Last week, the group EveryLibrary issued a statement about a new law in Delaware, the Freedom to Read Act, that ensures that public libraries have uniform policies for addressing book challenges. Among other things, the law makes it clear that books and other materials can’t be removed solely because someone raises religious, partisan or ideological objections.
It’s an approach that’s starkly different than what’s going on in other states, such as Florida, where laws make it easier for people to challenge and remove books. As I read about Delaware’s new law, I couldn’t help but think about how it’s yet another example of a growing phenomenon in American political life, which I call “two Americas.”
Thanks to Christian Nationalists and their political allies, our nation is rapidly becoming two Americas – one composed of states that seek to protect basic human and constitutional rights and another consisting of states bound and determined to trash those rights.
The library example isn’t the only one. In one America, decisions about things like vaccination and medical policy are based on science and evidence. In the other America, fundamentalist preachers receive more attention than doctors, and distorted interpretations of “religious freedom” drive health decisions.
In one America, lawmakers compel public schools to focus on posting the Ten Commandments, infusing fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible into lesson plans and pressuring young people to pray. In the other America, public schools are free to pursue their mission of secular education, and the emphasis is on helping children learn, not indoctrination.
In one America, members of the LGBTQ+ community are under constant attack, with an unceasing effort to roll back hard-earned rights led by religious extremists who obsess over the sex lives of strangers. In the other America, LGBTQ+ citizens are treated with respect and decency; their rights are protected, and young transgender people can access the medical care their doctors recommend.
In one America, reproductive rights and legal abortion are protected by law. In the other America, those rights are but a memory.
In one America, truth is whatever a wannabe strongman says it is. It is treated like putty that can be twisted and pulled into any shape. You have the option to believe true things or not, and you’re free to embrace lies that buttress your biases and opinions, however wrong they may be. In the other America, falsehoods are challenged, and they don’t drive public policy. Facts remain important things, necessary even. They are accorded respect.
America has always had its divisions, of course – the Bible Belt South vs. the industrial North; rural vs. urban; big states vs. small ones. But in the past, we’ve at least tried to overcome those differences and recognize that we are all citizens of the same nation.
Increasingly, the message from Christian Nationalists and their political allies in Washington is that there’s no need for that. In the stark black-and-white world of religious and political extremism, there are good, decent Americans who embrace fundamentalist faith and ultra-conservative politics, and there’s everyone else. The latter’s rights need not be acknowledged, let alone protected.
Two Americas exist – for now – side by side. And an individual’s quality of life and ability to access certain rights may depend on a zip code. It is not a recipe for harmony.
For that, we can blame Christian Nationalists and other extremists. For all their flag-waving and patriotism, they’re not about one nation under God or anything else.
To see the evidence of that, you need not look beyond the fractured landscape that increasingly marks a divided, fractious and angry America.
