Readers respond to a column by David Brooks about liberalism in crisis in “this dark century.”
To the Editor:
Re “The Century of the Strongman Begins,” by David Brooks (column, Feb. 18):
Our global trend toward autocracy has been well documented and has produced a great deal of legitimate worry. But the question in my mind has been “Why?” My naïve assumption has always been that people generally desire American-style liberty. But I think that Mr. Brooks articulated quite well the oft-forgotten fact that the founders structured our system the way they did precisely because they understood the less-than-democratic instincts of human nature.
This was an embarrassing, head-slapping realization for me because I feel I should know better. During the 1990s and early 2000s, I was a chief of staff for a Republican member of Congress and a senior-level aide to two others. I worked in an environment in which the founders’ ideals and their craftiness were part of the fabric of everyday life.
Like Mr. Brooks, I have bemoaned the loss of basic civics education in our schools and the collapse of so many basic pillars of society. And yet, the simple idea at the center of his essay that the predominant instinct for most people is not to ensure a just society for all, but one in which they and their tribal interests thrive, had eluded me.
The adversary we face isn’t simply Trumpism or Putinism. Our enemy is human nature. That’s no small adversary, but now we have a better understanding of the problem we face.
Keith Lee Rupp
Tampa, Fla.
To the Editor:
David Brooks writes that liberal democracies, including ours, are in crisis; authoritarian regimes are ascending. Mr. Brooks sees a critical need for a reset, for tending to the soil needed to support our rule-of-law-based democracy. Is it too late?
Our democratic soil is despoiled by poverty, racism, consumerism, extreme income disparities, militarism, partisan interference in elections and an ongoing “war” over the role of government in creating a fair, equitable society. The conflict over who we are as a nation, as a people, reveals significant differences that may very well be impossible to bridge. We are navigating troubled waters with no safe harbor in sight.
Michael Katz
Washington
To the Editor:
David Brooks is right that the United States has neglected “the seedbeds of democracy” at home.
In addition, a new foreign policy is needed to combat the rise of authoritarian strongmen like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Their power is based on their access to global markets created and supported by the world’s great democracies. President Biden should seize on the unifying moment presented by Russia’s military actions against Ukraine. He should lead the founding of a new Alliance of Democracies.
An Alliance of Democracies, including Europe and North America, as well as democratic governments in Africa, Asia and South America, can help make progress to meet our largest challenges. These include not only the preservation of democracy in the world, but also the climate emergency and other global problems.
Eric W. Orts
Philadelphia
The writer is a professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
To the Editor:
Tending our seeds of democracy is a lovely metaphor, bringing to my imagination the possibility of an overflowing garden of multicolor flowers and fruits, the literal seeds of our labor. But our democracy of the late 20th century left out increasing numbers of people.
The war on poverty and the cementing of civil and human rights remained seedlings, now withering. Neither current democracies nor autocracies are tending these seeds, ones that must be front and center for our species, let alone our democracy, in all our glorious colors, to thrive.
Extreme income and wealth disparities, growing climate disasters, massive poverty, with its consequences of malnourishment, illness, homelessness, joblessness and lack of education, bring to my imagination an entirely different picture, one of a failed species. Our earth has the resources to tend David Brooks’s garden. Do we have the will to collectively, collaboratively and equitably harness them?
Nancy Bermon
Nyack, N.Y.
To the Editor:
While I share his concern for liberal democracy and the rise of authoritarianism, David Brooks’s selective memory is astonishing. Liberalism is under threat, according to Mr. Brooks, because societal institutions — churches, media, civic organizations — that used to mold democratic citizenry no longer function as they should. Missing from his account are the neoliberal economic reforms that fundamentally transformed societies around the globe, including the United States.
Our economy used to work for working people. Corporations and the wealthy used to pay their fair share in taxes. Inequality was high, but all incomes enjoyed the economic dividends that came from productivity. Societal institutions may be withering on the vine, but we should be clear about the cause: Deregulation, privatization, the hollowing out of government and constant denigration of the public good are what poisoned the soil.
Mark Cassell
Kent, Ohio
The writer is director of the Washington Program in National Issues and a professor of political science at Kent State University.
To the Editor:
David Brooks notes that our founders “had no illusions about the depravity of human beings.” Realizing this and fearing ambitious demagogues, they built a democracy with checks and balances. Now Mr. Brooks sees the threat to liberalism and the destruction of democracy that are taking place not only throughout the world but within our own country. He asks, “What the hell happened?” as he sees the 21st century so dark, regressive and dangerous.
As a psychiatrist, I believe I can answer his question. We are all born with both good and bad instincts, but we learn to control and repress our baser instincts, including anger and greed, to become part of a working society. I think Mr. Brooks is correct that unleashed narcissism took over, subverting the healthy repression that enabled us to live in a democracy.
One demagogue, our former president, through use of primitive mob psychology unleashed the irrational angers that have misled so many citizens and public servants such that we are now a sick and divided nation.
We are in a very dangerous time. If we do not rid our nation of its sickness and become a United States again, we will see the end of what has been the world’s greatest democracy.
Howard A. Corwin
Naples, Fla.
To the Editor:
These are indeed grim times we are living in, but David Brooks’s recollection of the 1990s as a golden era of what he calls “good news” is utter nonsense. Has he forgotten the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which resulted in an estimated 800,000 deaths? Or the Congo civil wars, the carnage in the Balkans, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and so on?
Millions died violently during that decade or became refugees, orphans or the walking wounded. Indeed, aside from the two world wars, the ’90s were one of the bloodiest decades of the 20th century.
Chris Hennemeyer
Washington
The writer is an international consultant.
To the Editor:
David Brooks is on the mark in urging us to tend democracy carefully and continuously, as it is not a natural state for humans. I may disagree that this will be the century of the strongman, as the current crop of autocrats do not compare with the deadly trio of the last century — Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
Even so, the American flavor of democracy evolved steadily, if erratically, from the roots planted by the founders, to use Mr. Brooks’s analogy. But now that we have gone through the conquest of the continent, a Civil War, two world wars and a Cold War, we are finally facing each other and asking: Are we going to use herbicide or fertilizer? Will we yield to autocracy and suppression, or revitalize democracy, the rule of law and working for the common good?
As many others have said, our actions, and our votes, over the next few years may settle which way this country will go.
Ben Janowski
New York
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