“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Abraham Lincoln reminded us of that biblical warning (Mark 3:25) in the dark days leading up to the Civil War. He was very nearly right.

America today is an angry, sharply divided nation, and it is getting more so by the day. This election season’s lawfare campaign didn’t start it, but it sure is making it worse. Somewhere down the road, perhaps sooner than we think, we will reach a point of no return when we either find a way to come together or watch our great nation disintegrate.

The dividers are winning right now, and we’re all being swept up in the riptide. Four years ago, I wrote Indivisible? — a book arguing that there is ample common ground from which all Americans can pull together, not apart. But now, in the turmoil of the day, I sometimes find it impossible to resist joining the rock-throwers.

From my vantage point, it seems that the offenses of the Left are too egregious and too numerous to let stand. And yet I know that they claim the same (with some justification) about actions from the Right — so the rocks keep flying.

It’s the age-old quandary: Where’s the off-ramp? How do we turn back the tide?

Last week, two thoughtful writers took a stab. In her weekly Wall Street Journal op-ed, Peggy Noonan, a veteran of the Reagan White House, wrote a piece entitled “We Are Starting to Enjoy Hatred,” in which she observes that we Americans are less open than ever before to understanding our political opponents or their viewpoints, preferring instead to batter them with our own superior views. She offers little advice on how to break the stalemate other than to point out that we have no choice. Our national survival depends on it.

Writing for The Washington Post, retired U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven weighed in on the same theme. In his column, “How do we want America to be?” he points to the American exceptionalism that has carried us through so many crises; he urges us to call on our “better angels” to help us rise above the current ugliness.

Both writers recognize the peril of our current path, and both call for mutual civility and respect as key ingredients to climbing out of our morass. I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment — but I think that doesn’t go far enough.

Regarding the recent conviction of Donald Trump, the admiral’s advice is simple: “On the left, stop the gloating, the ugly memes, the public rants, the late-night roastings and the political vitriol. On the right, respect the legal verdict, support the jurors, fly your flag with honor and find a way to bridge the political divide.”

Here’s the rub on the total injustice of the verdict: Our political differences have progressed far beyond the point of unnecessarily coarse demeanor and unpleasant words. It’s the intolerable behavior that demands attention.

If you’d just been mugged on a street corner, you’d not likely react by saying to your assailant, “OK, you win, fair fight, let’s shake hands and go have a coffee.” And I’m pretty sure that Admiral McRaven, the former Navy SEAL, would not either.

The Trump indictment, trial, and conviction we just watched was a political mugging, plain and simple. How many times in life have we learned that tolerating the intolerable just enables more of the same?

Moreover, the lawfare assault targeting the former president is not the only case of intolerable behavior from the Left. Let’s not forget the 2020 summer of violent protesting (arson, looting, assaults, injuries, and deaths), the three-year Russia collusion allegations attempting to take down the Trump presidency, the violence targeting conservative SCOTUS justices following the Dobbs decision, and others.

And from the Right, there are the post-2020 election actions up to and including the January 6 riot — not an insurrection as routinely claimed, but nonetheless unacceptable, a violent intrusion into the U.S. Capitol.

If we are ever to get our country back on an even keel, there must be a reckoning of some kind regarding the dangerous behavior on both sides, with punitive measures as appropriate and meaningful commitment on both sides to abandon all violent, politically motivated activity.

Surely, we can agree that our nation cannot accept:

• Lawfare, such as we’ve seen this year: a barrage of civil and criminal legal attacks targeting a political opponent, all materializing magically in the heat of the election season. Without question, these are impacting the coming election and may turn out to be the decisive factor in the selection of our next president — a stark violation of the republican principles on which our nation was founded.

• A two-tiered justice system that investigates, pursues, and prosecutes targets on one side of the aisle while carefully avoiding the other side. AG Merrick Garland claims that our justice system is not two-tiered, but near-daily events prove otherwise.

• Violent or intrusive protesting, regardless of political cause, that endangers the public or damages private or public property (including historical monuments). We can adhere to the word and spirit of our First Amendment without giving free rein to those intent on infringing the rights and freedoms of others — such as that seen over the past few days in Washington’s Lafayette Park.

And at the same time, we cannot counter such behavior with retribution in kind. That would serve only to normalize it, guaranteeing that it will continue.

Of course, absent both public support and presidential leadership, all of the above is pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. In that respect, I have zero confidence in Joe Biden, given his four-year track record of willful division, and low confidence in Donald Trump, given his propensity for retribution.

And so, citizens, it’s up to us. We must make clear our expectations at every level in the ballot box.