We’re in one. The only question is in regard to current temperature. This site has been writing about the idea of a “cold civil war” going back to at least 2017 and to work by the late professor Angelo Codevilla.
Scott quoted Prof. Codevilla back then and I reprint here:
America is in the throes of revolution. The 2016 election and its aftermath reflect the distinction, difference, even enmity that has grown exponentially over the past quarter century between America’s ruling class and the rest of the country. During the Civil War, President Lincoln observed that all sides “pray[ed] to the same God.” They revered, though in clashing ways, the same founders and principles. None doubted that those on the other side were responsible human beings. Today, none of that holds. Our ruling class and their clients broadly view Biblical religion as the foundation of all that is wrong with the world.
Codevilla was writing in the early days of Trump 1.0. We are still in the early days of Trump 2.0.
Today, I would draw the battlelines a bit more broadly. As we see in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination, the anti-Kirk “elite” (and their clients) appears to go beyond the core group of progressive leftists, antifa types, and Democratic Congresswomen, to encompass a large share of the population that depends (directly or indirectly) on a government paycheck. These include schoolteachers and administrators, medical professionals, media people, etc.
There were a few small businesspeople caught up in the anti-Kirk furor, but here the exceptions may prove the rule. The dividing line goes beyond mere politics and demographics and may depend on economics.
The more you depend on, are familiar with, find opportunities in the free markets, commerce, capitalism and the like, the less likely that you want your fellow Americans dead or imprisoned for wrongthink.
If you depend on engaging in voluntary financial transactions in an open market against multiple competitors, you find a way of getting along with just about everyone.
When you engage in voluntary financial transactions on a frequent basis, as part of your livelihood, everyone is (more or less) on the same footing.
But if you are taxpayer-paid, work in a monopoly or quasi-monopoly setting, it’s easier to develop contempt for the other, to see them as lesser beings, to see personal advantages in getting to full-on socialism, Marxism, and communism.
Your worldview is very different when you have to go out and earn it every day, as opposed to demanding it under the force of the state.
