If Washington Post Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is correct, we are not one nation with two polar opposing viewpoints. We are already two Americas in the middle of what he refers to as a “Cold Civil War.” Cold wars see “hot” skirmishes here and there. The riots in Portland, Seattle and other blue cities this summer, as well as the mob violence at the US Capitol this month, and pick-any-weekend in Chicago are examples of that. But, skirmishes don’t start cold wars. When sides determine polar opposite positions based upon polar opposite ideas, and determine there isn’t any compromise, cold wars start. And like a cold war I’ve lived through, it took decades to get this one going, and it’s going to take decades before someone “tear[s] down this wall.”
Let me accede the point that I am likely writing stuff that no one will read. Is that because we all have too much to read? Maybe, but I think it’s because everyone in both Americas has incredibly thin skin right now. How thin? Truck-stop toilet paper thin. That’s how thin. On both sides. Such is the stuff of cold wars.
The media is in the middle of it all. Make no mistake, the media wants this cold war and they’ve used it to finally rein in their social media cohorts to do their bidding. Besides, the mainstream media never really liked that social stuff anyway. In the 1930s, it was A. J. Liebling, himself a journalist, who first popularized the notion of criticism of the free press and posited that freedom of the press was limited to those who owned one. Social media came along and made everyone an owner, and, along with 24-hour cable news, newspapers have largely been obviated out of relevance. Regardless, for the few newspapers that remain—relevant or no—there are more column inches in fueling cold civil war than in proclaiming that “Jesus Saves.”
Just ask the media from Right America. Like Tucker Carlson says about the left, “The usual frauds and demagogues . . . used hysteria to subdue the population and crush anyone who dared to ask questions about what they were doing. . . . [T]hey maintain strict ideological orthodoxy through threats and fear rather than argument and reason.” In a post-truth culture, all that matters is who has the power. What a great culture.
If in his inaugural address next week, the new President calls for unity, it would be for Left America, in order to bring the far left into the liberal/progressive fold. As I have written previously, during the campaign this new President has already made promises to the far left that he can’t keep. Everybody knows it. Those radicals aren’t among the top cabinet officers he has proposed. They have already publicly rebuked him for not delivering immediately those $2,000 stimulus checks (who cares that the inauguration is next week). And the new President’s fears may be privately as much about the far left, as they have been publicly about the far right.
So Left America has big-time problems to deal with in their own crowd. The blue cities are getting tired of the riots. And those causing the riots in those blue cities are getting tired of not getting what they want. So what do the “progressives” do? They go to their mainstream media “advocates” (their term, not mine) and claim the Republicans are in the midst of a party civil war. “Not so,” says Newt, and he’s right. If any party is in disarray, it’s the one who wants you to believe otherwise—between the left and the far left. That would be the Democrats. I hope they’re up for it. Because, they have all the power now including all the rope they need to hang themselves (spelled “the Democrat party”) should they so choose. Remember, cold wars have skirmishes every now and then. Sooner or later, blue states and cities are going to grow tired of nothing happening. When skirmishes happen, Left America will blame Right America for it all.
But Right America has a much greater problem. And it involves the Church and our great enemy. More on that soon.
To be sure, I’m never for war. “More than anyone, the soldier prays for peace,” Douglas MacArthur told us. He was correct. But Culture War College is here to teach anyone how to fight our real enemy, and I grow weary of seeing him winning in our American culture. So take down my page, Facebook, and cancel my account, Twitter. There, I said it. Oh wait, I’ve never been “Twitter-pated.” Well, not with anyone other than my wife, anyway.
As for now, and before my next missive, let’s all try to find some incredibly thicker skin. You see, I’m convinced there is hope.