&gt;It pains me to see my &quot;right&quot; and &quot;left&quot; leaning friends blame one side of the coin while completing ignoring the damage wrought by the flip side.<p>George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and many others explicitly warned about this.<p>&gt;The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.<p>-George Washington, Farewell Address<p>It&#x27;s the age old strategy of divide et impera. It couldn&#x27;t work if the masses weren&#x27;t arguing futilely among themselves:<p>&gt;Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we&#x27;ve got to stay together. We&#x27;ve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh&#x27;s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that&#x27;s the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.<p>-MLK, I&#x27;ve Been to the Mountaintop. Last speech given the night before assassination.