David Brooks' column of June 29, 2023, is good and definitely worth reading. I think he's on one rail of the right track … which is to say I think he's right, but what he says is only part of the picture. We clearly “suffered a collective moral injury, a collective loss of confidence, a loss of faith in ourselves as a nation.” There's simply no disputing that. But it's reductionist to put all the blame on the Trump presidency, or even to suggest that the moral injury started during those four years. That's simply not true. To the extent “moral injury” is the cause of our current cynicism and abject lack of trust in institutions, Trump was as much a manifestation as a cause of our national malaise. The head of the pimple, as it were, of a popular buy-in to conspiracy theories and rejection of expertise and trust in science.
So why did America … and to a large extent the world … suddenly lurch toward superstition and rumor and angry resentment? At least in my mind that abandonment of rationality is pretty much the same reason people elected Trump.
Still, Brooks is right in suggesting that (to continue my own metaphor) that Trump was the head of the pimple, and that the festering continues despite having been electorally lanced. And his observations about the “misery index” are very good. He's spot-on that Biden SHOULD be very popular, given how well our country and our economy is doing.
I'm sharing this as a “gift article,” meaning it wil be available without a paygate for some period of time. I think maybe until the end of July 2023?