How America Fractured Into Four Parts
< < Go Back
People in the United States no longer agree on the nation’s purpose, values, history, or meaning. Is reconciliation possible?
The “four Americas” are:
“Free America,” by which means the Reaganite, libertarian, anti-government movement that allied with more traditional conservative concerns such as anti-communism and a latent racist populism, and which remade the ideological landscape after 1980;
“Smart America,” the Clintonian and, later, Obama brand of progressivism that did not question the market-orientation of the Reaganites, but tried to redirect it toward more communitarian ends…;
“Real America,” … contrasting — “real Americans” — with the elites …, a more dystopian vision devoid of Reagan’s sunniness, and more willing to be upfront about the racism latent in previous iterations of conservatism; and
“Just America,” the narrative coming from young, woke Americans…
More From The Atlantic:
Rss Feed