@Smokin Joe
Sadly,I have no faith in it happening because the professional criminal class we call "politicians" gain and retain power by playing "divide and conquer" and keeping us divided into opposing camps. That's how they keep people excited about politics,and the excitement is what draws in the free workers and the campaign contributions.
Also,most people today seem to be incapable of seeing much past their noses,and no matter how obvious the pols get with their games,the public just can't see they are being played.
"Forgive and Forget" doesn't seem to be on anyone's agenda,but we either learn to do it,or our children and our children's children will still be killing each other for what was done to our great grandparents.
I have no idea why more people can't seem to understand something this simple.
I get it. Division is the force which allows power to be amassed and maintained.
There is always a slightly larger group (or aggregate of groups) whose interests can be parlayed into animosity toward the others and that can be translated to political power or an excuse to consolidate that power.
Even the states are composed of regions which will naturally be at odds with each other's interests, virtually guaranteeing the divisions of aggrieved parties, and failing that, other divisions can be manufactured by creating or exhuming grievances along which people can be divided.
Greed, envy, and jealousy will be used to the fullest to maintain the grievances.
In order to have a functional Republic, power must be disseminated at a low enough level that the people can live as they choose, while retaining the common cause that that power not be gathered so far up the chain of authority that those differences become a bone of contention. Those truly mutually beneficial issues can be dealt with at the top, but they are few indeed.
(The Founders understood this and confined them to providing for the mutual defense, settling differences between the States, providing a standard medium of exchange, keeping lines of communications open (post roads), and gathering enough funds to do just that. The rest was to be decided at lower levels of Government, more locally, or by the individual. Rights which were sacrosanct were spelled out, but not limited to those, the power of government narrowly defined and limited.)
The essential common cause for those who wish to live in a Republic is to maintain a distribution of power that will permit others to live as they want, without coming into conflict with their fellow citizens, to facilitate maintaining the Rights of all.
Obviously, that only works to a point, but if government does not have the power over the individual to cause deep seated resentment of others at a group vs group level, a Republic can be maintained. Usurping that power is the first step down a different road, and this was done long ago. The vast majority of decisions will be local in a Republic, central control is NOT the hallmark thereof.
Keeping large groups at odds will cause people to demand power be relinquished and centralized in order to get their way. That demand will face resistance, and in the most egregious instance These United States went to war over the idea, and The United States emerged. The die was cast from there.
We don't always agree, and have occasionally spirited discussions as a result. But at the same time, we can focus on the other objectives and work together to achieve those, despite our differences.
