A Tale of Two Americas

Two people who characterize a splintered country.

The former president won the Iowa Caucus.

Voters from the country’s heartland cast their ballots for an indicted, racist, nativist, misogynist, self-declared dictator.

No matter the instances of illegality, boorish, megalomaniacal behavior, and demonstrating an abject absence of conscience and principles, his loyal followers would see him president again, hastening the end of democracy.

On that same day that the former president won his caucus, a national holiday remembered a man who was honest to his own detriment, sacrificial, loving, compassionate, and one who put his personal safety and wellbeing in jeopardy advocating for others.

The party of the former president loves to selectively quote this man. They cherry-pick his speeches, co-opt his legacy, and without the slightest amount of shame attempt to position him as someone who would approve of their policies.

This same party’s politicians voted against his birthday being a holiday because they judged him not by the content of his character, but by the color of his skin.

This party became the refuge of racists because it was apparent that they would be given sanctuary.

They would be free to wallow in their prejudices.

They would be comfortable opposing civil rights.

They would be at home in an organization that favors White males.

They condemn speaking the truth as racist, and the pursuit of equality as woke and undesirable.

The former president appeals to many in his party.

He speaks their language.

He says the quiet part out loud through a barbed-wire megaphone.

America has always been a nation of multiple personalities.

Forever at war with itself.

Burdened by the contradiction of having both a weighty conscience and no conscience.

Positioning itself as a bastion for liberty and justice for all, but constantly curtailing and limiting liberty and justice for People of Color and the poor.

Asserting itself as the world’s premier arbiter of equality and fairness, but constantly creating laws and social structures that are neither equal nor fair.

Our country gave birth to both Martin Luther King, Jr. and the former president.

Our country has always stretched itself in many directions.

But it is in danger of tearing itself apart.