’re definitely living in a divided country, so it’s difficult to argue that Limbaugh wasn’t on the mark regarding sentiment in favor of a national separation.
If a once-in-a-century pandemic can’t broadly unite Americans, then is there anything at this point that could? The president himself was hospitalized, and even that became a topic for fighting, as many wished him death.
While not a comfortable thought, if Americans no longer share the same values, language and facts, then at this point wouldn’t secession just be a formality?
Via The Western Journal