How united are we?

One of the nice things about America has been that our elections, as passionate as some are about politics, are usually the peaceful transference of power from one person or party to the next. Unlike the wars and revolutions and slaughter fests that happen in so much of the world, and throughout so much of history, ours are relatively bland. America has a right to be proud of this record. So it would be nice to keep it that way. The divisions in our country are becoming serious, and getting worse. Despite the horror that ideological warfare presented in the last century, most Americans today are lulled by historical ignorance to believe that hating someone because of race or sexual identity is terrible, but hating someone because of what they believe is A-Okay. As a result, the growing anger, and even hatred, witnessed in our public discourse may soon boil over. Perhaps a nice history lesson from outside our modern academic institutions (dedicated to the proposition that traditional values have to go) might help us avoid any escalations beyond this rather sad display.