Historically, great civilizations self-immolate before they suffer external defeat. Often the seeds of decline are planted at a time when a great power seems to be at the pinnacle of its control and influence. Though it may be hard to accept, this seems to be increasingly the fate of America today, where a toxic mix of ever-more unaccountable elites, frayed internal culture and class warfare, and inflamed racial divisions has begun to splinter the most successful democratic republic in history into a nation of warring tribes. The United States seems poised to emerge from the rubble left in the wake of the last four years diminished, showing traits normally associated with unstable third-world governments.
The regnant intolerance-turned-mistrust on both sides of the political divide has largely buried the traditional American propensity for compromise. The attendant coarsening of the language of our public debate and the morphing of major American media networks into propaganda outlets have knocked down one by one democratic practices and customs that took generations to build. Yet the extremist politics that have dominated our public discourse of late have deep structural roots going back decades.
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