Watching the coverage of the violence in Chicago inside and outside of a Donald Trump rally, I am reassured of a thing I’ve known for a long time. There is no hope for peace in America.
It’s so obvious I almost feel stupid mentioning it. Strangely though, there are still people in this world who think there is some hope for a hyperinclusive mass democracy in which hundreds of millions of people with diverse interests, philosophies, religious, racial, and ethnic backgrounds live under a singular system of government. A system of government which rules over every aspect of their lives, projects its power over the entire planet, recognizes no restrictions on its powers, and bankrupts, imprisons, or murders anyone who dares to defy it.
Even more absurdly – and perhaps they aren’t even worth mentioning, but given the audience of this blog I should briefly note – there are actually people in this world who think we’ll all undergo some mass awakening or “paradigm shift” where we peacefully shrug off the chains of democracy and live in a stateless utopia. To their credit, they are no crazier than your average Democrat, but that’s far from a ringing endorsement of their ideology.
Here is the simple reality we are met with, and it is perhaps the one and only thing left and right should be able to agree on. We cannot peacefully coexist under the same system of government. There may be some legitimate debate about whether any people can live together in peace under any system of government, but there is no room for debate about the American left and the American right living together in peace any longer. We have worldviews that are violently at odds with one another, and for one to compel the other to live under their rule is so inhumane we can expect nothing other than violence as a result.