By Ron Lora

A sober examination of American society today must acknowledge a state of political confusion and public anxiety. Abroad, we are in a war of choice with Iran with no developed exit strategy. We have drawn closer to Communist China than at any time since Mao Zedong announced the founding of the People's Republic of China. Meanwhile, we increase our distance from NATO allies, and have been less than enthusiastic about supporting Ukraine against invading Russian forces.  

In Great Britain, once our closest friend, opinion polls reveal a sharp decline of respect, with two-thirds of its citizens seeing the United States as having a negative impact on the rest of the world. In France it’s much the same, where 70 percent no longer see America as a “dependable ally.” In other NATO members, Spain, Italy, and Belgium, for example, approval of U.S. policies is lower still.  

Lest anyone is inclined to downplay the foregoing, consider:  After interviewing over 42,000 persons in 36 countries around the world last month, the Pew Research Center found that 25 (among them, 9 NATO allies) view China more favorably than the U.S. – a virtually unthinkable historic shift in global public views. 

Near the end of the Soviet Union’s collapse, international relations scholar Francis Fukuyama wrote a widely discussed essay in “National Review,” boldly titled “The End of History.” The great ideological battles between East and West were finished, he argued. Communism had lost forever; Western liberal democracy had won, becoming “the final form of human government.” However, since then we have experienced the horror of 9/11, the emergence of China as a superpower, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and American ideological and military wars in Iraq and Iran. 

For more than a decade here at home, we have suffered from extreme polarization. Each session of a popular nightly panel discussion on TV begins with the host saying, “Americans with different perspectives aren’t talking with each other, but here they do”; then disagreement, often fiery, follows. Election anxiety over primaries, and the November 3 midterm especially, is palpable in both major parties, whether over state rule changes, pressure on election officials, possible voting interference or actual rule breaking by leaders. Recent years have brought a concentration of power in the presidency not envisioned by the American Constitution, beginning with an avalanche of executive orders, usurping the authority of Congress, which, often out of fear, acquiesces. 

Less discussed, yet significant, is increasing evidence of social disconnection, especially regarding churches, synagogues, and mosques, in which weekly attendance since the 1980s has fallen from roughly 40 percent to approximately 24 percent. It is much the same with labor unions and clubs like the Lions, Elks, Rotary, and Masons, all of whom have been hemorrhaging members.

 This data is in accord with “Bowling Alone,” Robert Putnam’s analysis of America’s social behavior a quarter-century ago, in which he described a society that had become “increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures.” He has since recognized that the influence of social media and the internet offers unimaginable opportunities for social connection; yet they have spawned “new causes of alienation and isolation.”  

Attempting to make sense of our state of confusion and anxiety, Anton Jager brings us “Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences.” A lecturer in politics at Oxford, Jager moves far beyond “end of history” illusions, arguing that although after the fall of the Berlin Wall there was a relaxation of political strife, in a few short years politics returned with a vengeance.  From Iran to Syria, Russia and North Korea, enemies exist everywhere. At home, Jager writes, “key postulates of liberal democracy – legitimate opposition, peaceful handover of power, constitutional continuity – (appear) up for grabs.” 

The paradox, Jager says, is that while anger boils up over issues, too often they tend to be flash-in-the-pan – “frenetic activity” eruptions without staying power to bring about concrete reforms. The sluggish U.S. Congress is evidence of this inertia, either for lack of interest or fear of political retribution. But downplaying the impact of “No Kings” and anti-ICE protests, and the massive global demonstrations against brutality and systemic racism (perhaps 20 million participants in the U.S. alone) risks a pessimistic – and unwarranted – conclusion that political action is hopeless. 

Political and moral reform may move with glacial slowness, but we know from our history the cogency of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous reminder: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." May that continue.