Why wedge politicians deserve to fail

We are all different. If we were not, it would be impossible to recognize people we know, including our close friends and relatives. Sometimes we don’t like people who are different, whose beliefs differ from ours, or whose behavior we find objectionable. But we can tolerate people we don’t especially like, and we need to encourage tolerance. Nine countries have nuclear weapons, and additional countries are striving to acquire nuclear arsenals. We humans have the technical skills to destroy ourselves. Whether we have the political skills to preserve our societies is an unanswered question.

Some U.S. politicians are now pounding political wedge issues, dividing Americans. Unity is desirable in times of stress. The human population of earth has increased from 2 billion people to 8 billion in one century. Natural resources have not increased. During that same time span, technical complexity has increased enormously. We may be altering the climate of the planet. Large populations around the world are coming of age, especially China and India. They want their share of the wealth and influence. The United States has only 4% of the world’s population. We need to be a unified 4% to survive and thrive.

During World War II, the British obtained a copy of the secret code the Germans used to send instructions to their naval and army forces. The code appeared to be unbreakable, but the British established an organization to attempt to break the German code. They recruited Alan Turing, a mathematical genius. Turing developed the design for digital computers. The British used the Turing machine to break the German secret code. In the words of City College of New York theoretical physicist, Professor Michio Kaku, “Today, every computer on earth owes its architecture to the Turing machine.” According to British history professor Harry Hinsley, the Turing machine shortened the war by about two years and saved 14 million lives. Alan Turing was gay.

The U.S. government sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804. The purpose was to find a northern route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark were accompanied by a Native American woman who gave birth during the difficult journey. She was their language translator, negotiator, and insurance policy. The presence of a woman and baby assured the Indigenous people they encountered that the Lewis and Clark group were not hostile. She occasionally acted as a guide identifying a pass across the Rocky Mountains that eventually became the route for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Immigrants from Europe, the ancestors of some of us, forcefully displaced the Native Americans and took their land. Mass immigration has been a contentious issue throughout recorded history, sometimes driven by famine, other times by persecution of minorities, by violent conflict or failed governance. That isn’t going to change.

Our military services depend on contributions of Black American military personnel. Our military services are competently led. They don’t need any guidance from politicians attempting to sell “wokeness.” Attempts to prevent the teaching of America’s history of racial discrimination since the end of slavery 158 years ago will fail, and the politicians who are using this wedge issue deserve to fail.

Abortion can be traced to the earliest recorded human history. Sex and abortion are facts of biology that will not be successfully regulated by ambitious politicians.

We have many differences. Life would be dull if we did not have differences, but cooperation and teamwork are the best societal life insurance policies in an age of stress, competition, and probable conflict. 

Jack Stevenson is a retired infantry officer, civil service and private corporation employee who now reads history, follows issues important to Americans, and writes commentary from his home in Pensacola, Florida.