The long-developing Cultural divisions beneath our present Political Crisis Liberal Democracy in America has always contained contradictions--most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realized in practice.
Can America\'s Political Crisis be fixed? Can an Enlightenment-era institution--liberal democracy--survive and thrive in a post-Enlightenment world? If, for some, salvaging the older sources of national solidarity is neither possible sociologically, nor desirable politically or ethically, what Cultural resources will support liberal Democracy in the future?.
If it cannot be generated organically, it will be imposed by force.
In the end, all Political regimes require some level of unity.
The destructive logic that has filled the void only makes bridging our differences more challenging.
While a deepening Political polarization is the most obvious sign of this, the true problem is not polarization per se but the absence of Cultural resources to work through what divides us.
James Davison Hunter, who introduced the concept of culture wars thirty years ago, tells us in this new book that those historic sources of national solidarity have now largely dissolved.
While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an underlying and evolving solidarity drawn from the Cultural resources of America\'s hybrid Enlightenment.
The long-developing Cultural divisions beneath our present Political Crisis Liberal Democracy in America has always contained contradictions--most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realized in practice
