Letter to the Editor: History

1-14-26

Dear editor,
Historian Rick Atkinson distinguishes healthy disagreement from destructive polarization by focusing not on how strongly people disagree, but on how they behave while disagreeing. Healthy disagreement rests on three civic commitments that allow a divided republic to endure. Accepting a shared reality means agreeing on basic facts, evidence, and outcomes—even when they are inconvenient or difficult—so debate occurs within a common truth rather than competing fictions. Respecting constitutional limits means recognizing that power is bounded: leaders are constrained by law, elections have consequences, and no victory justifies tearing down the rules that make self-government possible. And treating political opponents as legitimate participants in the same civic experiment means seeing rivals not as enemies, but as fellow citizens whose rights and voices are equal, even when their ideas disagree.
Destructive polarization begins when factions reject common facts, elevate loyalty to leaders or tribes over loyalty to institutions, and frame political loss as intolerable or illegitimate. Drawing on the Revolutionary era, Atkinson reminds us that America survived fierce division not because consensus prevailed, but because restraint did—because citizens and leaders alike chose the republic over victory and allowed American democracy to survive intense conflict without collapsing into authoritarianism or violence.
The American Revolution succeeded because despite deep polarization, leaders accepted limits on power, losers of elections often stood down instead of fighting and Institutions were treated as more important than personalities. Institutions—like the Constitution, courts, Congress, elections, and a free press—were understood as guardrails. No matter how admired, powerful, or charismatic a leader was, they were expected to operate within those rules, not above them. From George Washington to Ronald Reagan, the enduring lesson has been the same: institutions matter more than individuals. Both men accepted that the presidency was a temporary trust, not a personal possession.

Joan Reading
Union Dale