If you have time - you’ll need an hour or more - there is a George Packer long article in The Atlantic that is thought-provoking. He surveys the American social and political landscape for the past century or so and distinguishes four separate “movements” which have occurred. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.
The Cliffs Notes version of Packer’s narrative:
In Free America, the winners are the makers, and the losers are the takers who want to drag the rest down in perpetual dependency on a smothering government. In Smart America, the winners are the credentialed meritocrats, and the losers are the poorly educated who want to resist inevitable progress. In Real America, the winners are the hardworking folk of the white Christian heartland, and the losers are treacherous elites and contaminating others who want to destroy the country. In Just America, the winners are the marginalized groups, and the losers are the dominant groups that want to go on dominating.
And his conclusion:
Meanwhile, we remain trapped in two countries. Each one is split by two narratives—Smart and Just on one side, Free and Real on the other. Neither separation nor conquest is a tenable future. The tensions within each country will persist even as the cold civil war between them rages on.
In case you’ve been overwhelmed by Packer’s verbiage, his two ‘countries’ are the Democrats currently repping Smart and Just, the Republicans repping Free and Real.
