Harlan Ullman<\/p>\n
The national motto of E PLURIBUS UNUM is \u201cFrom Many, One,\u201d denoting how the separate thirteen colonies were bound into one nation. Yet, the fierce divisions today from abortion to zoonotic transmission of Covid-19, if unchecked, could reverse E PLURIBUS UNUM into E UNUM PLURIBUS for \u201cFrom One, Many.\u201d
\nHuge divisions always existed from 1775 when a majority of colonists in America preferred to remain under the Crown to the Civil War, in which more of us died than in every war the nation would fight. Washington\u2019s foreign policy pragmatism and Wilson\u2019s idealism have persistently clashed. The US was divided before entering two world wars.
\nBut is 2023 dramatically different from the past? Has the country become so divided not by the geography of the Mason-Dixon Line but by other powerful forces to make it politically ungovernable and disunited on a national level? Or is pessimism unjustified?
\nOne reason for worry emanates from the dramatic decline of the legitimacy and perceived trustworthiness of too many of America\u2019s most important institutions including government; law and law enforcement; media; health care; the clergy; culture; and education. Even the US military is no longer well-regarded by the public.
\nOne important data point: In 1964, just prior to the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and America\u2019s entry into Vietnam based on an attack that never happened, the Gallup Poll reported that about 85 per cent of the public believed and trusted its government in Washington. Today, that figure is reversed. Less than one in six Americans trust Washington to do the \u201cright thing.\u201d
\nNo counterforce or movement is apparent to lessen the extent and depth of these divides. Hence, is or how much is E PLURIBUS UNUM at risk?
\nThe current and possible future indictments of Donald Trump could accelerate the danger of \u201cFrom One, Many\u201d in part by raising grave uncertainties about the resilience of the political system to absorb these shocks. Too many politicians and pundits have pontificated on the New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg\u2019s decision to indict Mr Trump with no knowledge of the charges. Whether outbreaks of violence and rioting follow, the possible implications are politically profound and the unknowns unknowable.
\nSuppose indictments over the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill; federal and state investigations over alleged election rigging in Georgia; and possession and possible obstruction of justice in keeping highly classified documents in unsecured and unauthorized storage at Mar a Lago are filed? Suppose Trump was acquitted? Would that end the controversies and some of the divisions or exacerbate them?
\nSuppose Trump is convicted on one or more counts. Would a former president be sentenced to jail; house arrest or not at all? If the former, would the Secret Service protect him behind bars? And house arrest at Mar a Lago would not seem much of a punishment.
\nSuppose Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination and wins. Can he issue a self-pardon? Suppose he runs and loses? Would the next president follow President Gerald Ford\u2019s example in pardoning Richard Nixon? Or would Trump be required to serve whatever sentences that may be adjudicated?
\nAn appeal process could take years. These currently unanswerable questions intensify the uncertainties. And these legal proceedings will damage America\u2019s international influence and standing. How? No one can be sure. But each adds to this sense of pessimism.
\nChina\u2019s Paramount Leader Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will do their utmost to exploit what is happening in America as will leaders in North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and elsewhere. Relations with China only seem to worsen. Taiwan\u2019s President Tsai Ing-wen\u2019s meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Reagan Library in California will inflame Beijing even more.
\nChina\u2019s media is pounding out stories about mass school shootings in America; drug epidemics; and other signs of a failing country. Russian trolls are following suit. It would be naive to think otherwise given the 2024 elections.
\nIf Kyiv does launch a major offensive, the war in Ukraine could enter a new and potentially dangerous escalatory phase if Russian forces are driven from part or all of Crimea. Should Putin deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus, the spectre of their use cannot be disregarded. All this contributes to growing pessimism.
\nOf course, the US has always recovered from the most difficult of times. One can argue that Donald Trump\u2019s indictment is little different from four impeachments of three past presidents; the trial for treason of Vice President Aaron Burr; and Nixon\u2019s forced resignation over Watergate. So don\u2019t rush to judgment. Perhaps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harlan Ullman The national motto of E PLURIBUS UNUM is \u201cFrom Many, One,\u201d denoting how the separate thirteen colonies were bound into one nation. Yet, the fierce divisions today from abortion to zoonotic transmission of Covid-19, if unchecked, could reverse E PLURIBUS UNUM into E UNUM PLURIBUS for \u201cFrom One, Many.\u201d Huge divisions always existed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12499,1915],"class_list":{"0":"post-325074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-e-unum-pluribus","8":"tag-harlan-ullman"},"yoast_head":"\n