The Cure for What Ails Our Democracy

 

 David Brooks argues that the solution for the political dysfunction that currently plagues our society is for the citizenry to embrace pluralism by balancing goals that are competing or in tension and, thus, arrive at compromises which advance the greater good. Mr. Brooks’ essay is erudite and thoughtful but, at least in one respect, oversimplifies the problem. Mr. Brooks declares that we are not engaged in a struggle of good versus evil, unlike World War II and the Civil War, but rather in a conflict between liberal values and Trumpian populism and that each view has legitimate concerns. If that was an accurate description of the situation a solution could be achieved. Unfortunately, there is a significant proportion of the American population that has been infected by the contagion of hate spread by Donald Trump. That faction, like Mr. Trump, is driven by racial, religious , sexist and gender intolerance and is not open to compromise or accommodation. In that respect, we are engaged in a war of good versus evil and, heaven help the nation, there does not seem to be a reasonable remedy.