Blog #292 Why America is Dangerously Divided
Why America is as Divided as Ever
John Shoemaker, July, 2026
Over the last 60 years, it is clear that America is suffering from division.
Yet we were told “diversity” is our greatest strength. Not really.
The more diverse we get, the more disagreement, less cooperation, and greater frustration for all Americans get from broken patriotism.
We had race riots, recessions, the oil crisis, international conflicts like Granada and Panama, the Iran hostage crisis, extremist groups on the right and left, Y2K, and the big attack on 9-11, followed by wars in Iraq and the Middle East, and the emergence of China after Clinton’s terrible decision to support China entering the WTO. We entered the age of Globalism.
The ‘60s and ‘70s were traumatic. The Vietnam War was the most significant period of conflict in my life. The anti-war activists spent nearly a decade fighting our government. Cities were on fire, demonstrations were everywhere, and bombings and assassinations occurred at an alarming rate that made us wonder if the USA was breaking up. Was the end coming to the USA?
It didn’t happen. But we are entering a new phase even more dangerous.
Our Presidents
Aggravating all this in recent years were the Presidencies of Obama, Biden, and Trump.
Obama started the apology tour of the Middle East and apologizing for America’s “exceptionalism” which he rejected. Also, he brought more focus on racial discrimination and created a new awareness of racial problems that spiked to the surface with violence.
Then came Trump first term and his brash, insulting, brutally expressed view of his view of reality. Worse, the Democrat Party had launched, with Obama's direction, the great “Russia Hoax”. This was a nonstop maelstrom for 4 years of subversion by top Democrats, later revealed as the attempt to remove Trump, as he was the most hated politician in the last hundred years and labeled TDS or Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Soon, Trump was crippled by the COVID-19 virus, which we have learned was caused by a leak from a Chinese Lab in Wuhan that was conducting research with US funding and approved by Fauci. There was no understanding of how to stop an artificially created deadly virus, but Trump tried everything with his Warp Speed development of a vaccine.
Biden followed Trump and completely mishandled the management of the virus by removing various freedoms in our Constitution. Americans could not go to Church, shop, travel, and more. They were forced to wear masks and get virus shots or risk losing their jobs. With the revelations of the Wuhan mess and the unnecessary restrictions on people’s lives, the animosity grew.
Even worse, Biden opened the nation’s borders to all migrants without any vetting and then offered them a long list of free benefits that were excessive by any measure. Too many of the illegals were criminals escaping from other countries.
All of this has created a major decline in trust in our government and its institutions. That, in turn, has sparked a resurgence of the left, liberal progressives, which is morphing into full-force socialists and even communists/Leninists.
When Trump was re-elected, his brutal, careless insults were not helping. Fortunately, he immediately corrected with Executive Orders (EO’s) all the perceived mistakes of the Biden/Obama administrations, which were really nothing more than anticapitalist and rejected the idea of American exceptionalism. He returned the focus to ending Globalism and returning manufacturing to the U.S., and tax reductions, while instituting massive tariffs. It was all intended to spike the economy. It was also revealed that many illegals were setting up massive fraudulent organizations across many states that stole hundreds of billions (BILLIONS) of taxpayer money: from Medicare, Medicaid, welfare programs, Education and via numerous NGOs. Fraud is at astronomical levels that strains our conceivability. Looking at theft/robberies in the history of the U.S., none come close to the billions stolen over the past dozen years with near apathy and tolerance by authorities.
At the same time, the Democrat Party became splintered with extreme leftists/progressives and even Leninists/Communists and Muslims joining to create major divisions. They especially don’t accept Trump’s use of ICE to remove illegals. They need all the illegals as they are new voters, which will help create a one-party system.
Although hard to believe, left, liberal progressive socialists, by their own words, actually HATE America. To many Americans, it seems they are just a small collection of extreme nuts, crazies, losers.
That would be a mistake.
Aggravating these events during Trump’s administration was his decisive action to destroy Iran’s nuclear bomb facilities with a premeditated attack that has resulted in a new war that has lasted five months and counting.
The war gives activists across the country more ammo to create chaos.
Feeding all of this is the Hamas attack on Israel and the perception that Israel has over-reacted with fury to the point of genocide.
Our education system, especially in our colleges and universities, has gone extremely liberal in affecting our youth’s political positions. Campus unrest has been terrible.
Interestingly, it seems the extreme left is not focused on solutions for society but is targeting individuals with hatred. Trump, Charlie Kirk, members of SCOTUS, Congress, Military, police, and those who are in the public domain that do not blindly support the extreme left movement are targets. This targeted hate gets media attention and grows support even as they have illogical, destructive - some would say insane - approaches with a flawed ideology.
