Pray for our nation during this time of division and “sorting-out” of beliefs and “sensibilities.” May God give each of us wisdom and grace as we seek to be Christ-like citizens of the nation, our individual states, and our local communities.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:14)

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Since the beginning of this century, officials in states and localities controlled by the Democratic Party have increasingly disregarded laws, referenda and court decisions that affront their “progressive” sensibilities. That amounts to nullification, and it’s hard for the federal government to impose its will on them. But now the progressives are going to learn that two can play at that game.

Today, some 200 local jurisdictions are nullifying federal law on immigration, claiming the status of “sanctuary cities.” Colorado is formally nullifying federal law on marijuana, while Oregon and others are doing it informally. The State of California has an executive department to identify the ways in which the nation’s biggest state can ignore or stiff what might come out of Washington that is not to progressive tastes.…

No objection then, theoretical or practical, should stop cities or states that are governed by solid majorities of “deplorables” from declaring themselves “sanctuaries” for whatever they want….

The states need not contest any of the lawsuits that would be brought against it, since they can ignore eventual court orders confident that Washington could not and would not deploy forces to places like Williston and San Marcos to arrest people in prayer any more that it deploys forces to Denver or Portland to arrest potheads….

American society today is divided as never before. Progressives look upon those unlike themselves with ignorance, contempt and a sense of entitlement to rule….

As Elie Mystal wrote in abovethelaw.com on January 30, “American cosmopolitans,” “elites who think America is better than that,” have the right to prevail against the “bigoted base” which elected Mr. Trump. Understandably, “the rest of Americans” take increasingly strong exception to that.

This divide’s depth means that any effort by either side to shove its preferences down the other side’s throat can only end badly. Hence, such possibilities for peace and cohesion as the American polity has left in it depend on both sides’ willingness to abide the other’s peculiarities in the places where they are majorities.

In fact, the United States’ federal structure, designed ab initio to accommodate the different choices that a free and diverse people might make, offers countless opportunities for people in different communities to go their own way. Yes, over the past half-century, federal judges have exercised executive authority over cities and school districts. They have overruled state referenda. Agencies have exercised intrusive authority merely by demanding adherence to agency policy as if it were law….

The oldest of political realities is that people are most tolerant of those who differ from themselves when they live among those who do not differ, and when they do not fear having alien ways pressed upon them. This recognition is what enabled history’s great ecumenical empires to survive in peace.

In today’s divided America, neither the progressive ruling class nor its “country class” antagonists have the power to defeat the other and to reconcile the defeated. The best that all sides can do is to recognize that the great moral/social/political sorting-out that has been occurring in America in this century is the default path to peace. (Excerpts from  Angelo M. Codevilla article from the Washington Times, Sanctuaries, for goose and gander, too.)