2020
November
05
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

November 05, 2020
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

Upon accepting the Republican nomination for United States Senate from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. ... I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided.”

In 1858, the division had a clear name and object: slavery. That terrible cause would drive America toward dissolution and civil war. Today, those words come back with particular power. Whoever becomes president will govern a deeply divided nation, the election has shown. But the cause has no clear name or object. Neither immigration nor racial justice nor socialism quite encapsulates the burning cause.

Indeed, the closest cause would most likely be “ourselves” – our fear and misunderstanding of one another, divided along borders of red and blue, urban and rural, Black and white, white collar and blue collar. Lincoln could point at a thing to be remedied. Americans today can point only to their own hearts. Elections and legislative bills avail little because it is truly a battle for the soul of the nation. Can America handle the mounting stresses of diversity – be they racial or ideological or any other form – with the founders’ unshakable assurance of “e pluribus unum” – “out of many, one”?

The coming months and years will be a test of Americans’ commitment to the very core of the American experiment – to one another as Americans. Only then, “it will cease to be divided.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Mary Altaffer/AP
Municipal workers extract Luzerne County ballots from their envelopes on Nov. 4, 2020, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Matt York/AP
Supporters of President Donald Trump wave a flag during an election watch party, Nov. 3, 2020, in Chandler, Arizona.

Patterns

Tracing global connections
Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
Arlette Morales (left) and Tzipporah Goins can't vote in this election: Ms. Morales isn't a citizen, and Ms. Goins turns 18 next week. Still, the best friends wanted to be engaged in the 2020 election, so they volunteered to work as poll watchers at a local precinct in downtown York, Pennsylvania.

A deeper look

8 Backstage Flash
Blues phenom Samantha Fish, whose most recent album has been hailed by music critics, poses with her electric guitar on a street in Beverly Hills, California.

The Monitor's View

AP
A person carries an upside down flag as people in Seattle march on the night of the Nov. 3 election.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Anupam Nath/AP
A reflected sun turns calm water aglow, as a farmer stands in his paddy on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, late in the day on Nov. 5, 2020.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow for our continuing election coverage.

You can also follow the day’s top breaking stories on our First Look page. 

More issues

2020
November
05
Thursday
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