An ongoing principle of America's democratic republic is e pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
We honor and respect the uniqueness of every citizen. But we also have a common turf, a common set of transcendent values, that brings us together and we become one nation.
Sometimes, cracks appear. Sometimes, they grow and get larger and deeper. Things get dangerous when the cracks so severely deepen that they threaten to totally sever our common turf and our social cohesion.
Generally, the cracks reflect erosion of agreement about the nature of the core principles that hold us together.
We have arrived at the brink numerous times. But only once, the Civil War, did we cross it. Our principles were challenged over the question of slavery. It took the blood of individuals to heal the wounds of the nation.
For sure, I am not predicting civil violence in our country. But our common turf, our social reality, is clearly deeply, deeply frayed as there is increasing disagreement about our social reality, about the ideas and principles that bind us together and define us as a nation.
Nothing is more illustrative of what's happening than President Donald Trump's executive order, signed on day one of his presidency, to terminate "diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) discrimination in the federal workforce and in federal contracting and spending." The order says that it is the "most important federal civil rights measure in decades."
Trump's anti-DEI order revokes President Joe Biden's DEI executive order, issued on his first day in office, which imposed DEI throughout the federal government in the name of "advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity."
Two presidents, two parties both use the language of civil rights, both with a vision of what constitutes civil rights and social justice that are day and night. Complete opposites.
Trump assumes leadership of a deeply fractured country that is leaning slightly to the side of his party. We see this in the thin margins by which Republicans control the House and Senate.
Democrats, the left, will work the current situation to fan the flames to brand Republicans and Trump racist.
I would urge Black Americans to check the facts before buying into this narrative.
According to a profile of Black Americans just produced by Pew Research, Blacks now constitute 14.4% of the American population. Other data reported by Pew say that Blacks constitute 18.6% of the federal workforce. So, if anything, Blacks should be concerned about disproportionate dependency on federal government employment rather than lack of equity.
The data also show that the median age of Black Americans is 32.6, almost six years less than the national median age. The increasing burden of debt accumulated by the federal government, the result of the dramatic growth in government — now around 100% of our GDP and projected to continue to worsen — will fall disproportionately on these younger Black citizens. As will be the burden of the essentially bankrupt state of affairs of our major entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare.
Per Pew's data, Black economic reality is solidly rooted in the middle class and above. Fifty-four percent of households headed by a Black American earn over $50,000. Thirty-seven percent earn over $75,000, and 25% earn over $100,000. This is not a profile of an oppressed Black America unable to work and achieve.
Back to e pluribus unum.
We are facing competing claims about what holds us together as a nation. One vision focuses on individual freedom. Another vision focuses on government power.
Trump was elected championing the vision of restoring individual freedom. Symptoms that drove more voters into the Trump/Republican camp — inflation, slow growth, diminishing international competitiveness — all are symptoms of excessive government.
Like the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, our new Republican president has a sense of mission for a "new birth of freedom."
Let's support him.
Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, which promotes market-based public policy to fight poverty. Prior to her involvement in social activism, Star had seven years of firsthand experience in the grip of welfare dependency. Today she is a highly sought-after commentator on national news networks for her expertise on social policy reform. She is a published author. Read Star Parker's Reports — More Here.