The election of Donald Trump shocked America and the world — but as Spencer Critchley shows in Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next, we should have seen him coming. The same is true for the hyper-partisan crisis of democracy we’re going through.
That’s because Trump or someone like him has been on his way since the country’s creation. The Founders thought they could design a new kind of nation, one based on the Enlightenment triumph of reason. But many Americans rejected the Enlightenment, and many still do. As a result, the United States has never been truly united: it is divided not just by race and class, but by culture and worldview.
Supporters and opponents of Trump see America, loyalty, and even truth very differently. They are Patriots of Two Nations. Uniting those nations will require that they finally learn to understand each other. As this book shows, that just might still be possible.
For the sake of democracy, it must be.
Patriots of Two Nations is available now at Amazon.com.
