Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Luke Combs: The healing power of “The Great Divide”

Luke Combs: The healing power of “The Great Divide”
Getty Images

David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

I was watching the 2023 Country Music Awards last week and was struck by a song near the end of the awards ceremony, “Love Can Build a Bridge”.


This song written by Naomi Judd, Paul Overstreet, and John Barlow Jarvis, and recorded by American country music duo The Judds was released in 1990.

Yet, the lyrics are as powerful today as they were when they were written over thirty years ago. As I listened to the lyrics, I thought that it must be a song about bridging the divide that is separating our nation.

Love can build a bridge
Between your heart and mine
Love can build a bridge
Don't you think it's time?
Don't you think it's time?

I would whisper love so loudly
Every heart could understand
That love and only love
Can join the tribes of man
I would give my heart's desire
So that you might see
The first step is to realize
That it all begins with you and me

But I was wrong. I was quite surprised to discover that the song by Naomi Judd was dedicated to the Judd family and fans as a goodbye, as at the time, Naomi was chronically ill with Hepatitis C and was forced to retire. While the song was not at all political, its message about the importance of always standing together is a lesson that our nation surely must learn.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The audience was obviously moved as Jelly Roll and K. Michelle sang with power and obvious emotion and I couldn’t help but think that country music could serve as a powerful force to bridge the divides that are separating us as a nation.

So, I did a bit of research and discovered that in early 2021 famous country singer Luke Combs wrote and performed the song, “The Great Divide,” that connected politics and country music. At the time, Combs told The Rolling Stone that the song was an interpretation of the conflict and tension we had been witnessing at the time he wrote it.

The lyrics speak powerfully to the conflict in America:

We're striking matches on the TV
Setting fires on our phones
Bearing crosses we believe in dying on
Tempers flare, the flame flies higher
As we soar closer towards the sun
But I like to think too much damage ain't been done

We're all so far, so far apart now
It's as deep as it is wide

We're about to fall apart now
If we can't reach the other side

Other country superstars have spoken out about finding common ground. Garth Brooks was widely criticized by many of his fans for performing at President Biden's inaugural but fended of the criticism with this message of unity:

"I'll tell you with this whole presidential thing: We got one going out. Pray for him and his family. And for the president going in, pray for him and his family to guide this nation," Brooks said at the time. "Let's stay together. Love, unity -- that's what it's all about." He continued, "We can't thank the Obamas enough for serving this country," he said. "And may God hold Trump's hand in the decisions that he makes in this country's name as well."

Listen to both “Love Can Build a Bridge” and “The Great Divide” and see if you feel the amazing healing and connecting powers music can have on us. And just imagine how if this energy for good were amplified and scaled.

Jelly Roll and K. Michelle Perform "Love Can Build A Bridge" at the The CMA Awards

Luke Combs’ “The Great Divide”

Read More

The Fragile Ceasefire in Gaza

A view of destruction as Palestinians, who returned to the city following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, struggle to survive among ruins of destroyed buildings during cold weather in Jabalia, Gaza on January 23, 2025.

Getty Images / Anadolu

The Fragile Ceasefire in Gaza

Ceasefire agreements are like modern constitutions. They are fragile, loaded with idealistic promises, and too easily ignored. Both are also crucial to the realization of long-term regional peace. Indeed, ceasefires prevent the violence that is frequently the fuel for instability, while constitutions provide the structure and the guardrails that are equally vital to regional harmony.

More than ever, we need both right now in the Middle East.

Keep ReadingShow less
Money Makes the World Go Round Roundtable

The Committee on House Administration meets on the 15th anniversary of the SCOTUS decision on Citizens United v. FEC.

Medill News Service / Samanta Habashy

Money Makes the World Go Round Roundtable

WASHINGTON – On the 15th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and one day after President Trump’s inauguration, House Democrats made one thing certain: money determines politics, not the other way around.

“One of the terrible things about Citizens United is people feel that they're powerless, that they have no hope,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Ma.).

Keep ReadingShow less
Top-Two Primaries Under the Microscope

The United States Supreme Court.

Getty Images / Rudy Sulgan

Top-Two Primaries Under the Microscope

Fourteen years ago, after the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the popular blanket primary system, Californians voted to replace the deeply unpopular closed primary that replaced it with a top-two system. Since then, Democratic Party insiders, Republican Party insiders, minor political parties, and many national reform and good government groups, have tried (and failed) to deep-six the system because the public overwhelmingly supports it (over 60% every year it’s polled).

Now, three minor political parties, who opposed the reform from the start and have unsuccessfully sued previously, are once again trying to overturn it. The Peace and Freedom Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party have teamed up to file a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Their brief repeats the same argument that the courts have previously rejected—that the top-two system discriminates against parties and deprives voters of choice by not guaranteeing every party a place on the November ballot.

Keep ReadingShow less
Independents as peacemakers

Group of people waving small American flags at sunset.

Getty Images//Simpleimages

Independents as peacemakers

In the years ahead, independents, as candidates and as citizens, should emerge as peacemakers. Even with a new administration in Washington, independents must work on a long-term strategy for themselves and for the country.

The peacemaker model stands in stark contrast to what might be called the marriage counselor model. Independent voters, on the marriage counselor model, could elect independent candidates for office or convince elected politicians to become independents in order to secure the leverage needed to force the parties to compromise with each other. On this model, independents, say six in the Senate, would be like marriage counselors because their chief function would be to put pressure on both parties to make deals, especially when it comes to major policy bills that require 60 votes in the Senate.

Keep ReadingShow less