Is the country even worse off than it seems?

As a nation we have often faced existential crisis.  The Civil War, the onset of the industrial revolution, the robber barons, the great depression, McCarthyism, the struggle for racial equality, assassination and the changes of the 60’s  Each time, polarization and the depth of the crisis has led many to believe that the country would not survive in it’s current form. And yet it has.Today we face a similar time.  Extremism is rampant, nativism has shown its ugly head, the economic divided threatens a new kind of civil war, racial tensions have flared, law enforcement is often unchecked, faith in the nation's operating system is at an all time low.Is this time different?  Or just another of those crisis which we will come through even stronger.  Or, as NY Times columnist David Brooks has said, will the laws of gravity simply return?My guest Andrew Schmookler believe that many of us do not fully understand nor appreciate or see what we are up against today.  He makes his care in his new book What We're Up Against: The Destructive Force at Work in Our World - and How We Can Defeat It.My conversation with Andrew Schmookler: Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.substack.com/subscribe