These days, partisanship is totalistic. People often use partisan identity to fill the void left when their other attachments wither away — religious, ethnic, communal and familial.If we do not stop this process — the ongoing division of the country into red and blue blocs that feel nothing but hatred and disdain for each other, that are woven into people's identities at the most fundamental level — then our democracy is doomed.
Yes, but are there any adults in the room?
ReplyDeleteArguments like Brooks' fail to explain why societies with strong local attachments, religious beliefs that most take for granted, and a reverence for tradition can also fall apart into political faction and self-destruction. Consider the Greece of Thucydides, or the Jews in the time of Christ.
ReplyDeleteRelax; most Americans have been partisan hacks to the extreme for most of their history; this is nothing new.
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