No Bridging this Partisan Divide
The Political Hostility in the USA is as Old as the Country Itself
Sep 15, 2009
To those on both sides of the debate there could be no middle-ground. One was either a patriot or an enemy to the United States of America. The diatribe got so heated that a President who was thought to be above the fray had his character viciously attacked by the rival party and the press, while the Congress considered a bill that (it was hoped) would force a more civil discourse. Shocking as it may seem, this is not a description of the state of American politics in 2009, it is a representation of the political debate in the U.S. of the 1790s: the first decade under the Constitution.
Last week, President Barack Obama was in the middle of a speech to a joint-session of Congress when he was suddenly interrupted by a shout from South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson. Wilson yelled, “You lie,” at the President while he was going over the details of his Health Care plan. In what had already been a heated season of political argument, Representative Wilson’s actions led the media to lament that the civility of politics and of the nation as a whole has deteriorated to a never-before-seen low.
Federals vs. Democratic Republicans
After the adoption of the Constitution and the swearing in of George Washington as the first President of the United States in 1789, there were no official political parties. Thomas Jefferson, who would go on to found the party of opposition to Washington’s government, was quoted as saying, “If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” Differing ideals of how the fledgling nation should be administered and should move forward however, swiftly led to the birth of two parties: The Federalists and (what historians now refer to as) the Democratic Republicans.
The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton who was the first Secretary of the Treasury. They believed a strong central government was necessary to hold the new nation together. The Democratic Republicans coalesced around Jefferson, who was Washington’s first Secretary of State; they believed that the states should have almost all powers left to themselves, and that the federal government should be kept weak.
President Washington tried to refrain from the party battles, but his support of Hamilton led him to be viewed as a Federalist, as did his belief that it was a weak federal government that had caused the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation to fail. He was largely held to be above criticism and reproach by both parties due to the fact that he was beloved by nearly the entire nation. Jefferson criticized him harshly in his private personal letters, but he did not dare speak against the “Father of (the) country” in public or through the newspapers. That would change with Washington’s second term, when Jefferson and his party began to attack Washington openly.
Exploiting the Breach
Politics in the 21st century are facing changes that did not exist in the era of Washington and Jefferson, and that did not even impact them even 20 years ago. The Internet has given birth to a 24-hour-a-day source of news both factual and otherwise. The extremists on the fringe are now able to connect with each other and to voice their concerns loudly enough to seem disproportionately large compared to their actual numbers.
Cable and radio talk-show hosts also have more to gain from appealing to only one group of people and riling them up than from trying to reach everyone. Hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Bill O’Reilly, and Rachel Maddow all address specific sets of the populace, ignoring those who do not share their beliefs and helping to widen the chasm between Republicans and Democrats (as well as between those Conservatives and Liberals not in the parties).
Angry Past to Contentious Future?
President Obama did not fall victim to a new phenomenon in the United States of America when Joe Wilson interrupted his speech. While yelling at a President during a joint-session of Congress is considered by most to be rude and disrespectful, the Capitol building is no stranger to boorish behavior. It is the same place where in 1856, another Congressional Representative from South Carolina, Preston Brooks, brutally attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane.
Joe Wilson is just a symbol of a part of human nature that has always existed; he is no harbinger of the apocalypse, and represents nothing new. Those baser parts of human nature are not (despite the best intentions of humanity) going away anytime soon. The goal for Wilson and many people is to control those impulses in order to make an attempt at civil discourse, even when people disagree.
It may sell more papers or get more viewers when a person taps into the seemingly endless supply of animosity, because it is simple to do it and perhaps even fun at times to get angry. It is easier to brand one’s opponent a villain (of sometimes comic proportions) than to admit that they have a right to their opinion. Yet America is at its best when its people come together as one. Though it often takes a tragedy to bring the country together, like the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II, or the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01, the United States is unbeatable when it is truly united. It is the profit margins that may get smaller.
Sources:
- Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson ( Random House Inc; New York; 1996)
- Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington (Random House Inc; New York; 2004)
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