We've now become two Americas

In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln redefined what it means to be an American. He wrote "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

The unifying principle was that all men were equal under the law, and under our Constitution. While we as a nation may not have always lived up to the ideal, it was the one thing that bound us together as Americans.

That all changed on Nov. 8, 2016. By voting for Donald Trump, a broad swath of Americans declared that they are OK with overt racism. OK with Trump falsely and repeatedly claiming that President Obama was born in Kenya, OK with him saying that Mexican immigrants are murderers and rapists, OK with him insisting that the Central Park Five were guilty of murder despite DNA evidence exonerating them, and OK with him hiring the editor of white nationalist website breitbart.com as his campaign manager.

They don't believe in the idea that we are one people, bound together by a shared vision for America.

For Trump voters, America is a zero-sum game, where they can win only by ensuring that others lose. Others who don't look like them, who are different. We are now two Americas: Trump voters on one side, and those who believe in Lincoln's shared vision on the other. A hundred fifty-three years after the Gettysburg Address, it's truly sad to see how little progress we have made as a people.

Michael E. Fredian

Arlington Heights