THE LAST CAUSE: HOW MYTH DEFINES AND DIVIDES AMERICA, or Where Did Fu Manchu Go Wrong?

On the eve of the 2024 US presidential elections, nothing is sure: neither who will win the vote count, nor whether that vote count will stand and ensure election. It is a commonplace to note America seems a country divided; if not split 50/50 numerically, close enough given the structural gerrymandering enshrined in its Constitution, and exploited more feverishly in the past decade than in any since the Jim Crow era.

In fact, we can see America’s divide as the most severe since 1860, when Lincoln quoted the gospels to remind us “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. It’s worth noting that Jesus made that comment after the Pharisees had just accused him of being a servant of Beelzebub when he cast out demons.

It’s also worth noting that in 1860 Lincoln was elected only because the opposition vote was split three ways: the Democratic party had divided, basically North/South, on how firmly they would deal with the issue of abolition of slavery, while the Constitutional Union party, made from the remnants of the “Know Nothings” and Whigs, argued the country was fine with the status quo. The result, of course, was the Civil War, and the transformation of the United States from a plural collective noun (the United States “are”) to a singular one (the United States “is”).

AMERICAN MYTH

But union and united are two different concepts, and according to Richard Slotkin, that issue has never…