The maxim "divide-and-conquer" brings conflict to both military and political venues.  As a military strategy, it can work to bring victory.  As a political strategy, it can backfire -- upon both the initiator and the nation. Today, the Executive Branch of our government is presided over by someone who pins his hopes for re-election on pitting competing factions against one another. It is the political divide-and-conquer" strategy on audacious and transparent display. The pending question that awaits an answer is this: Is it a strategy for short term victory in Obama's case? And if so, what will be the long term consequences to the nation? In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison warned of the destructive influence of faction, as he defined the notion: "By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other...(Read Full Post)