One Nation, Too Easily Divisible

Last Saturday, members of blue America marched on Washington, formerly a physical swamp and now a political one, to commemorate one of the high points of not only the civil rights movement, but the American political process in action:  the 1963 March on Washington, whose 50th anniversary is today.  Today's commemoration was marked by speeches from no fewer than two former presidents and the current one, a man who owes his ability to hold the job in no small measure to the March's success.

Commemoration, however, is not the only goal of those assembling in Washington throughout the past week; they also want the nation to rededicate itself to realizing the "dream" that Martin Luther King, Jr. illustrated in his historic speech at the first march.  And, as did Dr. King, all of them want to use the tools of our political process--the Constitutional tools of speech, assembly, the press and the vote--to make the dream real.

Putting it mildly, however, they and the rest of us who feel the way they do have their work cut out for them.

Because while blue America has been remembering Dr. King and his dream, red America has been hard at work turning the American dream into a nightmare.  Foremost among its efforts:  the current Tea Bagger drive to shut down the government unless funding for health care reform is completely cut.  That's right:  it's a "principled" demand to throw the uninsured into the streets, because they can't imagine an America in which they don't get everything they ask for, when they ask for it.

And therein lies the source of America the divisible.  Even Barry Goldwater, nobody's idea of a bleeding-heart liberal, understood that successful politics in a democracy depends on compromise--and said as much.  To Tea Baggers, compromise, and its sister term, "bipartisanship," are curse words--and they say as much.   But, on and on, Democrats (and Obama in particular) continue to try to negotiate, as if this weren't true.  On and on, they pretend (at least publicly) to act as though we are all one big happy family, where no dispute can't be resolved by everybody giving a little.

Tea Baggers, however, give nothing but non-negotiable demands.  They pretend to have all of the answers, even when they don't have all of the facts.  They talk about obeying the Constitution, while making threats to subvert the government the Constitution established.  They talk about loving our nation, even while openly hating a majority of its citizens and even going so far as to stop voters from going to the polls.

It does not divide America any further than it is already divided to call out the Tea Baggers for what they really are:  not a political movement, not even a corporate diversionary tactic, but a Fifth Column dedicated to creating a religious plutocracy in which every American fears every other American, and is armed to the teeth to prove it.

It's time to face this fact:  America can only be one nation again by doing whatever it takes to destroy this Fifth Column.  Not with violence, not with lies, and not even (after a point) with money.  Those are the tools of the other side.  We must organize, we must verbalize, and we must all exercise the franchise that so many have fought and died for, whether Tea Bagger rules make it easy or not.  Above all, we must show at every opportunity that we are through negotiating with people who do not even accept those who do not agree with them as fellow citizens.

To hell with marching on Washington.  Let's march from sea to shining sea, and make America the divisible America the beautiful again.