Another Civil War?
How do you stop another American Civil War? Setting aside the alarmist nature of that question, this discussion is at the heart of Edward Luce's latest article for Financial Times. In his piece, Luce cites three books (How Civil Wars Start, This Will Not Pass, and The Next Civil War) to trace how another war between Americans might happen and what can be done to stop it. Luce notes that the books offer some ideas, though they are all far from simple, including "find ways of making multi-ethnic democracy work, get money out of politics, teach civics to American children — have the air of wishful afterthoughts, rather than serious game plans."
Other books related to this topic, but not mentioned by Luce include, Cold Civil War by Jim Belcher, Divided We Fall by David French, and The Fractured Republic by Yuval Levin.
These are all beautiful ideas and lofty goals, but I think there is another one that Luce sniffs around, even if he is not aware of it. In a couple of paragraphs, Luce traces how Republicans, like Mitch McConnell, Andrew McCarthy, and Lindsay Graham, helped to restore Trump's image after Jan. 6 even though all men, both privately or publicly, had some pretty damning words for the former president in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection. Luce follows this with a paragraph about how Biden, failing to be the great uniter, has helped the Democrat Party retreat to "their by-now routine ethnic division of spoils." Vice President Harris is focusing on snubs, genuine and made up, and as a result, the Democratic party looks to lose their "majority" in November.
So what does this have to do with the next potential Civil War, and how it could be stopped? Put simply: Americans need to vote for politicians who care about something greater than maintaining power — who care about what is right and doing what is necessary, even if it is not popular.
Of course, to nominate and vote for politicians who seek to serve the greater good of all Americans and not just their tribe, individual Americans also need to be more interested in helping all people over helping themselves. That is the simplest way to avoid a Civil War. However, like so many things, it is easier said than done.
2 More Things
1) Writing for the Washington Post Magazine, Caitlin Chandler chronicles the story of how her hometown helped produce a Jan. 6 sedition suspect. In the story, Chandler tells the tale of Tom Caldwell and how, through a constellation of small and large developments, Caldwell became more and more radicalized. While it would be easy to point to just one Big Thing as the impetus for Caldwell's turn, Chandler clarifies that it was not just Trump, Fox News, or conservative radio. Those things, plus a history of honoring the confederacy, the presence of militia movements, and the breakdown of hometown papers coupled with the rise of conspiracy theories, led to Caldwell being present with the rest of the insurrectionists Jan. 6. Chandler does not give any neat resolutions. Instead, she helps illuminate the breakdown in our society that would lead Caldwell and others to feel it necessary to commit seditious acts.
2) Leia Idiliby has a story for Mediate on how Rep. Paul Gosar helped share baseless conspiracy theories that started on 4chan about the Uvalde shooter. Gosar has since-deleted tweets that claimed that Salvatore Ramos was a "transexual leftist illegal alien." NBC News has reported that this story originated on 4chan and centered around a trans woman who bears something of a resemblance to Ramos but, and this is important, is not Salvadore Ramos. Some far-right individuals shared the story online, and Rep. Gosar added fuel to that fire without fact-checking it first. Jonah Goldberg of The Dispatch has long noted that after events like mass shootings, people always desire to win first in the race to get the story wrong. Still, this blatant spreading of misinformation by a sitting Congressman goes well beyond just getting some facts wrong.