My good friend Darius Mayfield, Congressional candidate for CD-12, has a saying for his campaign; “Not Black, Not White – American.” The brilliance of that simple credo holds the answer to the perennial question as to how a deeply divided nation can become united once and for all.
Anyone who serves in elected office is quickly confronted by endless special interest groups representing just about every category imaginable. There are groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual preference, education, athletics, art, environment, and on and on. Each views its focus as of the utmost importance, however, does that mean the rest of the world must feel the same way? The answer is, of course, no. Therein lies the problem, particularly in a country as vast and diverse as ours.
The United States has often been described as “a polyglot nation teeming with nations” with virtually every place on earth represented within our borders. This unprecedented experiment in nation building has worked so well for over two centuries because no matter where you came from, what language you spoke and what you believed, you were first and foremost, an American. This attitude is what united the country to win a war of independence, survive a civil war, emerge victorious in two world wars and right social wrongs of the past to make ours, the most coveted nation on earth.
However, the polarization of the country resulting in large part from “identity politics” is threatening to do what our external enemies have been unable to do in 246 years. When special interest groups become greater than the whole, it endangers all of us.
One of the basic tenets of our American system is embodied in the “equal protection under the law” clause of the Constitution. Identity politics threatens this in every respect. When exclusive groups begin demanding certain accommodations, it opens the door to other groups asking, “what about us?” There aren’t enough days in the year for every group to have its own day, nor enough feet in a flagpole to fly every flag. The solution, then is really quite simple – celebrate our great diversity under the unifying symbol known throughout the world; America and its magnificent flag. This way, no one is excluded, no one is treated differently and everyone can feel that they are an equal part.
It seems after years of slowly coming together as one, the country is regressing into a state where “groupthink” based on identity is supplanting the “all for one spirit” of patriotism and pride in being an American. We cannot allow that to happen. The only hope our enemies have is for America to become fractured into a non-cohesive, bickering amalgam of self-centered little cultural units, with no regard for the greater good of the country as a whole. We have come too far and sacrificed too many American lives building and protecting our country to allow the toxic divisiveness of identity politics to ruin this great nation for future generations.
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Gerry Scharfenberger, PhD. is a New Jersey Assemblyman representing the State’s 13th Legislative District.
