Divided STATEs of America

3 min readNov 28, 2020

This is our current Pledge of Allegiance ~ the fourth iteration since the original.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If you’d like the truest depiction of the current state of our country, I’ve replaced a few words.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag, of the Divided States of America, and to the Autocracy for which it stands, one Nation, without God, divisible, with liberty and justice for all.

My use of autocracy is hyperbolic. America is not autocratic, but it feels like democracy as we’ve come to know it is slipping away. I also don’t believe we are without God; I just don’t believe God is foundational to our country. He has been usurped if He ever was foundational ~ replaced by the almighty Me.

I don’t believe we’re headed for Civil War 2, but if nothing changes, we may be steamrolling toward mass secession.

It won’t happen in the next fifty years, but a Great Divorce is happening as I write. The groundwork is being laid. The papers haven’t been signed but a de facto divorce has already happened. Democrats and Republicans are sleeping in separate beds, begrudgingly living together in the same cities, states and country because as bad as it is, where else are they going to go?

Their irreconcilable differences are just that: irreconcilable. The only communication between them is an ongoing game of one-upmanship, each side bathing in a pool of self-righteousness while slamming their hammer of condemnation on the heads of anyone who doesn’t see eye to eye with them.

Everyone who voted for President Trump is a racist while everyone who voted for former Vice President Biden is immoral.

Republicans are every kind of phobic and the left are snowflakes and libtards. The former hates the born, while the latter hates the unborn ~ neither seeing any possible way the other can be a genuine Christian.

Both claim to be on the right side of history. Both claim the other is on the wrong side of history.

Both willingly engaged in a bloodthirsty battle to be right, leaving no room nor desire for meaningful dialogue.

Both sides view the other as an enemy to conquer not as people to be understood.

Thus, The Divided States of America, better yet: The Divided State of America.

I believe many expect a country or president to do for them what can only happen through respect, love, forgiveness and compassion for one another. These are the traits that make a country great. People who consistently exhibit these traits are the ones with which we want to spend our time.

Life is hard on its own. It doesn’t need our help to be hard. Death, disease and tragedies happen to us all. This is why we manufacture peace and pleasure whenever we can, as often as we can.

We don’t have to be divided, we choose to be when we elevate the value of our desires above the value of our people.

I fear one of life’s biggest regrets will be when we come to its unexpected end, realizing we had spent thousands of hours angry over trivial, temporal matters, and anxious about things which never came to fruition, rather than spending those hours enjoying life and one another.

Divided STATEs of America

Written by divided