NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE A s we struggle through the COVID pandemic and look for a way back into relative “normalcy,” now may not seem the right time to ask bigger questions about America’s political trajectory over the last three post–Cold War decades. But this is precisely the time to take stock and consider why and how we have reached what could reasonably be seen as a point of national crisis. In just one generation, a country that in 1991 stood at the peak of its power and influence has been hobbled by internal spasms and external political pressure that is increasingly testing the extant …