Feb 5, 2009

The Divided States Of America

By Nathan Jones

Will the 50 states that make up the union that is the United States of America always stay together as one country?

Except for the required periodic vote in Vermont whether to secede from the Union or the occasional joke from Texans who say the Texas Constitution has a succession clause, the thought of the nation breaking up into multiple nations is an alien concept to many Americans. American history does record that Texas stood as its own republic from 1836 to 1845, lasting nine years on its own before becoming the 28th state to join the Union. Grade-schoolers have learned about the Civil War that divided the nation from 1861 to 1865. But, overall, the idea of America splitting is an archaic concept from a whopping 150 years ago.

Today, rather, Americans may feel the future will instead see more states added, such as Puerto Rico. And yet, the tears in the fabric of this great union are beginning to show, and others outside the country are starting to take notice.

Take for instance Russian academic Igor Panarin. For the last ten years, he has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. As reported by The Wall Street Journal in their article titled "As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S." by Andrew Osborn on December 29, 2009, the article says this dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Academy for Future Diplomats has predicted a very grim outlook for the United States. The reasons he states for the upcoming division are "economic, financial and demographic trends [that] will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S." which will "trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S."

Panarin assumes that after a new civil war, the U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in to seize the land. The powers would proceed to divide the country into six regions. "California will form the nucleus of what he calls 'The Californian Republic,' and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of 'The Texas Republic,' a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an 'Atlantic America' that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls 'The Central North American Republic.' Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia."

Is this scenario far-fetched? Panarin most definitely delves into fantasy believing that all of the land of the United States would go to foreign nations, rather than keeping some self-rule. Maybe his former KGB background has him eying Alaska, and the article hints at that. But, the predicted scenario is worth a second glance when some of the reasons he bases this prediction on are analyzed.

Political

Take for instance the Townhall.com commentary by John Hawkins titled "Why the Liberal View of Government is Wrong" from February 3, 2009. In this well articulated article, Hawkins explains the differences between the Liberal verses the Conservative view of how the government should exist. He defines how the Liberal view sees government as, "a force for good that should be used at every possible opportunity to reorder people's lives... to try to reshape society into the utopian vision they have of how the world should work." This is in direct opposition to the conservative view that sees government as "as a necessary evil that should generally be used as sparingly, judiciously, and reluctantly as possible."

Americans have always been divided on how they see the role of government doing its job; yet remain united because the country's goal has always been peace and democracy. Only since the Civil War when the question over democracy for just some or all of its peoples did the nation decide it could no longer function together, and so split. Even during the Woman's Suffrage Movement in the early 20th century over the question of democracy for both genders, there was little desire to divide the nation over the issue. But now, with the much shared idea of democracy hanging in the balance while socialism is being championed from the highest offices, the very goal that united these United States of America is threatened. Should the country be forced into opposing diametric goals, the nation may face the same fork in the road that it did in the 1860s.

Economic

No doubt exists that the nation is experiencing the greatest financial disaster since the Great Depression. Tens of thousands of jobs are being lost weekly, and insanely getting into more debt seems the only answer from our elected leaders. Countries like China and those in the Middle East are buying up America as fast as they can. The world is "losing its shirt" over being invested in the dollar.

Just like a marriage, economics can be the harshest test of a union. How America will fare under a looming and eventual financial bankruptcy will also test its ability to hold together, or not, and who owns what when the dust settles.

Demographics

Will race split the nation into nations? Most likely not. If anything, Americans are committed at this stage in our history towards ethnic harmony. Though Babel continues to succeed in keeping mankind divided (Gen. 11:6-7), racism hasn't been the source of succession talk in this era for anyone but racial extremists.

Morally

If there is any one thing that most sharply divides the United States, I believe its morality. Morality is the glue behind all other issues. That is why America is internally at war with itself over the issues of abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and a whole cadre of sensitive topics. Should the federal government further step in and make absolute law on any of these issues considered religious in nature, like the sanctity of life, then the already apparent tears in the fabric of our society could be torn asunder.

Historically, no nation remains cohesive when it is morally bankrupt. In that state, it no longer has the will to fight against totalitarian ideologies like Islam or nationalism. The United States' declining morality is a certain warning sign that the Union is weakening.

Prophetically

Revelation 17 foretells the final, Gentile world power configuration. It consists of 10 kings who will empower one king who serves Satan. Many Bible prophecy students have speculated on what country or countries each of these ten kings will rule. Whatever the configuration, no one nation in that configuration will hold as much power as the United States has for the last 60 years. The United States has to eventually share the power with nine other nations, or be absorbed into a new division that makes up part of the ten.

Prophetically, then, the United States sadly will either be divided or absorbed or both, never truly to be the United States of America ever again.