The Divided States of America

It’s 3am. I can’t sleep. I haven’t slept properly in weeks. I fall asleep at 11pm, and I’m wide awake at 2am, mind racing, with no chance of going back to sleep. And so, I wander the hallways of my mind.

i.e. — I go on Facebook.

I’ve never been one to worry about the economy, or the environment, or the state of affairs in Bangalahara. Then again, I’ve never had a family before.

On Nov 8th, 2016, Donald Trump won the presidency of the United States of America. I didn’t vote for him. I didn’t vote for Hillary either. I voted for the guy with the bad haircut that couldn’t name one world leader. That’s how bad it had become. When Trump won, half the country lost its’ collective mind. People were literally marching in the street to protest. There were all these comments and rhetoric about our impending doom. The news media wasn’t above fanning the flames of discontent either.

But wait. I’ve heard this before.

Oh yeah. 2008. A man named Barack Hussein Obama was elected President. Half the country lost its’ collective minds. There were cries of “socialist” and “closet Muslim” and all kinds of bigotry. There was talk of the impending apocalypse. On the other side, anyone who disagreed with him was labelled a racist.

I didn’t vote for Barack Obama. Either time. I thought he was too inexperienced and too left wing to be a effective president. The country was in turmoil and the economy was collapsing and I didn’t think that a guy whose only real job was a Law Professor could handle the situation.
I was wrong.
He handled it fine. He managed to stop the bleeding, and allowed the country to get to its collective feet and recover. Were there mistakes along the way? Sure. Lots of them. Too many to mention. The Obamacare debacle being the highlight of the missteps. Do I think we’re in a better place than we were 8 years ago? Absolutely. Do I think we’re out of the woods? Not a chance.

And that brings us to 2016. I’m not going to litigate the election results, but for all intents, it was a tie. 60 plus Million voted for Hillary. 60 Plus million voted for Trump.

And 80 million didn't vote at all.
Think about that for a minute.
If that’s not a divided nation, then I don’t know what is.

On January 20th, 2017, 1.5 Gazillion people took time out of the lives and went to the nations capital to celebrate the inauguration of the nation’s 45th president. The next day, an equal amount of people went to D.C. to protest the election of that same individual. We’ve had disputed elections before. We’ve had hatred and vitriol towards our president. We’ve had vicious attacks from the media towards our former presidents; some which continue as we speak. (Are they ever going to stop talking about Bush and Clinton?)
But never in my life have I seen so many people mobilized to protest an incoming president. Have You?

The next day, my Facebook post read:
“And on the 20th day of the year 2017, the 2nd American Civil War began…”

But this article isn’t about Trump.
It’s about me and you.

Back in 2006, I got an e-mail invite from a friend to join social network called Facebook. I wasn’t really part of any social medium at the time, and I was slow to get involved in Facebook as well, but over time, I grew to like it. It was a tool, and like any tool, it could be used or misused. That was totally up to the user. I used it to re-connect with family and friends that I hadn’t seen in years. I met new friends, and in some ways, I courted my wife on Facebook. I was also able to use the medium to promote my two self-published books.
(Not so shameless plug)
It was a great tool.
But lately, it has turned ugly.
I’ve seen nastiness and vulgarity that I hadn’t seen on there before. I’ve seen fights, and threats, and friendships implode.
I had one 20-year friend block me the day before the election.
(Truth be told, he was an asshole all along, but that’s not the point.)
I’m not the only one. Lately, I’ve been embroiled in several battles with people who are marginally my friends. And despite the mountain of evidence that I present proving that I’m always right, I still can’t change their minds.
How stupid are these people?

Yes, you read that right.
I, Jim McAllen -
High school dropout…
GED recipient…
47 credits towards a useless English degree…
has all the answers to the world’s problems.
Just ask me.

Evidently, I’m not the only one, because I never find a shortage of people to tell me I’m wrong. I’ve also been called everything from a Left-Wing Libtard to a Right-Wing Nazi. I wasn’t aware that you could be both, but that’s ok. I’ll get over it.

My wife has said that if I make one more political post, she’s going to block me. I don’t doubt her.

I fear for my country. In the past few years we’ve seen an increasing amount of skirmishes and violence not seen since the tumultuous 60’s. It hasn’t reached the level of Watts or Newark, but I think it’s coming. Funny thing is, my friends on the right and the left think so too. It might be the only thing we all agree on.

I’m not usually prone to alarmism, but I don’t see this turning out well. I was wrong about Obama. I thought he would wind up being the Captain of the Titanic. Maybe I’ll be wrong about Trump too. Maybe his business ideas will create a level of prosperity that this country has never seen. Maybe people will be so buoyed by his success, that we will forget about our minor differences and come together as the family that we were meant to be.

Yeah, I don’t think so either.

We’ve divided in so many ways, I can’t begin to count them all -
Racially, economically, politically.
Guns.
Abortion.
Isis and the Middle East.
Climate Change.
Russia.
China (Gyna)

Hell, I can’t think of anything we agree on.

People were talking about impeachment before the guy took the oath of office. I’ve never imagined anything like that could happen before. To make matters worse, if Hillary had won, I believe we’d be saying the exact same thing.

This country has been looking for a political messiah for quite some time. Barry wasn’t it. Neither is Donnie. At some point it time, it’s going to get ugly. At some point in time there is going to be blood in the streets on a level that we haven’t seen in quite some time. At some point in time, someone in a place of influence is going to utter the word, secession.

Sure, maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so.
I have an answer to every single problem the world has faced.
Except this one…