American Goodness

What are the American people going to do about our national division, as individuals, and in Congress? Regarding Congress, every time we turn around, it seems their ability to cooperate goes from bad to worse. It’s never been this divided; we just keep descending ever lower. If this is the way you feel, you should have been part of the discussion some friends and I had the other day. One of the younger fellows was so hot as he spoke, he was glowing like an iron poker just pulled from the blacksmith’s furnace: “We need to throw out the Constitution! Throw out our elected representatives! Throw out the government and start all over again!”
However, one of the ladies present, a few decades older than this man, clearly comprehends our current national situation with a much cooler head and was able to interject a historical perspective. She pointed out that in the heated deliberations which ultimately culminated in our Civil War, the U.S. Senate became a battle zone, when a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate Chamber and violently beat Sen. Charles Sumner into unconsciousness. That was in 1856, a century and a half ago. Congress survived the incivilities of its members of that time, and the nation went on to much greater heights after the calamitously divisive war which followed five years later.
That said, the situation begs the question: How do we move past our current separation? It is going to take time, but we must regain respect for one another. Do we look at those with whom we differ as having the same degree of worth, the identical amount of value as we attribute to ourselves?
If we start with the premise that others are compassionate, moral, ethical, honest, decent and honorable people who may have something valuable to impart, then that knowledge can aid us in holding ourselves back from trying to explain to them why our ideas are superior to theirs. Further, do we really think that they will listen to us if we are so immature that we are unwilling to first consider their point of view?
The fact of the matter is, contrary to what the glowing-red young man said; we can’t throw out the Constitution; what we have to do is to respect it, and set our emotions aside. It provides a structure for getting us down the road together. But it does require our personal restraint.
Alexis de Tocqueville said of us, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”  A component of being good is showing respect for those with whom we disagree. Our democracy will not function otherwise. This requires that we all have to bite our tongues and do what the majority decides, even when we are in total disagreement with them. How else could we expect them to do them same for us, when we are in the majority?
And what about our First Amendment guarantee of free speech? Shouting somebody down flies in the face of it, totally disrespecting them and our Constitution. As we work through our differences, we must keep firmly in mind that we have a system which has created the greatest nation in the world. Of course, we can improve upon it, but that will call for thoughtful deliberation, built upon our strengths, as we contemplate our shortcomings. Anarchy will not move us forward.