The end of the Cold War three decades ago followed by the terror attacks in 2001 should have ushered in an era of consensus and bipartisan agreement in the United States. That was what people expected at the time, but it was not what happened. Far from it. Over the past few decades Americans have turned on themselves, dividing into hostile tribes and parties with little common ground to hold the national enterprise together. Those conflicts came to a head in 2020 in a crescendo of violence and protest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and continuing through the coronavirus pandemic and that year’s presidential election.
