Tag: John Julius Norwich

But the example points to the danger of viewing politics as a team sport. Rabid fans can only be appeased by victory. If your political reference points are decency, character and a commitment to the common good, the president is an ongoing disaster. If you believe that politics is the zero-sum struggle between cultural teams or tribes, then you want the most vicious bully on your side. There is no serious argument for Trump based on his own virtues. Yet there is also a deeper level of harm to national ideals. It is unusual, says Chua, “to have both an extremely diverse, multiethnic population (BEG ITAL)and(END ITAL) a strong overarching national identify capable of binding the people together.” This source of strength also makes America especially vulnerable to identity politics of left or right. When the overarching identity is weakened by declaring human differences to be primary, or when some subgroup of lighter-skinned people claims exclusive ownership of our national ideals, something rare and valuable moves toward history’s disturbing norm of tribalism. It is playing with a form of fire that has burned time after time, through nation after nation. These are the stakes when citizens become fans and turn the honorable calling of democratic politics into a destructive game.