The Forever War

May 1, 2024
A sharp study of the endemic battles that have blighted the U.S. throughout its existence. In this follow-up to When America Stopped Being Great, British journalist Bryant, a former BBC senior foreign correspondent, considers the long history of political upheaval, domestic terrorism, vicious campaigns, armed rebellions, riots, assassinations, and assassination attempts that have beset a nation he once revered. Recounting battles over voting rights, gun rights, and abortion and the terrorism perpetrated by left-wing rebels like the Weather Underground, right-wing white supremacists, and militia groups, Bryant gives ample evidence for his assertion that "division has always been the default setting" for the nation since it was founded. The insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, he contends, was no outlier but instead a direct echo of July 4, 1776. The colonies' rebellion for independence instilled "the mutinous belief that political violence directed against the government is justifiable, historically legitimate, and endorsed by the Founding Fathers." Although it's been said that "Trump did not change the modern-day Republican Party, he simply revealed it," Bryant adds that "the same could be said of American political violence." Nor is Trump the only example of a demagogue pushing the boundaries of the presidency. "Americans," Bryant writes, "have long had a weakness for conviction politicians who speak with the certainty of prophets." Even John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama benefited from a predilection to "laud, lionize, and idolize." Bryant paints a dismaying portrait of a nation with "a deep-rooted suspicion of central government; a collective sense of victimhood; an ugly nativism, racism and hostility towards the other; an anti-intellectualism; an anti-elitism; a populist anti-capitalism; a nostalgic nationalism"; and a deep-seated rage. Even in the 1950s and '60s, mythologized "as a haven of suburban tranquility," the country "was awash with guns." A perceptive look at America's unresolved history.

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