Why this simple quadrant is important for understanding the Cold Civil War (Part 2 of 2)
The New Vital Center Quadrant helps us understand polarization, who and what is making it worse, and how to discover a glue capable of holding us together
If you missed Part I, you can read it here.
1) THE QUADRANT EXPLAINS HOW AMERICA LOST ITS VITAL CENTER AND NOW LACKS ANY GLUE TO HOLD IT TOGETHER, ENGENDERING AN IDENTITY CRISIS
Look at the quadrant diagram below. Where all four quadrants come together (intersection of the order and freedom axes) was once our vital center. It was our grounding, our public philosophy, and the glue that held us together. We appealed to it when our country got off track or needed correction. When we finally decided to end the scourge of slavery, we went back to it. When after the Civil War, Reconstruction was highjacked and left incomplete, we returned to it, inspired to finish the task in the civil rights era.
And it was this vital center grounding that made America the beacon of hope to immigrants worldwide. Of course, America is not a perfect country, but it is self-correcting, always appealing back to its grounding, always striving to live up to its ideals. No other country can boast this because no other country has a constitution that guarantees constitutional republicanism, freedom of speech and religious liberty, and the protection of private property. Only America has this foundation.
But as I explained in Cold Civil War, this vital center started breaking down 100 years ago, was weakened dramatically by mid-century, and almost destroyed over the last two decades. With the vital center in ruins, we have nothing to appeal to and unify us. Instead, we are divided, polarized to disfunction.
Once we understand how we lost the vital center, the quadrant framework demonstrates the second key to understanding polarization.
2) WHO AND WHAT ARE MAKING THE POLARIZATION WORSE
Again, take a look at the quadrant framework. The numbers 2 and 3 positions in each quadrant represent the inevitable polarization of each quadrant. On the one hand, these positions have been eroding the vital center for decades; but on the other hand, these positions are the logical outcome of losing the vital center. As a result, the center could not hold, and like centrifugal force, we have been pulled to the extremes. In Cold Civil War, I dedicate eight chapters to these polarized positions (the 2s &3s of each quadrant), showing how they are both the product and the cause of the loss of the vital center. Moreover, the loudest voices in our civic life come from the four most polarized positions (the 3s) on the Left and the Right. Finally, as I demonstrate in the book, the bipartisan ruling elites (the new oligarchy) often reside in the 3s and are the most antagonistic to the vital center of constitutional republicanism.
But most Americans are not on these extremes. They want a new vital center; they believe in our country. They are committed to constitutional republicanism. They want a bridge back to civic dialogue, working together, and political unity. But the bridge has been carpet-bombed by the oligarchs on the extremes. They know that the constitution gets in their way and that national unity threatens their power, so they denigrate the constitution and keep everyone divided.
Let's stick with the image of a bridge for a minute. Imagine the extremes standing on each side of the bridge, and instead of talking and working together, they lob bombs at the other side. Sometimes they hit the other side, but most of the time, the bombs fall short, hitting the bridge and blowing up any chance to walk across it. Now imagine that the bridge is constitutional republicanism. As the extremes fight one another, they destroy the one thing that could provide a bridge back to national unity. The extremes have eliminated it. This is why many today don't think it is possible to find a way back; the bridge is no longer there. And because the bridge no longer remains, the only option is separation or divorce, whether peacefully or not. Yet, I am not willing to say the bridge is gone or beyond repair. And I’m not willing to say all hope is gone. We have to keep fighting, contending for our constitutional republic. Because once it’s gone, we won’t get it back.
Moreover, while I don't think the cold civil war is symmetrical and equally balanced between the right and the left, trying to sort this out is not productive. I'm not sure we can conclude which side has helped the ruling oligarchs the most. And arguing about it leads nowhere and sparks knee-jerk tribalism and more political theatre, which distracts us from fixing the problem.
What is much easier to prove is that if Americans don’t oppose polarization, don’t wake up to what the bipartisan ruling oligarchs are doing, and don’t resist them at every turn, we are in trouble. And if we don't get back to a shared identity, one we can agree on and embrace, apart from our ethnic, racial, and class differences, we have no future. We will never find a way back to a unified nation. And this sad situation brings us to the third key to ending polarization.
3) HOW WE REGAIN A NEW VITAL CENTER
Look again at the quadrant framework.
Just like the four number 3 positions are pulling us further from the vital center, there are also four number 1s that make up the New Vital Center and draw us together. And it is these four positions, two on the left and two on the right, give the left and the right an essential stake in the future of America, one that, if embraced, can renew us as a people and save our country.
We need to embrace these four positions (The Four Souls of the New Vital Center). The Constitutional Soul. The Civic Republican Soul. The Middle-Class Soul. The Statesman Soul. These four souls, synthesized together, transcending the right and the left, provide the way back to unity, and define what it means to be an American, what healthy patriotism entails, and how America can move forward together. I just hope it isn’t too late.
HOW THIS QUADRANT FRAMEWORK CAN HELP THE CHURCH
Soon after I finished the first draft of the Cold Civil War, I presented the quadrant framework to a group of leaders at a church in San Diego, a church feeling the polarization of the cold civil war. They were worried that polarization could split their church. So they first needed to understand why we are so polarized. But along with understanding this polarization, they also wanted to find a new vital center to unify them and give them the ability to impact the city. As I took them through the 3 key insights of the quadrant system---how we lost the vital center, who and what is making the polarization worse, and how we can restore a new vital center, it became clear to them. They began to see that the four souls of the new vital center provided a roadmap for unity, a new glue to hold citizens together in the civic realm. Moreover, for the church, it provided the vision for being salt and light, living as productive citizens, loving their neighbors, and impacting the city. They now had the vision to change the city and do it together. It was an empowering moment.
THE NEED FOR REVIVAL
In the final chapter of my book, I discuss how the church can play a heroic role in regaining the new vital center. But I don’t think it will happen without a revival in the church, where gospel transformation produces more people of character and virtue, more people who understand that civic liberty rests on a particular kind of people and a particular public philosophy.
College president and founding father John Witherspoon taught his students this syllogism: the republic needs liberty, liberty needs virtue, and virtue needs Christianity. If we work that syllogism in reverse, we see that without Christianity, we don’t have virtue, and without virtue, we don’t have liberty, and without liberty, we don’t have a republic. And without the republic, we have an oligarchy, a bipartisan ruling elite who govern for their own power and wealth. If we are going to defeat this oligarchy, we need revival, the kind of revival that leads to changed hearts, renewed institutions, and political structures. We need the kind of church that produces faithful disciples, that is, followers of Christ who understand the responsibility of self-government, who want a republic built on liberty and virtue, and who are committed to a constitution that protects not only private liberty but also the least vulnerable, the poor, and those who don’t have a voice. May God help us in this noble cause.
Final word: And now that you know the why of the new vital center quadrant (why its three key insights are so important), I invite you to read or listen to Cold Civil War and discover the what of the framework, that is, exactly how it works out in practice.
How Can I help you? Don't hesitate to contact me if you want me to help train your leaders in the quadrant framework's three keys or speak to your group or church.
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