President Donald Trump is considered a very divisive leader. His election generated much anxiety and opposition before he even took office. His inaugural address showed his intention of implementing his agenda in opposition to the Washington, DC, establishment. With a divisive leader, people are either with them or against them; there is no middle way.
Trump’s brash New Yorker style contrasts sharply with the feel-good rhetoric of most politicians. It also contrasts with Vice President Pence’s midwestern plain folks style – which many hope will bring balance to the Trump Administration. At this point no one knows how successful they will be.
Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin, and Bruce Rauner, Governor of Illinois, are two contemporary divisive leaders. Both have taken controversial stands and held their ground, with Walker being able to move his agenda much more than Rauner.
Abraham Lincoln was without a doubt the most divisive president in American history. In 1858 he boldly declared:
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. 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. It will become all one thing or all the other.
That’s like saying, “my way or the highway” about the most controversial issue of the day. The election of Lincoln as President in 1860 provoked the southern states to secede, which then led to a civil war. And yet, today, Abraham Lincoln is widely ranked with George Washington as a great President.
All this is to say that divisiveness per se is a style that may or may not bring results. Which brings to mind the most divisive leader in all of history, Jesus of Nazareth who said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” That divisiveness led to his execution, which would have been the end of the matter except for what happened next.