But the United States has never faced an institutional crisis quite like the one it is facing now. The Vietnam war, civil rights protests, the assassination of JFK and MLK, Watergate – all were national catastrophes which remain in living memory. The problem is not who is in power, but the structures of power. “If only more moderate Republicans were in office, if only bipartisanship could be restored to what it was.” Such hopes are not only reckless but irresponsible. Blaming one side or the other offers a perverse species of hope. The parties and the people in the parties no longer matter much, one way or the other. Under such conditions, party politics have become mostly a distraction. A third of poll workers, in the aftermath of 2020, said they felt unsafe. Death threats have become a standard aspect of the work life of election supervisors and school board members. I hope everybody in your family dies.” And it’s not just politicians but anyone involved in the running of the electoral system. Fred Upton, Republican representative from Michigan, recently shared a message he had received: “I hope you die. The Capitol police have seen threats against members of Congress increase by 107%. January 6 wasn’t a wake-up call it was a rallying cry. The consequences of the breakdown of the American system is only now beginning to be felt. Right now, doctrines of a radical, unachievable, messianic freedom spread across the internet, on talk radio, on cable television, in the malls. Right now, militias train and arm themselves in preparation for the fall of the Republic. Right now, elected sheriffs openly promote resistance to federal authority. Trust in government at all levels is in freefall, or, like Congress, with approval ratings hovering around 20%, cannot fall any lower. The legal system grows less legitimate by the day. The American political system has become so overwhelmed by anger that even the most basic tasks of government are increasingly impossible. The political problems are both structural and immediate, the crisis both longstanding and accelerating.
The United States today is, once again, headed for civil war, and, once again, it cannot bear to face it.
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