Yes, I know. I said I’d start writing a post a week, but damn life gets in the way.
Regardless, I felt prompted to definitely write today. Why? The day of this writing is the day after Joe Biden announced his six-prong strategy for “defeating” COVID-19. One of the most noteworthy “prongs” is that he is instructing the Labor Department to require private businesses with more than 100 employees mandate that their workers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a term for employment.
As if that weren’t enough, several cities across the US are instituting measures meant to target those who have chosen not to be vaccinated. For example, in a few days, New York City will require all businesses to enforce its mandate to allow entry only to vaccinated people. Yes, American citizens must show their papers in order to receive service from a private business.
If you’re not living under a rock, you probably knew all this already. Maybe many of you won’t share this sentiment, but it has to be recognized: This is not America any longer. I don’t know what it is, but this is not the romantic version of a country historically known for a level of freedom unprecedented in history.
This is not the nation that was built on the foundation that the individual, not the government, is the most sovereign. That these mandates – especially ones coming from one man occupying the White House who is acting like a king or dictator – are even allowed to be voiced without immediate political backlash and resistance is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Picture If You Will…
Imagine if the COVID-19 pandemic never happened; let’s say we were watching a movie about such a pandemic. We see characters up on the screen: political figures doing what they can to make everyone under their rule to receive an experimental vaccine in an attempt to funnel trillions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies; police putting business owners in jail for keeping their stores and salons open; private business owners demanding vaccination documents at the behest of a government mandate.
Is it out of line to say that we would immediately recognize who the villains are in this movie? We would probably say to each other, “That’s fucked up, but that could NEVER actually happen, especially not in America!”
But this is not a movie, and this is happening in America.
I know this is redundant to say on this blog, but this nation is in desperate need of a divorce.
We Have to Start Over Before It’s Too Late
If this isn’t America anymore, then we need to start over. Right now there are tens of millions of people passionately opposed to these measures. Likewise there are tens of millions of people cheering them on. Both groups regard the other as vile scum intent on ruining their lives.
How do these two groups find common ground? How does this nation “heal” and our political system find compromise between people of vastly different worldviews?
There is no coming together. Whatever romantic vision of America we still hold needs to be abandoned. For some people, that’s really hard to admit. They believe in the idea of America and want to fight for it. But they’re engaged in a fool’s errand.
There are simply too many people who share a political system that want to see freedom-loving people bend to their will – not even because they think their own policies will help their political opposites live better lives, but because they loathe their values.
What we know from history is that people can only be pushed so far before they push back. Right now, the Left of America feels emboldened to compel the Right to follow whatever dictates it deems necessary. Over the past 18 months, this has been done with blazing speed, with barely a fight from the elected leaders right-leaning voters put in office.
How long can that last? How long before things get ugly?
I don’t want to see that, but I don’t see how it can go any other way if both sides are starting from the idea that we need to remain one nation. Secession – a national divorce – needs to be debated on the public stage, and the COVID-19 authoritarianism might be the catalyst.
If you’re reading this, I ask you to make peaceful separation a topic when discussing politics with friends and family. Rather than letting the conversation get heated, be a candle in the darkness. Talk positively about how much better life would be if people of all political persuasions and perspectives lived in societies tailored to their values. Have them imagine a nation of their own in which they could have EVERYTHING they want and not have to deal with others who have the power of the vote and hold completely opposite views.
Plant the seed. It might not take root immediately, but even more frustrating times lay ahead. Eventually, the halls of power will shift the other way and the people you speak with now might harken back to that discussion and take more seriously the idea of living in a society in which they no longer have to contend with politicians and voters of whom they can’t stand the sight.
If you’re on the fence about whether America still has a chance, it’s time to face reality. It doesn’t. Let’s get the wheels of peaceful separation in motion before it’s too late.
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