Roughly 10 minutes into nearly every conversation I’ve had over the past 11 months—excluding my wife and kids, who have banned the topic—someone drops a political grenade, “Is this still America?” Without exception, no definitive answer is forthcoming. We look down, offer excuses, chuckle nervously, speak of embarrassment, and within another 10 minutes, move on to a less perplexing subject … leaving a small, lingering fret, dangling in the air: “Should we move to Switzerland?”
Of course, maybe I’m talking to the wrong people. There seem to be a fair amount of other opinions. Some talk about an upcoming Golden Age.
Undeniably, after almost a year of head-scratching, the implied question, What’s happening to our democracy?, seems to deserve a reasonable effort; definitely more than 10 minutes (probably 45, you’ll need some coffee). A thorough investigation of the subject felt pressing. I gave up resisting.
The following treatise considers a multitude of quotes, news articles, books, lectures, posts and postulations (it seems a good deal of people felt equally pressed). Not one to suppose I have answers, I am simply summing-up, condensing collective wisdom, and outlining a path forward …
Read the full article here.*
*Owing to the length of the above article and the formatting constraints of Substack, the full article is posted on our website.
