The Myth of Unity and the Blind Spot of Power

When someone says, “I just wish we could get back to being the United States of America and not the divided states of Democrats and Republicans,” the sentiment is heartfelt and understandable. We all long for stability and a sense of common purpose. But history, political science, and lived experience suggest this kind of remark rests on a myth: that there was once a golden age of unity we can simply return to.

1. The Nostalgia Trap

Every generation invokes a lost era of harmony. The 1950s are remembered for stable families and bipartisan consensus, yet they were also marked by McCarthyism, racial segregation, and silenced dissent. The 1960s are remembered as a time of civic energy, but they brought assassinations, riots, and Vietnam. The 1970s saw Watergate and a crisis of faith in government. There has never been a true age of national unity—only periods when elite divisions were muted, and marginalized voices less heard.

2. Why Unity Feels Elusive Now

Today’s division feels sharper not because disagreement is new, but because the structures of communication and power have changed.

• Media consolidation has concentrated ownership of the national narrative in the hands of a few wealthy families and corporations.

• Local journalism’s collapse has hollowed out trust-building institutions in communities, leaving citizens reliant on polarized national outlets.

• Social media algorithms amplify outrage, reward identity-based conflict, and punish moderation.

• Inequality and elite dominance erode legitimacy: when citizens believe the same powerful people who control wealth also control the “story,” cynicism and anger grow.

In this environment, calls for “unity” that don’t acknowledge these realities risk sounding like nostalgia rather than strategy.

3. The Elite Blind Spot

This disconnect is especially visible among those closest to wealth and power. Insulated from economic precarity and systemic failure, many elites see division as a matter of tone—if only Americans were kinder or more civil, we could “get back” to normal. But the very actions of elites—consolidating media companies, shaping political donations, lobbying regulators—help drive the structural forces of polarization. To lament division while benefitting from its machinery is not hypocrisy so much as blindness born of privilege.

4. Toward Real Unity

Real unity does not mean erasing disagreement or returning to a mythical past. It means:

• Rebuilding pluralism by protecting local and independent journalism.

• Strengthening trust through transparency in media ownership and political influence.

• Reducing inequality so that legitimacy is not undermined by the sense that the system is rigged.

• Cultivating resilience in citizens—media literacy, civic education, and opportunities for cross-group dialogue.

Unity is not nostalgia. It is hard work. It cannot be wished into being by sentiment alone; it must be built by addressing the structures that make division profitable and polarization easy.