Another Civil War?

Another Civil War? Charles Sumner said that “True politics are simple morals applied to public affairs.” He stood against the immorality of slavery. The South upheld it. Today the liberal left and conservative right see America through two completely different moral lenses. Are we heading for another Civil War? Before the Civil War, Ralph Waldo Emerson said the two sections of this country no longer spoke the same language, shared the same moral code, or obeyed the same law. He gravely declared, “I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.” Are we not again at a moral crossroad? Left vs. Right? Red vs. Blue. Liberal vs. Conservative? The slaveholding South prior to the Civil War applauded the caning of Sen. Charles Sumner. A senator from Mississippi announced that “slavery is a great moral, social, and political blessing - a blessing to the slave, and a blessing to the master.” In contrast, abolitionists from the North condemned Sumner’s caning. Americans faced a choice between Northern civilization and Southern barbarism. Sumner knew that appeasement to slaveholders was impossible. Concessions to placate the South failed. They demoralized the forces of freedom in the North. Slaveholders remained insatiable. The same reality governs politics today. The late Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher reminds that consensus is not leadership. When necessary the moral battle must be fought to win.