The Second American Civil War

America is and has been for some time in the midst of a second civil war which so far has only been a cold civil war.   Except this civil war is not between the North and the South, but instead it is between the Left and Right.

In 2017, leftist reporter Robin Wright wrote an article entitled “Is America Headed for a New Kind of Civil War?” where one national security expert she interviewed stated “the United States faces a sixty-per-cent chance of civil war over the next ten to fifteen years” while the consensus among other national security experts put the chances of a second American civil war at around 35 percent.

The leftist CEO Jack Dorsey of Twitter acknowledged this in April of 2018 when he retweeted an article calling for the Democratic party victory in the Second American Civil War.  The article he tweeted states the following:

“there’s no bipartisan way forward at this juncture in our history — one side must win” and states that there is “a fundamental conflict between two worldviews that must be resolved in short order”.

In November 2018, another leftist columnist wrote an article entitled “The midterm elections revealed that America is in a cold civil war” where he stated the following:

“The best way to think about this identity divide is a political conflict between two camps with fundamentally different visions for what the country is, with little room for compromise. It’s a kind of cold civil war, fought not with bullets but bitter and zero-sum political contests…

Political divides like these are powerful and self-reinforcing; people don’t tend to compromise when their fundamental identity appears to be on the ballot. Hence why it’s like a civil war: A struggle between two nations-within-a-nation without any room for obvious compromise…

One side will need to beat the other.”

Leftist columnist David Atkins wrote an article for Washington Monthly in May of 2019 entitled “GOP Anti-Choice Zealots Threaten to Lurch America into a Cold Civil War”.  In a similar vein to the article Jack Dorsey retweeted, Atkins wrote the following:

 “Most talk of a “second Civil War” in America is little more than hot air… But there is a scenario that could divide blue states and red states from one another in ways unprecedented since the 1860s: the repeal of Roe v. Wade…

Republican legislators fully intend to criminalize abortion. They fully intend to jail women as murderers for taking control of their own bodies, to prosecute them for leaving the state for medical aid, to punish any doctor who attempts to help with a lifetime in jail. They really mean to do it—damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead…

Underground railroads would instantly develop in blue states to save women from their fates in red states. Blue states would implement sanctuary laws to prevent neighboring states from enforcing warrants. Tensions would escalate. While improbable, it’s not unthinkable that shots could be fired between the lawful officers of two separate American states over the prosecution of each state’s duly enacted laws

… the repeal of Roe v. Wade could divide the country not just culturally, but literally between the states in a more devastating way than anything else. The liberal states would ultimately prevail just as they did in 1865, but not before millions of women suffer horrific abuses and the country tears itself apart.”

Now keep in mind everything I have just quoted has been from Democrats, leftists and socialists recognizing the reality of the cold civil war going on in America and what could make it turn hot – mainly the reversal of Roe vs Wade which is the most sacred of all rights to the left in America.

Now we will turn to what some conservatives’ thinkers have been stating about the cold civil war in America.

In January of 2017 Dennis Prager wrote an article for the National Review entitled “America’s Second Civil War” where he stated the following:

It is time that our society acknowledge a sad truth: America is currently fighting its Second Civil War.

In fact, with the obvious and enormous exception of attitudes toward slavery, Americans are more divided morally, ideologically, and politically today than they were during the Civil War. For that reason, just as the Great War came to be known as the First World War once there was a Second World War, the Civil War will become known as the First Civil War when more Americans come to regard the current battle as the Second Civil War.

This Second Civil War, fortunately, differs in one other critically important way: It has thus far been largely non-violent. But given the increasing left-wing violence such as riots, the violent taking over of college presidents’ offices, and the illegal occupation of state capitols, non-violence is not guaranteed to be a permanent characteristic of the Second Civil War…

Just as in Western Europe, the Left in America seeks to erase America’s Judeo-Christian foundations…

Without any important value held in common, how can there be unity between Left and non-Left? Obviously, there cannot.

There will be unity only when the Left vanquishes the Right or the Right vanquishes the Left…”

In his article written for The Daily Signal entitled “Our ‘Cold Civil War’ Over 2 Constitutions”, Fred Lucas draws attention to the fact that those on the left and those on the right have different Constitutions:

“The United States is more than politically polarized amid a “cold civil war” over the meaning of the Constitution, constitutional scholar Charles Kesler said Tuesday…

Kesler outlined five possible ways to resolve the cold civil war.

One is to change the subject. Another is to change minds through persuasion, until one side wins. A third is a “reinvigorated federalism” that allows blue states and red states to address issues differently and coexist with minimal interference from the U.S. government. The others are more undesirable: secession or war.

“It’s possible we could agree to disagree in separate countries,” Kesler said. “Although that would be extremely difficult because succession, as we know from our history, leads to the fifth and final possibility—war.”

