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Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictions—most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realized in practice. While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an underlying and evolving solidarity drawn from the cultural resources of America’s “hybrid Enlightenment.”
The U.S. is less united than at any time in our history since the Civil War. We are more diverse in our beliefs and culture than ever before. But red and blue states, secular and religious groups, liberal and conservative idealists, and Republican and Democratic representatives all have one thing in common: each believes their distinct cultures and liberties are being threatened by an escalating violent opposition.
Fueled by conspiracy thinking and a growing indifference to facts, some Americans, especially on the Right, are increasingly seeing their fellow citizens as threats that must be eliminated. We are witnessing an epidemic of domestic terrorism with a rapidly accumulating body count. This may be the most serious challenge to the integrity of the United States since the Confederate insurrectionists launched their assault on Fort Sumpter in 1861.
Hunter, James Davison. Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis (Politics and Culture) (pp. 9-10). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
Introduction
Democracy in America is in crisis. The heart of this book tells a story—different from others—about why it is so. The story I tell revolves around the cultural sources that have underwritten liberal democracy and how, through conflict, these sources have evolved over the course of two and a half centuries. I argue that the specific configuration of cultural sources that underwrote American democracy—what I call America’s hybrid-Enlightenment—sought to provide an ethical vision for the reconstitution of public life. It not only made certain ideas and ideals intelligible but, in the process, provided sources for solidarity or cohesion that, by virtue of their opacity, could contain democracy’s many internal disagreements. The critical question is: solidarity on what terms? This is an important question because solidarity, even one that depends on opacity, always has limits; that is to say, solidarity is always set within boundaries that define a line between inclusion and exclusion. What makes this story historically and ethically compelling is the way in which those sources—and thus the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion—have been contested over many generations. That contestation is an ineradicable feature of liberal democracy in America not least because of fundamental contradictions present within the hybrid-Enlightenment at the start: namely, the promise of freedom and equality and universal justice and yet the denial of those goods to large swaths of the American population.
French, David A. Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation (p. 2). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition
Introduction
A House Divided: It’s time for Americans to wake up to a fundamental reality: the continued unity of the United States of America cannot be guaranteed. At this moment in history, there is not a single important cultural, religious, political, or social force that is pulling Americans together more than it is pushing us apart. We cannot assume that a continent-sized, multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy can remain united forever, and it will not remain united if our political class cannot and will not adapt to an increasingly diverse and divided American public. We lack a common popular culture. Depending on where we live and what we believe, we watch different kinds of television, we listen to different kinds of music, and we often even watch different sports. We increasingly live separate from each other. The number of Americans who live in so-called landslide counties—counties where one presidential candidate wins by at least twenty points—is at an all-time high. The geography that a person calls their home, whether it be rural, exurban, suburban, or urban, is increasingly predictive of voting habits. We increasingly believe different things. America is secularizing at a rapid rate, but it is still the most religious nation in the developed world, and is set to remain so for the indefinite future. While the “religious nones” (those with no particular religious affiliation) grow in number, many of America’s most religiously fervent denominations are growing as well, some rapidly. Moreover, America’s secular and religious citizens are increasingly concentrated in different parts of the country, supplementing geographic separation with religious separation.
Ducat, Stephen J.. Hatreds We Love: The Psychology of Political Tribalism in Post-Truth America (p. 11). Skyhorse. Kindle Edition.
Introduction
On a bucolic hillside, the sheep are placidly grazing. Looming over them is a campaign billboard featuring a nattily dressed wolf politician whose lapel is accessorized with the de rigueur American flag pin. Next to his image is the caption, “I am going to eat you.” Two sheep look up admiringly at the ad while one says to the other, “He tells it like it is.” That Paul Noth New Yorker cartoon appeared in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency and succinctly captured the tragic psychology of contemporary political tribalism. Ordinary Republican voters are becoming MAGA mutton in the slavering maws of their own leaders and the wealthy predators that fund them. The GOP elite’s voracious appetite for power and wealth spares no one, least of all their base. In other words, conservative politics is killing conservatives. The politicians empowered by the Republican electorate with each election pass laws and enact policies that sicken and shorten the lives of their loyal constituents. GOP lawmakers reject Medicaid expansion, oppose a variety of public health measures, stop attempts to lower prescription drug prices, ban medically safe abortions, vote against even the mildest constraints on the purchase of assault weapons, fight increases in the minimum wage, spread vaccine misinformation, and work assiduously to facilitate the ability of corporations to use the air, water, and land we all share—and increasingly, our bodies—as a privatized toilet.