Out of all this is the growth of antisemitism and even anti-Christendom. Many democratic socialists and leftists are atheists. There is no tolerance for religion or free speech. For years, Jews supported the Black community as they were considered oppressed. Even with the growth of Islam in the US and the number of Muslims in the Democrat Party, Jews did not change their political views. 30% of Jews in NYC voted for the Muslim Mayor Mamdani.
Now it becomes more evident that the Democrats have sacrificed the Jewish community and taken a strong position against Israel. It has even divided the Jewish community with those who support Israel and those who have rejected Israel. Little do they understand they actually funded and supported the growth of antisemitism in the extreme left liberal ranks.
In any event, antisemitism is spiking high. Synagogues and Churches burn; Mamdani supports rent control, a variety of higher taxes, government-owned grocery stores and businesses, fewer police, free welfare, against Charter Schools, anti-ICE and pro-illegal immigrants, new regulations, and supports reparations.
We also know that while the extreme Right was responsible for violence in the past, that has changed with the left, liberal activists resorting to frequent violence, including violent protests, assassination attempts, murders, and other crimes. The media does not focus on that fact.
Consequences
All of this has created havoc within our society. It will get worse.
The rise of the official DSA (Democrat Socialists of America), combined with hard core socialists and communists, will demand what are normally considered insane options to include removal of the Senate, subservience of SCOTUS to the House, re-writing the Constitution or replacing it entirely, defunding our Departments of War, Homeland Security, FBI, ICE, CIA, along with other government organizations, especially police, and even closing prisons.
The ultimate test for the concepts of our Founding Fathers will be whether Trump can work his way out of war, reduce the cost of oil/gas, reduce inflation, increase wages, and retain capitalism and free markets as the basis of the America’s economy, supports the American Dream.
Aggravating Trump’s efforts is the continued increase in the National Debt. It is egregious. At stake is reliance on the idea that growth will increase Federal revenue, which will help reduce budget deficits and the National debt. This is not happening yet. Trump must bring renewed belief in the American dream.
On the other hand, Trump’s war with Iran could end up with an epic change that a dozen Presidencies could not achieve: No nuclear Iran, Peace in the Middle East, new business opportunities between the U.S. and almost all the Arab nations with agreement on the Abraham Accords, and crippled militant organizations of the IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and ISIS.
America must decide
+ Do we want Capitalism over Socialism/Communism? Free Markets over Collectivism (government control)? Private Property Rights over Rent Control?
+ Do we want law enforcement to bring accountability to criminals rather than empty the prisons and treat criminals as victims?
+ Do we believe that Democrat Socialism is the answer to deliver on the American Dream?
+ Do we believe Globalism helps America with economic growth, jobs, and wages?
+ Do we believe that Iran would not use the nuclear bomb or Ballistic missiles if they were able to develop them? (Knowing that they have proven they have ballistic missiles with a range of over 2,500 miles and have attacked virtually all their Arab neighbors.)
+ Do we value the precepts of our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Justice System?
+ Is it worth Trump’s effort in the Middle East or do we walk away?
+ Who will you trust?
Postscript:
From the Washington Free Beacon…by Ruth R Wisse
“The more Jews aligned with liberal causes, foremost among them equal rights for black Americans, the more black militants singled out the Jews as the archetypal white oppressor. The more Jewish women powered the feminist movement, the more its activists joined the attacks on Israel. Jews who encouraged asylum seekers and immigration from repressive societies ended up swelling the intersectional ranks of the anti-Jewish grievance brigades. Their affinity with the Left made it harder for Jews to confront the emergence of anti-Zionism, which is the leftist form of antisemitism.”
The rise of progressive and DSA candidates has inevitably led to a rise in antisemitism, and with it a growing quandary for liberal Jewish Americans. How we got here is the subject of Batya Ungar-Sargon’s new book, The Jews and the Left. And who better than Harvard professor and Yiddish scholar Ruth R. Wisse to give us a review?
“The many strands of anticapitalist, anticolonialist, Orientalist, and other critiques of America come together in common opposition to Jews, now mostly in Israel. As she exposes the ideologies and promoters of the anti-Jewish alliance, the author punctuates her rebuttal with frustrated cries of ‘totally false’ and ‘They are simply wrong.’ Having shown why American Jews became Democrats in the first place, and how they were then betrayed by former allies, she invites her fellow Jews to speak out as she has done, ‘not as Republicans’ but as proud Americans.”