Recently, much has been said and written about the divisions that we have in our country today. This led me to ponder the various dividing points that separate the 15,000 people who live here in our new home of River Falls.
Ironically, a street named Division is a major axis in River Falls. Main Street parallels the Kinnickinnic River and forms the primary artery on a north-to-south line. The east-west running street of Division, however, doesn’t bisect the town evenly into rectangular-grid quadrants, as the name might indicate. Instead, it is on the north edge of town, separating one of the newer sections from the older section. It gets its name, I would guess from the fact that it forms the border between Pierce County and St. Croix County. That’s right: people on one side of Division Street in River Falls live in one county, while those on the other side reside in a different one. St. Croix County hugs the river that gives it its name and straddles I-94 before it crosses over into the Twin Cities. We live in Pierce County, which is predominantly rural and contains about half as many people as its northern neighbor. It also borders the St. Croix River, but, with no major bridge crossing into Minnesota, it has less traffic and a slower pace of life. Aside from the fact that certain government services are centered in one county or the other, this county division is insignificant and appears only on maps. In fact, I have never even seen a sign saying that you are leaving one county or entering the next.
As in most places, sports rivalries play a big role up here. Growing up in Chicago, I know that the Cubs-White Sox rift is the most pronounced division in terms of sports in that town. While loyalty to the Bears, Blackhawks, or Bulls tends to unify Chicagoans, most would agree that, if you have any integrity at all, you can only support one of the two major-league baseball teams. River Falls is only about 25-30 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul, but, in terms of sports loyalties, it seems to be more a part of Wisconsin than Minnesota. Packers’ fans appear to outnumber Vikings fans by a significant measure, and Wisconsin Badger supporters are more numerous than those of the Minnesota Gophers. However, in baseball, my purely unscientific and impressionistic estimate gives the nod to the Twins over Milwaukee’s Brewers.
There are other divisions that are unique to this town. For instance, living in a cold climate such as this, people take their windows seriously. Fights can break out between those who favor Pella windows over those who swear by windows made by Anderson. A local political controversy revolved around the two dams on the Kinnickinnic River. Some thought they should be should be destroyed and the falls should be restored to their natural state, while others argued that the dams, built in 1904, should remain in place. Just last year, it was decided that the dams will come down in stages over the next few years, but “Free the Kinni” signs can still be seen in windows around town.
More familiar political divisions are, of course, present in River Falls as well. Wisconsin, with its ten electoral votes is definitely one of the battleground states this year, having voted Republican in 2016 by only .77 of one percent. River Falls seems to be in a “purple” region of the state, being evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. The presence of a university in town means that many people are college-educated and lean toward moderate and progressive candidates. The area around the town, though, is rural and more conservative. As a result, a large number of people support Donald Trump, while a similar number of people tend to support democracy, equality, and the Constitution instead. For our part, Kathleen and I are delighted to finally live in a state in which our vote will mean something. For years, it was depressing watching Tennessee elections called on TV about twenty seconds after the polls closed.
The rigid political divisions that plague our nation today can be traced to three developments a few decades ago. In 1988, Rush Limbaugh began his syndicated talk-radio program that is still on the air. From the beginning, his programs were marked by vitriol, racism, and fear- mongering. He also created the myth that he alone told the truth about politics, and that no other news sources could be trusted. He gained a huge audience among conservatives who wanted to believe that anyone who differed from their viewpoint was part of a left-wing conspiracy or bias. Then, in 1994, as part of his “Contract with America,” newly elected Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich issued a memo to all Republican senators and representatives. The memo indicated that any person who crossed the aisle and voted for Democratic-sponsored bills would essentially be ostracized from the Republican Party and cut off from all party support. Within the next decade, Democratic congressmen responded with similar partisan tactics, and gridlock has resulted. Recent studies on the political logjam in Congress have all pointed to Gingrich’s time as Speaker as a key factor in creating the obstructionist politics and polarization that are such a problem today. Finally, in 1996, Fox News Channel began their one-sided broadcasts. The powerful network routinely ignores facts in order to put a right-wing spin on all events and has evolved into much more a source of opinions than an actual news channel. Today, there are half-a-dozen legitimate news sources available on television, and yet millions of people get a twisted, disingenuous, and misleading form of the news from Fox. In terms of division, these three events have had an impact on this country that have altered Fox’s slogan of “We report, you decide,” to a more accurate “We distort, you divide.”
Then, this week, former Secretary of Defense, retired Marine General James Mattis, a man who has spent his entire professional career staying apolitical and above the fray, issued a statement that urged Americans to unite without expecting leadership to come from the Oval Office. He wrote, “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.” These powerful words from a highly respected figure have been echoed in ensuing days by other military leaders, disillusioned Republicans, and former presidents from both parties. Even the intellectual voice of Conservatism for the past several decades, George Will, expressed his hope that the GOP will lose the coming election in order to awaken the party from the Trump-induced stupor into which it has fallen. His harshest words were reserved for the Republicans in the Senate who abandoned all sense of responsibility to the Constitution in their “Vichyite collaboration” with “this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath.” I usually disagree with much of what Will has to say, but the man can certainly write, and he always makes me think and question my assumptions.
I will wrap up this entry by pointing out that, in River Falls, the east-west road next to and parallel to Division is called Union Street. I sincerely hope that we as a nation can manage to traverse that half-block and find our way from Division to Union in the near future.