Paul Brakke

The Great National Divides Paul Brakke

THE GREAT NATIONAL DIVIDES discusses the many divisions in the United States and how to fix these divides to reunite this great country. It begins by tracing a first divide back to the origins of the racial divide going back to Civil War times. Then it discusses our bleak present, reflected in the controversy over the killings of blacks by cops and the Black Lives Matter movement. It describes the difficulty of ending segregation and ending or delaying affirmative action.

Additionally, the book points out other divides based on geography and politics, including the nationality and language divide caused by undocumented immigrants, the great schism caused by the North-South divide, and the division between the Coasts and Middle America, between rural and urban America, and between different ethnic groups and generations. Then, too, there is the income inequality divide between the rich and poor which is getting wider.

So what to do about all these divides? The book concludes with some ways to reform the system, a fix that is especially critical today, as the uncivility and toxicity only gets worse, unless something is done to heal the rift.