The war of all against all in America

The all too common perception of American politics

The 1990s began with great promise. I watched the wall across Europe come down and the international coalition to force Iraq out of Kuwait and hoped that we might finally fulfill what Enlightenment thinking had made possible.

I grew up in the latter part of the Cold War. The world on the evening news and Sunday programs was divided into two neat sides, and while Democrats and Republicans would…