Today I had a new piece, “A Quest for American Unity,” go live on Real Clear Policy. It was an honor to have the support of The American Project, conducted by the Pepperdine School of Public Policy.
The piece makes the case that both political extremes in the country are out of their minds. That’s always true by definition, perhaps, but today those extremes are increasingly succeeding at tearing America apart.
It begins by going back to the Founding Fathers, arguing that they were well aware of the dangers we face today. Alexander Hamilton, for instance, referred to parties — or factions — as “the most fatal disease” afflicting republics, and hoped to dispense with them in America. Hamilton granted that “the spirit of party, in different degrees, must be expected to infect all political bodies,” but, at best, he saw such partisanship to be a “necessary evil.” Finally, James Madison wrote that a “well-constructed Union” should “break and control the violence of faction.”
Today, for whatever reason, we apparently no longer meet the criterion of a well-constructed Union. While political scientists like me may love political parties, I wrote, and Americans increasingly regard their own parties as an integral part of their oft-hyped “identities,” both parties are increasingly despised by the electorate, and Independents have a double digit lead over both Republicans and Democrats.
With a trenchant description of the sickness infecting both ends of the political spectrum, the piece returns at the end to a warning about partisanship – with the caveat that those of good will should be working to bring the country back together without sacrificing principle, or indeed should pursue principle to re-unite America.
Hope it’s of value!