America: A house divided against itself cannot stand

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Nov 7, 2012 - 7:24:25 PM

(FinalCall.com) - The country has chosen its president and the leader of the house called the United States of America. But perhaps the greatest challenge the country faced was not whether Barack Obama would hold office for another four years or if Mitt Romney would take charge of the nation.

EDITORIAL

Shop owner Irvin Walker unpacks merchandise Oct. 22 at Triggers Gun Shop in Mills, Wyo. Wyoming gun sales have been strong in the past four years, mirroring national trends, and Wyoming residents applied for a record number of concealed carry permits in the past year. Photo: AP Wide World Photo/The Casper Star-Tribune, Alan Rogers

The major challenge facing America is dealing with division, acrimony and a steady, ceaseless splintering of the country with little regard for what it will take to act in the national interest. The predictions were for a tight race in the national election and they came true. Despite the outcome and Mr. Obama’s sweeping electoral college victory, millions are angry. Others have begun to repeat the ugly racial rhetoric that followed Mr. Obama’s first election.

Such sentiments don’t lend themselves to talk of reconciliation or bi-partisanship. They further inflame passion and erode the possibility of finding common ground. “Listen, our majority is going to get reelected. We’ll have as much of a mandate as he will—if that happens—to not raise taxes. He knows what we can do and what we can’t do—I’ve been very upfront with him about it going back over the last year and a half,” said House speaker John Boehner, sharing the Republican position with Politico.com. “Boehner has also suggested in recent days that he believed a ‘grand bargain’ to avert the fiscal cliff was unlikely during the lame-duck session. In an interview with CNN, Boehner said he expected lawmakers to work on a temporary fix to avert the fiscal cliff,” The Hill.com reported Nov. 7. "Lame-duck Congresses aren't known for doing big things and probably shouldn't do big things, so I think the best you can hope for is a bridge," The Hill reported.

That doesn’t sound much like compromise.

There were reports again of huge gun sales by the eve of the election, threats by the state of Texas to arrest international election monitors, and charges of early voting shenanigans and voter suppression in the name of avoiding the non-existent problem of voter fraud. Is this the democracy that America wishes to export to the world? Is this the example of how rule of, for and by the people should operate?

The rhetoric and imagery grew hotter and more disturbing as the contest went forward, with a judge warning of a civil war if Mr. Obama returns to office, and the president was hung in effigy in different parts of the country—in the name of Halloween celebrations. Donald Trump tweeted that the election was a catastrophe and there should be a march on Washington because of its outcome.

An Associated Press survey revealed what was already known from anecdotal evidence and the mood of the country: “Slightly more than half of all Americans—51 percent—express anti-Black attitudes, an increase of three percent over the past four years,” observed NNPA Newswire editor George Curry. “The results, which were released Oct. 27, showed an even greater increase in racism when implicit racist attitudes were measured. In those findings, the number of Americans with anti-Black sentiments increased from 49 percent when Mr. Obama was first elected in 2008 to 56 percent today,” he noted.

The country has come a long way from the hope and talk of a post-racial era with the election of the first Black president. Since Mr. Obama took office a White backlash has emerged with a vengeance.

It has spawned a radical right-wing political movement, the Tea Party, and unleashed whatever muzzle that may have covered the mouths of those steeped in racial hatred. Indeed the president and his family have been called ugly names and threatened often without apology, with those who have hurled insults claiming the “word police” are abridging their right to free expression.

Beyond race millions across lines of color believe their future is bleak and the America Dream and hope for ever-increasing prosperity is slipping from their grasps. The power of the One Percent Super Rich versus the suffering of the masses of the 99 Percent remains on a collision course. Depressed wages, high unemployment, evaporating investments, assaults on the rights of workers and no such thing as job security are driving more and more Americans to the edge—not to mention growing poverty, homelessness and a general sense that the country has a hard road ahead. There is a legitimate notion that everyone is one their own.

The country’s political leaders remain in the hip pocket of special interests and extremists have dominated debates, declaring compromise is treason and only true believers need stand in the political arena. Confidence in political leaders at the national level has reached all-time lows and the idea of an honest, honorable politician is a laughable notion.

Where will the country go from here? Where can the country go from here? Abraham Lincoln warned in the mid-1800s that a divided nation cannot stand and the Bible warns, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”

The handwriting is on the wall, like the King Belshazzar of Babylon, the American kingdom has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. But in the days of Belshazzar, a divine man was able to offer wise counsel to the king and the kingdom. God repeats that pattern today with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his servant, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Min. Farrakhan, in the absence of his teacher, has been a consistent and clear warner, echoing the divine pronouncement at America’s taking of Blacks from Africa into slavery has led to God’s judgment against her—and ushered in her destruction.

He has spoken especially clearly in the run-up to the 2012 election, saying radical change is needed for America to survive and if radical change does not come, perhaps God has decided to remove this nation and bring forth a new reality here.

If the rulers would listen to these divine words of guidance, which call for joint sacrifice, repentance and justice for America’s once slaves perhaps this nation might save herself or extend her time.

Failure to heed this clarion call can only result in the fall of a nation under its own division and the weight of its sins.

(This is an updated version of an Editorial that appears in the print edition of The Final Call V. 32 No. 6.)

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