Pearl Harbor. World War II. The World Trade Center bombings on September 11. What do these three events all have in common? During the face of great tragedy and danger, Americans united beyond politics, religion, and ethnic origin. Today, however, there is no such national unity with the Covid-19 outbreak. Donald Trump is taking shots at Democrat governors during his daily briefings. Nancy Pelosi refers to President Trump as “morbidly obese” at her news conferences. And the division goes beyond the politicians. To red Americans, the blue-state progressives seem to want to keep the lockdowns in place without regard to the trillions of dollars that are being placed on the national debt, businesses closing up shop, and the myriad of other unintended consequences that come with shutting down a twenty-trillion dollar economy. And to the many blue Americans, the red states seem to be playing Russian roulette with millions of American lives. It is as if both sides are living on two different planets in how they view the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.
What do we make of the red/blue divide?
The United States is too divided to handle big problems. If we can’t pull together as a country in crisis, how can we expect the politicians to get anything done with normalcy in Washington, D.C? Hopefully, the virus will be overcome with a vaccination. But beyond Covid-19, there may be bigger problems brewing on the American horizon. We are simply a broken country. If we can’t pull together as a country now, when will be able to do so in the future? Yes, let’s find a cure for Covid-19. But maybe it’s also time to either find a way to begin unifying as a country, or maybe, divorcing as a country.