THE BLAME DAME.

• Author: Fischer, Carolyn
• Position: POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

"...Instead of considering the many ways life has improved during the last half-century, people listen to the unscrupulous politicians who promise to 'rescue' them from a nation that actually is 'more prosperous, more peaceful ... and healthier than it has ever been.'" WITH DEMOCRACY in an urgent crisis, the U.S. cannot ignore the rise of illiberal, antidemocratic politicians and movements. In Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from Within on Modern Democracy, Tom Nichols presents a divergent, but plausible analysis of the reason for the crisis and a plan for how best to rescue and preserve democracy.

Nichols comes to his subject with exemplary credentials: professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, adjunct professor at the U.S. Air Force School of Strategic Force Studies, and a fellow of the International Security Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has authored Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War, No Use: Nuclear Weapons and US. National Security; and The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters.

Before writing The Death of Expertise in 2013, Nichols noted questions from his lecture audiences indicated a distrust of science and knowledge, both fundamental to his expertise and liberal democracy. As experiments with democracy weakened or succumbed to authoritarianism abroad (Viktor Orban in Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey), audiences questioned, "How long can democracy last in the U.S.?" Nichols responded with what he now considers "unwarranted" optimism, stating that he had "trust in the culture of constitutionalism and the resilience of democratic institutions."

In the pre-Trump years, Nichols believed other countries might succumb to corrupt, illiberal movements, but in the U.S., the trust, tolerance, and belief in inalienable human rights of liberal democracy were "here to stay."

A common analysis of current challenges to democracy attributes the damages to the effects of globalism on the economy, the military, climate change, immigration, and malevolent action among authoritarian elites. Nichols, however, ascribes the growing rise of antidemocracy to citizens themselves; he maintains they have abandoned civic virtue and democratic cooperation in both international and domestic affairs. The author favors a quote from Walt Kelly's 1971 "Pogo" comic strip: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Introspection, an "indispensable duty" for voters in a democracy, is in order. In a liberal democracy established by a constitution, citizens have responsibility for pursuit of their happiness and for safeguarding their freedoms. However, a dangerous number of U.S. citizens have endorsed the conspiracy theories of political entrepreneurs determined to "redefine the nation, rewrite social contracts, and retain their power."

Whether through misinformation, ignorance, blind trust in a movement, or...