… divisions wrought in past decade severe
In reality, I am very happy I am at the end of my existence. I actually very seriously considered moving to Canada. Since they re-elected their prime minister, it is still an option.
The country I once loved is not what it used to be. The deterioration started in the 1980s, though it could be traced back to the Nixon years.
I do not believe that democracy in America can survive because the Northerners have become more KKK than Abe Lincolns.
One of the leading experts on the Civil War agrees that the country is teetering on the brink.
Ken Burns’ analysis
Burns has made some epic historical films, and “The Civil War” is one of them,
Legendary filmmaker Ken Burns says division in the United States today is as bad as it was before the Civil War, which remains the bloodiest conflict in America’s history.
“If we’re going to hell, it’s from within,” he said about the potential self-destruction of the country.
Mr Burns is known for the landmark documentary The Civil War, an 11-hour series released on PBS in the 1990s that became a cultural phenomenon watched by one in every six Americans.
For more than 30 years, the nine-part documentary has remained a consistent lens into the country’s understanding of the war between North and South.
Justin Vallejo, “Burns says situation in US is as bad now as before
the Civil War,” The Independent, Sept. 22, 2021
America’s three great crises
Burns was interviewed on a podcast, and his answers were chilling,
“It’s really serious. There are three great crises before this: the Civil War, the Depression, and World War II. This is equal to it,” Mr Burns replied.
Mr Burns referenced a speech by Abraham Lincoln in 1838 about whether the United States would be crushed by some trans-Atlantic military giant, in which the future president said:
“Never. All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide.”
With benign neighbours to the north and south, and two oceans providing a “geographical forcefield”, Mr Burns agreed that if the US goes to “hell” it would be from within its own borders.
“And we’re, you know, we’re looking right down the muzzle of that gun,” Mr Burns said.
Justin Vallejo, The Independent, September 22, 2021
Hatred has been growing for years
The animus between the North and South, the anger between lovers of democracy and the lovers of authoritarianism, the simmering growth of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, has simmered under the ground for a long time.
However, Donald Trump and the Republicans have now unleashed it. When a president of the U.S. says that the far right groups like the white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and the KKK are “good people,” and his party stands by silently, the country is in big trouble.
Canada seems like a shining city on the hill that America thought that it represented for centuries.
That dream has been eradicated, and America is in big trouble.
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