Part 1 Section 3 – MORE PERFECT UNION – United We Stand Divided We Fall
The first phrase in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution is, “…in order to form a more perfect union….” Our nation’s founders put that purpose first because they knew national unity was the required condition for their newly-born constitutional democracy to survive.
In this chapter, the theme, “United We Stand, Divided We Fall,” is explored. There are many reasons for our national divisions today. We immediately can think of the great chasm between the employed and unemployed. There is a Grand Canyon between around 1-5% of our wealthiest citizens and the other 99-95% of the rest of us. Yet this fact, fundamentally serious as it is, is just one economic cause. This discussion focuses on the following points:
- The ancient wisdom of the “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” concept
- Divisive tactics of media personalities and programs
- Division among our nation’s citizens due to our cultural traditions
- Families divided among themselves by divorce
- Persons divided within themselves from divorce and its teachings
- Divisions created among citizens by their Federal Government–bad laws passed by Congress, bad majority rulings by the Supreme Court, and a bad pardon by one President
- Discussions of two federal laws–against sedition and seditious conspiracy–which are citizens divided against their own government’s rightful authority
- Those discussions are applied to some hotly divisive issues in our history–
- Tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans
- Deregulation of banking and finance
- The election of George W. Bush, aided by the Supreme Court
- The pardon of Richard Nixon, by his successor, Gerald Ford
- Finally, the chapter closes with encouragement for Americans to unite, since national unity truly is our only options for the survival of our constitutional democracy, if we are to avoid crises that lead us to despotism