“And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” - Mark 3:25
There is an important question for the people of the United States to ask following a bloody presidential campaign that somehow revealed a deeper divide in the country than we previously thought.
Is it more important for the country to be unified, or is it more important that a person’s individual agenda be implemented?
Are we as a society to the point that we are willing to accept civil unrest and the demoralization of half the country as long as American politics shape up the way we would like?
I thought hard about how I would personally answer, and I believe I would rather have a united country than to see all aspects of my political preferences come to fruition.
Some may agree, and some may disagree.
But there is something that should be agreed upon. If the objective is to bring this nation closer together, then President Trump was never going to get that accomplished.
That doesn’t mean all his policies were right or wrong. But his demeanor, his political philosophy, his willingness to personally attack those who disagreed with him, his tendency to undermine American institutions - all of which is documented - all add up to a polarizing figure who creates division, not a person who can heal the wounds of a nation, which is sorely needed in our moment in time.
It is certainly unclear if Joe Biden could pull off the feat either. But if people were honest with themselves, I think they would agree - regardless of their views on particular issues - that Biden’s demeanor and his history of working across the aisle gives the country its best chance at returning to a normalized climate, difficult as it may be.
To say he has his work cut out for him is an understatement. In my county in Southern Ohio, Trump did the unthinkable and increased his dominating advantage from 2016 by a whopping 7 percentage points and won the county with a once unimaginable 73 percent. That trend was true in much of Ohio’s Appalachian region and rural areas throughout the Midwest and the nation.
On the other side, voter turnout in urban areas was off the chart. More votes were cast in 2020 than any other election in American history, and while that may be a sign of a vibrant democracy, it is more telling that our divisions are only growing deeper.
I’m not sure if Joe Biden can do what he says and bring the country closer together. I hope President Trump’s supporters - who are experiencing the pain now that many Democrats felt in 2016 - try to meet him halfway for the inter ests of our nation.
It is time to put American conflict in the back seat. We have enough adversaries around the world to occupy our attention. It is time we look forward, not backward, to a better place where our civility and our cohesion as a nation is recaptured.
Rick Greene. Greene is an award-winning columnist and editorial writer, and the editor and publisher of Southern Ohio Today. Green can be reached at news@ southernohiotoday.com.
