Would Lincoln Recognize this America?

One June evening in 1858, Abraham Lincoln stood in the Hall of Representatives at the Illinois Statehouse and warned America of what was coming.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” he declared. “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”

Those words were considered radical—his law partner called them politically suicidal. His opponent, Stephen Douglas, weaponized them to paint Lincoln as a dangerous extremist.

And yet…

Lincoln was right.

Without saying so directly, Lincoln had foreshadowed the American Civil War that would emerge seven years later, predicated on the exact concerns Lincoln had voiced.

While some agreed with Abe, many did not.

The Chicago Times wrote that Lincoln’s words advocated “boldly and clearly a war of sections, a war of the North against the South, of the free states against the slave states – a war of extermination – to be continued relentlessly until the one or the other shall be subdued.”

Which is precisely what happened.

I recall for you this long-forgotten moment in American history because we’re once again living though a moment that seems eerily similar in many ways.

America is once again a house divided, and it won’t stand for long in that state.

There’s no way it can.

Because Red and Blue are functionally no different than North and South back in the day.

Both sides stand for principles deeply at odds with one another. Both see the Constitution differently. Both view social matters such as religion in schools, gun rights, LGBTQ issues, and women’s rights profoundly differently. Both see the role of government, individual liberty, and access to healthcare from entirely opposite perspectives.

It’s almost like Red and Blue are living in two different lives in two different countries… and yet they’re both are stitched into the borders of the same nation. And these days, they are continually at each other’s throat, both aiming to return America to a greatness they remember, but each defining that term radically contradictorily.

The question I keep coming back to is whether America really will have to split apart, or if there’s an event that might close the chasm and reunite the United States.

I was working in Lower Manhattan at the time and lived through 9/11. I saw the way that moment united Americans—for a time.

Alas, I don’t think the same would happen today.

Too much social media. Too many far-left and far-right megaphones spewing a continual stream of lies to manipulate the minds of those incapable of thinking for themselves or unwilling to do the research.

Another 9/11 event would very likely be viewed by a big part of the country as a false-flag attack orchestrated by the government to control the masses.

I mean, just look at the attempted assassination of Trump.

When Kennedy was shot, the nation came together.

Same with Reagan in the `80s.

But the attempt on Trump did less than zero to unite Americans, if anything, it pushed divisions ever further…

So, what brings Americans back together again?

What repairs the fractures that now separate a nation, communities, even families?

I don’t know if there’s an answer to that.

Thus, I don’t know what keeps this “house divided” from collapsing under the weight of two distinct societies trying to shape America’s future in their image alone.

We will have the answer to that question over the remainder of this decade as America progresses ever closer to a social and fiscal crisis.

Lincoln was seven years early.

I suspect we don’t have the much time remaining.