Angry, Divided, and Weak

The Set-up – The tragic case of Trayvon Martin has taken on a nationwide Selma ‘65 civil rights fervor.  The  Jackson / Sharpton tag team arrived on cue to stir up racial discontent after the media irresponsibly injected race where it didn’t belong. Juan Williams, cable TV commentator and liberal political analyst wrote a scathing piece in the Wall Street Journal on how misguided Jackson and Sharpton’s action were and how it set back whatever gains had been made in reducing racial polarity that existed back in the days when the ministers could generate some level of compassion…..

From a personal and “white” perspective, Williams thesis was spot on. The ‘hope’ of a post-racial, united nation that held potential three years ago has never materialized and one could postulate that the opposite has actually occurred. Something goes off inside the non African American subconscious when incidents occur like Congressman Bobby Rush’s stunt on the floor of Congress, or the Congressional Black Caucus issuing a guilty verdict before an arrest is made or when The New Black Panther’s (Arian Nation’s racist competitor) stand guard at a Philadelphia polling station, and their bounties and threats are made public without a peep from Justice. America is chided into making a very dangerous societal judgment when faced with the conspicuous silence from our elected and appointed leaders as it pertains to such behavior. Anger and division between the races have the perfect incubator.

And then there is the boiling ‘War on Women’ supposedly waged by those lunatic conservative Republicans. This was a brilliantly conceived and orchestrated diversion from reality as well.

Enter Sandra Fluke, the eloquent Georgetown law student receiving her 15 minutes of fame in a mock congressional hearing as the disadvantaged woman who thinks it unfair that the Jesuit institution where she voluntarily enrolled won’t pay for her contraception because of their religious doctrine. Rush Limbaugh took the bait and the war was on. The emotional decoy worked to perfection. Sandra Fluke was simply another in a long line of female political power pawns that will likely go the way of Paula Coughlin, Anita Hill, Sharon Bialek, et al. What remains from the Administration’s initial assault on the intricacies of religious freedom imbued in the Constitution has since cleverly morphed itself by design into a war on women with a sexual canard thrown in the middle. Anger and division between religious and political ideologies have the perfect incubator.

The Issue – These are just the two most recent examples of how society is being split. Quietly, citizens are coaxed into choosing sides. Americans are more divided now than ever on all fronts; fiscal, racial, political, social, religious, and economic. We’re not just divided, we’re angry.

Creating a crisis or common enemy, dividing, organizing, educating, and rallying the masses are the pillars of community organization. In this regard. Barack Obama’s Chicago curricula vitae has been resourceful beyond measure.

The Result – The administration’s socio-political strategy success comes with a price. These divisions create national weakness which carries with it global implications in terms of our position, will, and strength as a viable economic partner, a dependable military ally, and our traditional role of the standard bearer for freedom and what is good and right. On the home front, government is readily willing to expand its role by stepping in to regulate the outcome of any crisis with little regard for individual freedoms or the free market. Obamacare and the impending decision on its constitutionality provides a prime example. Watch over the next few months how the Supreme Court will become an object of division.

In 2012 while we remain distracted within our special interest divisions; the debt will increase exponentially, the 99% will continue to despise the 1%, Afghanistan will be returned to the cavemen, the race/gender/economic divides will grow wider, the right and left will abhor each other, strife between labor and business will escalate, the perpetual ‘takers’ of society will continue to take while the givers become coerced to give more and more, Iran will achieve nuclear success at the expense of our allies (Israel) and to the advantage of our adversaries (Russia and China), and the EPA will continue to gut the energy production machines of the most resourced country on earth.

Regrettably, in a typically divisive election year the best examples of American teamwork, coordination and organization will be seen in the two opposing political parties that will declare war on each other apart for the next seven months. During that time we will continue to speed toward the societal cliff where an ever expanding government will propped up to be our only safety net. To those that are lazy, don’t understand or simply take for granted individual freedoms, trading society’s challenges for an all encompassing government isn’t such a bad thing.

Going forward – Power abhors a vacuum. As a consequence of our self created divides and distractions, if the US is unable to steer clear of the cliff, who then will assume global power – China, Russian, or Iran? And what would that mean for the rest of the world? Fluke, Martin, Limbaugh, and the ministers are a just sideshow hiding a bigger, more important picture. Losing sight of it would be consequential beyond the imagination of Americans both on the home front and around the world.