CommentsTHE VIEW FROM HERE - Two factors precede most civil wars: (1) The breaking of established cultural norms based on shared values, and (2) division along ethnic, religious or race lines.
Today both these conditions not only exist in America but are embraced by both political parties. October 16, 2020, History Shows That Societies Collapse When Leaders Undermine Social Contracts, by Field Museum
Justice Samuel Alito’s Dobbs Decision (Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization,597 U.S. ___), denied the social compact which has united the nation since 1776 – our nation rests upon individual inalienable rights which the voters may not erase. The Declaration and the Constitution enunciated this political philosophy as the basis of our nation because other societies were based on group rights. Alito’s Dobbs Decision, which denied women the inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness recapitulated the 1857 Dred Scott Case which did essentially the same thing for Blacks. It led to the civil war in 1861.
After Dobbs, the voters in each state decide whether a woman must die in pregnancy when an abortion would save her Life, whether a woman has any Liberty when it comes to abortion, and whether a woman has no right to Happiness as she must give birth to the baby of her rapist.
The Social Contract Which Binds Americans
The Declaration: Each person has inalienable rights including but not limited to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness and the purpose of government is to safeguard those rights. The US Constitution was written to makes these rights the supreme law of the land protected by the republican form of government (No, not The GOP)
The Reality: Every group has to fight its way into the social contract. Despite the fact that the Declaration posits that each individual has inalienable rights, in reality those rights are not automatic. If one wants to enjoy inalienable rights, one’s group must earn those rights in a trial by ordeal. The reality is that members of sub-groups are discriminated against until they fight their way into the social compact. Large or small, group behavior is similar: Being beaten into a gang, fraternity hazing, and enduring public discrimination are a standard way that groups decide who is a true member. We do not publicize this aspect of the American Dream, but that is how it works.
Trial by Ordeal Is Required to Have a National Identity
While it is assumed that a person who is born into a society grows up being acculturated to its norms, suspicion always follows newcomers. Due to the Declaration, however, this individual conformity is required only in the public sphere, and everyone has complete freedom to have whatever culture he/she desires in his private life. The First Amendment clarifies that certain practices such as one’s religion are excluded from government, and in return, the government will not interfere with a religion’s operation, except religion may not be an excuse for criminality.
The Separation of Church and State, as this aspect of constitutional law has been named, highlights the unconstitutionality of group rights. At the time of the nation’s creation, the groups which posed the greatest threat to individual inalienable rights were religious factions.
As successive groups prevailed in the trial by ordeal, their members have become fungible with others who had previously prevailed in their struggle. The Framers knew that it would be a long arduous process for individual inalienable rights prevail over those who would impose their religious or political ideology on others. Look how long it took for women to get the vote!
The Declaration created inalienable rights, but the Republic allowed individuals to actualize them. That is the essence of the rule of law – the government may not abolish inalienable rights. The Founders rejected a system where the vote was the supreme law. One cannot have two supreme laws of the land: either the Constitution protects inalienable rights or voters may abolish all rights. In other words, we are a Republic which operates by rule of law, or we are Democracy where rights rest on the whim of the voters.
Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, The Trumpists, The Wokers, White Supremacists, Justice Alito and his judicial ilk all jettison individual inalienable rights in favor of Popular Sovereignty, where rights rest on the vicissitudes of the ballot box. Because our shared foundational values have been replaced by groups fighting to end the republic in favor of a democracy, a violent civil war looms. Ironically, both sides want to kill the republic in the belief that they can capture enough votes to vanquish the other.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed by Mr. Abrams are solely his and not necessarily those of CityWatch.)