‘Civil War’ lands at scary time in divided America

The new movie “Civil War” is hitting theaters across the country, and I’m guessing it’s one people will want to see.

It plays into troubling themes many of us are thinking about as we head into a contentious rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump – a contest between two unpopular figures who many Americans said they didn’t want to lead the country for the next four years.

Starring Kirsten Dunst, who plays a journalist, and Nick Offerman as the president of the United States, the film depicts a time in the not-so-distant future when the president is an authoritarian and in his third term. The country is extremely divided, volatile and at war with itself.

The political leanings of the factions at play aren’t made obvious, but the allusions seem clear given this is an offering from uber-liberal Hollywood just months ahead of a pivotal presidential election.

Biden and the left are already playing up the theme that this is an election about “democracy” and that Trump would be the greatest threat ever to our republic.

Regardless of your political views, however, the movie is worth thinking about. What it says about our polarization and contempt for the “other side” is extremely relevant.

That seems to be a big point “Civil War” writer and director Alex Garland wanted to make.

“I have a political position and I have good friends on the other side of that political divide,” he said at a South by Southwest Film & TV panel earlier this year. “Honestly, I’m not trying to be cute: What’s so hard about that? Why are we shutting (conversation) down? Left and right are ideological arguments about how to run a state. That’s all they are. ... You try one, and if that doesn’t work out, you vote it out, and you try again a different way. That’s a process. But we’ve made it into ‘good and bad.’ ”

Garland goes on to say this way of conflating politics with morality is “incredibly dangerous.”

He’s right. That way of thinking means that if you disagree with someone, you not only think that person’s ideas are bad – you think the individual is, too.

These divisions have led citizens to doubt the future of our system of government. In March, a Grinnell College national poll found 25% of respondents “believe American democracy will ... come to an end” during their lifetime. That seems a shockingly high number. Yet, it tracks with other surveys in recent years. A 2022 poll from YouGov and the Economist found more than 40% of Americans believe a civil war in the United States is likely or somewhat likely in the next decade. That number goes up to 54% for self-described strong Republicans.

Where will all this division and uncertainty about our country’s future lead?

“While there is no imminent threat of armies clashing on the battlefield, increasing hyperbolic insurrectionist sentiment is a product of a growing realization that the US is now more divided along ideological and political lines than at any time since the 1850s,” Bruce Stokes, an associate fellow with Chatham House, recently wrote.

Another alarming trend is that Americans seem to think that only their candidate can hold the torch of our democracy (a simplified term for our constitutional republic, but the one that’s most commonly used).

A poll from Canada’s Angus Reid Institute this year found that large majorities of both Trump and Biden voters are worried about the country’s democracy if the other side wins. And only 32% of voters say they’ll “fully accept” the results of the 2024 election – regardless of who wins.

Both Republicans and Democrats say they fear a move toward authoritarianism, but they fear it only if their party isn’t in charge.

A recent Associated Press headline put it this way: “Americans think a president’s power should be checked – unless their side wins, AP-NORC poll finds.”

The poll found that overall, only about 2 in 10 Americans say it would be “a good thing” for the next president to unilaterally change policy. But that changes drastically when political party is considered. Nearly 60% of Republicans support such executive power if Trump is elected; 40% of Democrats say the same if Biden gets a second term.

And both Biden and Trump have shown they are all too comfortable with taking on the mantle of executive power when it suits them. Unchecked power is not OK just because you may agree with the policies of the person in power. Our system of checks and balances, as laid out in the Constitution, is meant to preserve limits on all branches of government. Deep distrust of the other side – and too much trust in our own – is an explosive combination.

Maybe the “Civil War” movie is on to something.