AMERICANS HAVE ALWAYS HAD DIFFERENCES SO WHAT HAS CHANGED

Americans have always had differences, even before the Revolutionary War.  People differed on what would be best for the colonies.  Some believed completed separation from Britain was best while others believed that it would be best for the colonies if they remained a subject of the crown but with greater liberties.  The actions of the crown showed the colonists that was not possible given the attitude of the crown toward the colonists.  The one thing the colonists had in common was their desire to have a government that had as its main function to protect the natural rights of man given by their Creator along with the right of the colonists to be able to live their lives as they determined was best for them and to be able to have their own thoughts, both without government domination.
 
After the Revolutionary War, the governing principles of the United States came under the Articles of Confederation.  These Articles were drafted during the Revolutionary War.  Within years the new nation had developed differences on the proper role of the government.  A convention was called to discuss these differences and adjust the Articles of Confederation as deemed to be in the best interest of the citizens of the new nation.  Madison and Hamilton turned this convention into what we now know as the Constitutional Convention of 1787 where a new governing document, The Constitution of the United States was drafted and eventually ratified.  Despite the differences expressed as to what powers should be the province of the federal government and which powers should be the province of the state governments, both sides still had as their common goal their desire to have a government that had as its main function to protect the natural rights of man given by their Creator along the right of the citizens to be able to live their lives as they determined was best for them and to be able to have their own thoughts, both without government domination.
 
Differences between Americans continued throughout our history.  Even after the civil war, the common goal of both sides remained to have a government that had as its main function to protect the natural rights of man given by their Creator along the right of the citizens to be able to live their lives as they determined was best for them and to be able to have their own thoughts, both without government domination. 
 
During the first one hundred years of our history Americans had differences.  Sometimes, as during the Civil War era, the differences seemed insurmountable.  We as Americans were always able to eventually solve our differences because we as Americans had the same goal; to have a government that had as its main function to protect the natural rights of man given by their Creator along the right of the citizens to be able to live their lives as they determined was best for them and to be able to have their own thoughts, both without government domination.  Our thoughts on how to arrive at this goal varied, but because the goal was the same, compromise was always possible.
 
Americans continue to have differences.  The reason we have found it more and more difficult, to the point of being impossible, to compromise and achieve the same goal, is not because of our differences, but because we no longer have the same common goal. 
 
Freedom Loving Americans still believe that our natural rights are given to us by our Creator and it is the purpose of government to protect those rights.  Freedom Loving Americans still have as their goal the desire to have a government that has as its main function to protect the natural rights of man given by their Creator along the right of the citizens to be able to live their lives as they determine is best for them and to be able to have their own thoughts, both without government domination.
 
A new thought in America begin in the late nineteenth century when some Americans began to believe that the role of government was not just the protection of the natural rights of man, but that government had the right to alter these rights.  The progressive movement in the United States began to accept the age old doctrine enunciated by Karl Marx, and others before him, that it is government who grants all rights to man and thus it is the proper function of government to control and dictate which rights government will grant determined as to what is in the best interest of government and not of the individual.
 
What has changed in America, is not that Americans have differences, but that Americans no longer have a common goal.  One group of Americans still have as their goal and desire to have a government that has as its main function to protect the natural rights of man given by their Creator along with the right of the citizens to be able to live their lives as they determine is best for them and to be able to have their own thoughts, both without government domination. 
 
The other group of Americans have accepted the collectivist (Marxist, communist, socialist, progressive, Democrat – all the same) doctrine that all rights are given to the citizen by the government and thus the government has the right to determine which rights the citizen can have.  The collectivist believes it is the sovereign right of government to determine how each citizen is to live their lives.  The collectivist also believes that for total harmony within the state, all citizens must conform to the same thought, which is determined by the collectivist to be in the best interest of the collective. 
 
In America today, our differences remain.  What has changed is that we no longer have a common goal.