He described one Constitution, the original 1787 document as amended, as steeped in natural rights and limited government. This one, he said, is also the “conservatives’ Constitution.”

The other one is the “living Constitution,” or what he called “the liberals’ Constitution.”

And for my last quote I actually want to return to another leftist publication, the New Republic for what has recently transpired regarding second amendment rights.  The article was written by Matt Ford and it is entitled “Conservatives: We’ll Spill Blood to Keep Our Guns”.  Ford actually starts with a nice summary of the reaction of many conservatives, even moderate conservatives like Meghan McCain, to what he calls O’Rourke’s “modest proposal”:

“Last month, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke proposed a modest solution to the relentless tide of mass shootings: a mandatory buyback program for every AR-15 in the country. The View co-host Meghan McCain responded with a dire warning. “The AR-15 is by far the most popular gun in America, by far,” she told her fellow panelists. “I was just in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, if you’re talking about taking people’s guns from them, there’s going to be a lot of violence.”

Tucker Carlson echoed McCain’s blood-soaked sentiment on his Tuesday night broadcast. “So, this is—what you are calling for is civil war,” he said. “What you are calling for is an incitement to violence. It’s something I wouldn’t want to live here when that happened, would you? I’m serious.” Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative columnist, also warned of tragedy. “I know people who keep AR-15’s buried because they’re afraid one day the government might come for them,” he wrote on Twitter. “I know others who are stockpiling them. It is not a stretch to say there’d be violence if the [government] tried to confiscate them.

“There would be violence” neatly elides what’s actually being claimed: Some gun-rights activists would murder government officials who try to enforce a duly passed law. This isn’t an extreme viewpoint among such gun enthusiasts. If anything, it’s one of their central tenets…

“The Second Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz remarked during his presidential campaign in 2015. “It is a constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny—for the protection of liberty.” The implication then, as now, is that Americans can simply shoot their elected officials if they get out of hand.””

Differences in Beliefs Between Those on the Left and those on the Right

The Left does not believe our rights come from God but rather they come from the United Nations or in other words the World government.  And human rights as currently established by the United Nations are firmly based in a secular humanist worldview which stands in stark contrast to the Biblically based worldview of most of the American founders.

Leftists are globalists and would see themselves first as citizens of the world, and only secondarily as citizens of their nations.  They reject almost all immigration controls and believe people in the world should be able to move freely between different areas of the world.  They would like to see the concept of nations abolished to bring about a one world humanist government order.  Those on the right strongly believe in the concept of nations.  They believe the United States has the right to control who comes into the country and to do what is in the best interests of its citizens as opposed to the citizens of other countries.

Leftists believe that women have the right to kill their unborn children because the U.N. has declared the human beings are not persons until they are born.  Most on the Right believe that unborn human beings have the same right to life as those who are born.

Those on the Right believe they have a right to keep and bear arms to defend their families and their rights both from criminals as well as governments that overstep their authority.  Those on the Left reject the individual right to bear arms to defend one’s self, one’s family or to oppose a government which tramples the rights of its citizens.

Leftists believe marriage is between any two consenting adults, whether they be man or woman.  Most on the right, with the exception of some atheists and libertarians, believe marriage is between a man and woman.

Leftists believe there more than two genders, most on the right believe there are only two genders, male and female.

Leftists believe in socialism, which includes the government using its power of taxation to redistribute wealth from the rich and middle classes to the poor.  Those on the right believe that caring for the poor should be done by churches, other private charitable institutions and family members – it is not the job of government.  They believe the primary purpose of taxation should be to pay for government employee’s salaries, public infrastructure, police and other first responders and of course the military.

Leftists believe in social engineering, which involves forcibly planting one ethnic group of their citizens into an area that is predominantly occupied by another ethnic group of their citizens.  They also believe in forcibly planting lower class income groups into upper and middle-class neighborhoods through government subsidies and other housing schemes.  Those on the right believe local communities should listen to their local citizens as to how best to zone and conduct their communities. 

Leftists believe in a top down approach.  That society is best order from an all-powerful central government.  Those on the right believe in the bottom up approach to government.  They believe society is best managed on the local community level first, then state level and very few things should be managed at the federal level.   This is in keeping with the limited government approach of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The Coalitions Which Make up The Right and The Left

The American left is compromised a coalition of various humanist groups.  Those groups include humanist atheists, humanist Christians, humanist Jews, humanist Muslims, other humanist religious groups, labor unions, teachers’ unions, environmentalists, socialists, feminists, LGBTQ, the NAACP, Black Lives Matter, Antifa and moderate democrats.

While there are some disagreements between all these various groups on the left, there are far fewer differences between groups on the right than groups on the left.  This is because the left demands total conformity to the group think.  In other words, if say a feminist does not believe transgender women (men with gender dysphoria) should be able to compete in women’s events that feminist is roundly condemned by all the other leftist groups as “transphobic” and they are shamed until they come into conformity with the group think.  Or if a moderate democrat does not agree with all the demands of Black Lives Matter, they are labeled as a racist and forced to apologize and atone for their sin against another fellow leftist group.

