When this country was divided by the Civil War in the 1860s, it was because of secession by the southern states and the formation of the Confederacy. Although slavery was the catalyst for this disruption, it was the northern states wanting to preserve the Union that precipitated the conflict. When the war came to a close, most vowed to never let it happen again. For the last 150+ years, that vow has held true.

With each passing day, the divide in this country seems to become wider. It is difficult to know when this divide started. Some would claim it has always been there with discrimination against blacks. Even after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the California Watt’s riots in 1965, the breakdown in civil control after the Chicago Bull’s won the basketball championship in 1992, the riots in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 and Baltimore in 2015 and the horrendous Chicago crime rate, all demonstrate unrest in the black community. Topping it off was Colin Kaepernick wearing anti-police ‘pig’ socks and kneeling during the National Anthem at an NFL practice game in August 2016.

This long history of unrest in the black community continued even under a black President.  Then Obama’s Party tried to alter the outcome of the election of the president that followed him.  This seething of unrest has finally brought this country to the edge.

Looking into the current status as to individuals who might be playing an integral part as to why the dialogue is getting more hostile, two individuals, one from each end of the political spectrum, come to mind.

The first is Maxine Waters. The congressional Democrat from California, not only continues to call for President Trump’s impeachment, but she has encouraged, ‘to get in peoples’ faces who work as part of Trump’s administrative staff.  “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Clearly, this is a call by her for obstruction that could threaten bodily harm and violation of their Constitutional rights.

The Democratic leadership has called for her to back off for fear that she will cause more loss of votes for the Party, but so far, she has failed to do so. Why does she continue to get away with this threatening rhetoric? Because she is a Democrat and she is a black, female. Imagine if a white, Republican male called for the same approach to those in President Obama’s administration.

The second instigator is former Senator, and now Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. By continuing to recuse himself from the Russia collusion investigation and allowing Rob Rosenstein to act as his replacement, Sessions has essentially paralyzed this country. First, is by allowing Mueller to drag out his investigation and go into areas that have nothing to do with the special prosecutor’s original charge. Second, is by not addressing the many possible violations by the Clinton campaign, the DNC and the Clinton Foundation.

Both polarize the country even further. However, Waters is more dangerous from an obstruction perspective, leading to possible charges of assault and even battery if physical harm ensues. Examples are Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Ted Cruz being hounded out of restaurants by dissenters of Trump. The rancor of the debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee over Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court is another.

Getting through the midterms should dampen the acuteness of the differences.  They will still exist, but unless civility is restored, it will only worsen once again.

Will this division become as deadly as it was in the 1860s? Probably not! But it appears to be equally as divisive!