Does History Repeat: Parallels Between the Civil War and Our Polarized Present

I am neither a TV news addict nor a history buff. My television time is spent mostly viewing family dramedies and Brian Cranston serials, whilst my reading tastes run strongly to Cold War spy novels and “unreliable narrator” fiction popularized in the last decade by Gone Girl.

I have stepped out of my comfort zone. For the past two weeks, I have been reading (technically, I have been listening to Will Patton read) The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson’s description of the run-up to the Civil War. And for the last three nights, I have been glued to cable news watching each speaker, performer, and talking head at the Democratic National Convention.

I suspect I am not the first, and will not be the last, to comment on the parallels between the two events—the war that tore our country apart, and the upcoming election that is having a similar polarizing effect on the American character and soul.

Larson takes us inside the diaries, notes, military orders, and personal letters of a wide array of people in describing the tenor of the nation in the months leading to President Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration and the firing of the first volley at First Sumter.

Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote, concern about assassination attempts, and investigations of conspiracies all played a role in bringing us to war. The South’s dependence on the sin of slavery probably made conflict nearly inevitable, but hyperbole, misdirection, fear, and poor communication guaranteed it.

In our world of everything, everywhere, all at once, many of those pressure points are once again present. I am not forecasting a Civil War. Unlike the Blue vs. Gray, I don’t think we are rushing to a Blue vs. Red armed conflict. But I do fear for the future of our country.

I’ll listen to more of The Demon of Unrest in the car today. I will be glued to MSNBC tonight. I will work hard to support my candidates. And though not a religious man I will pray that “this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”