The American right is comprised of a much looser set of groups than the humanist left.  The American right includes libertarians, naturalist atheists, conservatives, capitalists, traditionalists, conservative Catholics, evangelical Christians, Biblicist Christians, conservative Jews, conservative Muslims, other conservative religious groups, white supremacists, white nationalists and Christian nationalists.      

Unlike on the left, intergroup squabbles on the right are extremely common.  Those squabbles include differences on how to handle race relations, differences on gay marriage, other religious differences, foreign policy issues and a host of other issues.  And one of the biggest differences that those on the right have amongst each other is whether they agree or disagree with the President’s day to day statements or policy initiatives.

The Fronts in the Second American Civil War

Some of the major fronts in the ongoing American cold civil war include free speech, race relations, immigration, universal health care, gun rights, and LGTBQ rights.  A very recent addition is the COVID 19 situation. And who could forget the front that is centered around one man and that man is President Donald Trump.

On the free speech front, leftists were highly successful over the last half century in taking over the TV news and major New papers and then using this to curtail free speech and create a humanist news narrative.  At the same time, they had already begun dominating institutions of higher learning transforming them into humanist indoctrination centers while at the same time censoring conservative speech.   The left tried for decades to get American courts to restrict the free speech rights of those on the right and they failed.  So, if they could not get the government to restrict the speech of their opponents, they would turn to the means of communication in the modern age which is social media.  In recent years they have conspired with their leftist friends in social media and search companies to restrict and censor the speech of those on the right.

On the health care front, they came one step closer to their vision of government-controlled health care when they rammed through the Affordable Care act which they acknowledged was a stepping stone to single payer healthcare.

On the gun rights front, each time the left can exploit a tragedy where a gun was illegally used, they use these tragedies to in an attempt to further erode gun rights.  Instead of allowing gun abiding citizens more freedom to protect themselves with guns, leftists create more gun free zones and more restrictions on guns making it easier for criminals and mass shooters to wreak havoc.

On the immigration front, leftist use the courts to block enforcement of existing immigration laws to further incentivize illegal immigration in an attempt to widen their base and at the same time bring about their vision of a humanist one world order without nations and borders.  

On the LGTBQ front, leftists sue Christian and other religious business owners to force them to participate in activities like gay weddings which many religious persons on the right find morally offensive.   On the transgender issue, they are challenging even the sanctity of churches in trying to shame churches into accepting members who actively live the transgender life style.  Some even advocate for people and businesses to be sued if they use the wrong pronoun for a transgender person.

Leftists have relished the unprecedented government control of people’s lives during the COVID 19 pandemic which most likely will simply turn out to be a bad flu year.

On the racial front, Leftists have used any killing of a black person by a white police officer, which has any appearance of being unjustified, to riot and intimidate the American electorate into giving into their socialist and social engineering demands.

A Call to Conservative Christians to Get Involved

If you have read my article, the Case for Christian Nationalism, you know that I believe our founding fathers, while being well intentioned, left open a fatal flaw for secularists to eventually dominate our society and take our God given freedoms.  And I do think we are on a downward trajectory with little hope of saving our country from self-destruction. 

But as Christians we do not have the right to give up on our nation.

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not give up when they lived in cultures hostile to their people and to their God.  They stood their ground.   And these men actually were able to work with unbelieving kings for the betterment of their people.

Ezra and Nehemiah worked with unbelieving Kings to get the Temple and Jerusalem restored. 

Yet we have conservative, Bible believing Christians who refuse to vote for or support Donald Trump because they believe he lacks the character of a good Christian even though he has been more supportive of Christian causes than any Republican President in half a century.

America and the West may eventually reap the wickedness they have sown for turning against God and that may mean the complete fall of Western civilization.  But we as Christians cannot simply wash our hands of it and give up.

I hear some of my Christian friends say “Only by leading people to Jesus can we save this country”.  And it sounds nice and it sounds Christian.  But this is not a true statement.  Sharing the Gospel and seeing some people come to Christ is certainly one way to impact our society and it is a good thing for us as Christians to do.  But it is not the ONLY way.   

God works through unbelievers as well. He has done this in the past and he can do it now.  If we can join with other conservative religious groups that oppose abortion and LGBTQ initiatives why would we not do that?  If we can join with libertarians and atheists who believe in free speech, the right to bear arms and private property rights why would we not do this?  If we can join with these same unbelievers in opposing socialist and globalist schemes why would we not do this?

Please do not misunderstand what I am saying.  I am not calling for ecumenicalism.  But what I am saying is that we can seek to bring people to Christ while at the same time working with likeminded unbelievers who share our common political goals.  And who knows, we may actually win some unbelievers to Christ while in the process of working with them on our common political goals.