POLITICS
The Great Story War Is Raging
The right and the left are fighting for America’s history and its future
There are wars of all kinds. In the history of Western Civilization, the physical wars are what we use to track the success, downfall and/or triumphs of peoples and of leaders. In physical wars, people die. What is at stake are the lives of generations of young people who put on a uniform and fight with a gun, a tank, or musket, sword or bow-and-arrow. (I’m working backwards.) For much of our American history, the physical wars were the hallmarks of our national story. Right or wrong, they equal our history. They were also a point of pride, because, well, we won most of them. The Revolutionary War brought us freedom from Great Britain; the Civil War was fought over a South set on secession so it could preserve slavery and fortify its economic power; the 20th century found us primary players in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the debacle that was Vietnam.
The Cold War with Russia in the 1980s presented a new kind of war: one that was not fought physically. It was “cold” because it was a war of spies, intelligence, economics — ultimately a contest of systems — as opposed to one fought in the “heat” of battle. At stake: which organizing principle would become dominant in the world. Would it be…
