I think the failures of the country were there from the beginning, but took a long time to take root.

The American psyche has always been about frontiers and boundary pushing, both from land boundaries, as alluded to in this piece, and from our own personal boundaries. So it makes sense that a nation founded in the age of enlightenment was also on the doorstep of an untamed frontier.

Americans need conflict. It drives everything we do. This again has been a major part of the American identity. After Reconstruction, we brought about the progressive era-in which labor fought management. That led to WWI, the great depression and WWII-all zero-sum conflicts with the rest of the world, with ourselves and then with the rest of the world again.

Post WWII was the cold war, again filling our deep perverse need for conflict.

When the cold war ended, we were left without a major external competitor, so when we couldn’t find one externally, we returned back to our internal competitors.

Our system of governance has always been a sporting competition, but now more so than ever. Politics pre-empts policy, and the game keeps getting played for higher and higher stakes.

As a country, we need conflict. Without it, we grow listless. The conflict that tears us apart is our national pastime.