If you'd like to see the US flourish--that is to say, to be a kind-hearted and prosperous land of opportunity, where you can get ahead if you play by the rules, one with a broad middle class comprised of Americans who basically get along in reasonable comity, I have a few ideas.

1. Treat people who disagree with you--even about things that are very important--politely, respectfully, and with the humble awareness that you are human, and thus like the rest of our species often prone to be sure you're right when in fact you're absolutely wrong.

2. Lower your voice. Learn more about the people who are driving you insane.

3. People aren't "Liberals" or "Conservatives." They're people, each one of them magnificently complex; each one of them, in the hands of the right novelist, would be a fascinating character.

4. As recently as 1980, no one ever asked me what political party I belonged to, and no one cared. Our country functioned better that way.

5. The differences between liberals and conservatives are not so great that it would be worth going to war to separate ourselves.

6. No one would win that war. We'd just destroy America--the last great hope of men on earth. This is not 1861, when one eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern half part of it.

7. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. There is no such issue today. We all know that the causes of our culture war are guns and abortion. But they are distributed evenly over the Union--

not localized in the southern half of the country. We must live with each other, and live with guns and abortions, until our culture changes. The culture of guns cannot be changed when we're mistrustful of each other, at each others' throats.

8. The remedy for this problem is civic trust and peace: A society in which so long has passed since anyone believed another group of Americans would kill them if they weren't armed that it would seem quite silly to stock up on firearms.

9. The culture of abortion can't be changed by legal dicta. The culture of *legal* abortion can be changed that way, but in fact, criminalizing abortion tends to make abortion rates rise: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/abortion-rates-go-down-when-countries-make-it-legal-report-n858476

9. Abortion rates have fallen over the past 25 years, even as countries have made it easier to get a legal abortion.

Countries with the most restrictive abortion laws have the highest rates of abortion.

10. The highest abortion rates are now found in Latin America and the Caribbean, where abortion is strongly restricted, legally.

These are the countries with the lowest rates:

1Zambia has a relatively liberal abortion regime.
Abortion in India is legal until 20 weeks of pregnancy. In exceptional cases, a court may allow a termination after 24 weeks.
In South Africa, a woman can get an abortion, for any reason, if she is less than 13 weeks pregnant.

11. In Bangladesh, abortion is illegal.
Abortion is legal in Spain in the first 14 weeks of a woman's pregnancy.

Bulgaria, Poland, Russian Federation, and the Czech Republic have the world's highest abortion rates: 43 per 1000.

12. In Bulgaria, abortion is only permitted before 20 weeks for women who suffer from diseases that may endanger her life or that of the child, and after 20 weeks abortion is only permitted if the woman's life is in danger or the fetus is severely genetically harmed.

12. Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life or any form of health is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged.

Abortion in Russia is legal up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and in special circumstances at later stages.

13. Abortion in the Czech Republic is allowed up to 12 weeks, with medical exemptions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy; in case of grave problems with the fetus, at any time.

15. There is no good reason to think banning abortion is anything more than act of hyper-virtue signalling: What determines the abortion rate is culture, and specifically, a culture that emphasizes teaching young women how to use contraception correctly and to respect fetal life.

16. Choosing an "anti-abortion judge" offers

a) no guarantee that she would rule as an anti-abortion judge; judges tend to take their responsibilities to the law, and to precedent, very seriously;

b) would at best send the decision back to the states, where it should always have been. These are decisions that should be made by legislatures, not courts.

17. So ramming through an "anti-abortion judge" offers no promise that even a single abortion would be prevented,

but sends half of America into Handsmaids-Tail hysteria, delegitimizes the court by proving the GOP refuses to play by any rule but power, and accomplishes none of the good said to be worth further rivening the country at what is already a profoundly fractured time.

18. If abortion horrifies you--as it does me--the obvious way to eradicate it is to ensure young women have access to contraception. This should be a point of unity and cooperation among Democrats and Republicans. It would be, if they weren't determined to view the other as evil.

19. I would suggest Democrats listen politely to what the Trump nominee says, and say yeah or nay based upon her juridical record and talent.

20. I would suggest Trump wait until after the election to nominate a new justice,

21. And as a special gesture--one that says, "It's time to stop playing these games"--nominate Merrill Garrett." Then I would cooperate with the states to ensure that contraception be taught in schools, free, and widely accessible. Voilà: No war necessary.

And once the climate has calmed down considerably--and it would take at least eight stable years after Trump--we can revisit the idea that it makes sense for the US to be the only country in the world where there are 120.5 firearms for every 100 residents.

But we can't solve that problen until we *first* solve the problem of our mutual loathing, our belief that we are on the verge of civil war, and the public discourse that encourages this belief: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enFR892FR893&sxsrf=ALeKk03FF4-jhuGoe0wlWxJ6V-TatXAhaw%3A1600707007095&ei=v9loX6amBeuAjLsPjM2VuA0&q=how+many+americans+believe+we%27re+headed+toward+civil+war&oq=how+many+americans+believe+we%27re+headed+toward+civil+war&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIECCMQJzoECAAQRzoHCCMQsAIQJ1D_pgFYy-QBYMfyAWgAcAF4AIAB3gGIAa0GkgEFNy4xLjGYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6yAEIwAEB&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjmgbCk2vrrAhVrAGMBHYxmBdcQ4dUDCA0&uact=5

Because no one--but no one--will disarm if he believes that war is coming and he has to protect his family.

People disarm when the climate is calm.

So whatever your feelings about that SC judge, ask yourself: What is apt to create calm?

Only when we're calm can we get anything useful done--or be decent people.

And ask yourself that question when you're casting your vote, too.