America is afflicted with a deleterious disease: Loneliness

Americans are sharing a drink they call loneliness. And too often, they're drinking alone.

It's a lonely world out there.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

President Trump is a tornado. And all too often, we are so transfixed by the whirlwind that we fail to step back and see the larger weather patterns.

The Trump presidency could only blow over a society weakened by a deep and advanced stage of rot. The reason we find the idea that he might set up an authoritarian regime in the U.S. even remotely plausible is because we've all been aware, at least at a dim background level, of the unprecedented accretion of power in the federal government and the executive branch. Meanwhile, social media, hyper-polarization, and a sputtering press corps help feed the most problematic dynamics of his chaotic presidency.

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.