Has America Passed the Point of No Return?

 To answer the question in the title of this post, I believe the answer is Yes.

It saddens me to believe that, but reality strongly indicates that we as a nation are irreparably divided. Left and right ... Democrats and Republicans ... liberals and conservatives ... all have seemingly insurmountable chasms separating them. 

Conservatives, evangelicals and Republicans at large care only about holding on to their power and accumulating even more wealth. They don't care about the poor, the struggling, the immigrants, the elderly, the children, the environment -- in short, they care only about themselves and others like them. They care only about other white folks, especially male white folks. Yes, there is a handful of black and Hispanic Republicans, but they are rare indeed. The bottom line for these people is maintaining things are they were in the 1950s and earlier. Women knew their place and stayed home raising kids, keeping house and having a hot meal ready when their lord and master returned from work. Minorities were content to work in the shadows, seemingly grateful for whatever crumbs were tossed their way.

Trump didn't create this divide, but he certainly gave it a voice and exacerbated it. He made it acceptable, even fashionable, among tens of millions of Americans to freely act on their racism, misogyny, greed and unfounded fears.

Now we are reaping what he has sown. Responding to the pandemic was turned into a partisan issue. With more than 650,000 Americans dead of coronavirus so far, we now are facing an even more easily transmitted and infectious variant of the virus. And millions of Americans still refuse to get vaccinated, for any number of frivolous reasons.

Fortunately, calls for the unvaccinated -- not the vaccinated -- to stay home and away from others are growing. The problem, of course, is that it is impossible to determine who has been vaccinated and who is merely pretending to be. I have no problem with being forced to present my vaccination card, with counterfeit cards already being produced.

The country is deeply divided over many issues: Racism. Voting rights. Gay marriage. Guns. Climate change and the environment. Abortion rights. Women's rights. Access to affordable medical care. Mask mandates and vaccination requirements. What to teach and how to teach it. Social issues. Taxation. The economy. Police and the policed. The role of religion (read, Christianity) in America. Immigration. The definition of patriotism. Science.

Given these deep divides over nearly every aspect of 21st century American society, can this country survive? Can we survive as a nation when governors of Republican-dominated states are actively working to prohibit mask mandates? Can people, including political leaders, come together to find common ground and work together for the greater good? 

As things now stand, I fear the answer is 'no.'