The way we were/are.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: STATE OF THE NATION

OLDER OBSERVERS of the U.S. political and cultural scene often find themselves gripped with nostalgia. We hearken back to the so-called golden age of mid-century America, when jobs were plentiful; families were stable; crime rates were low; drug usage was marginal; and the political parties worked together. In 1952, the presidential choice we had was of two exceptional men: Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. I cannot rescind my feelings about the past, but I have come to believe that we cannot let nostalgia govern the future. We can revere the past without trying to recreate it. We should find what elements of the past are essential to the future. Re-creating the past is impossible; using it as a guide is difficult, but worth doing.

In one of the most important books on U.S. politics written in the past decade, Yuval Levin's The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism, the author points out that we cannot go back to mid-century America. The big industrial giants in steel, automobiles, and electronics and the big unions they spawned cannot be reconstructed; no magic wand can be waved to facilitate family stability; no new common culture can emerge in this age of excessive individualism.

Conservatives, Levin reminds us, look to the culture of the 1950s as the norm to be rediscovered; liberals look to the politics of the 1960s with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society as the model of the future. None of this can be re-created in a society where many are disconnected and others remain safe in their affluent cocoon. These divisions represent a sea-change from the patriotic, conformist, and consolidated polity of the 1950s. There is no simple, if any, path back. The world of the big three auto manufacturers and the big three radio and television networks is gone. Those raised on the Great American Songbook would feel like a person from another planet if attending a contemporary rock concert, as I did recently.

Despite these realities, the presidential campaigns find both parties stuck in the dreams of the past. Donald Trump in his call to "Make America Great Again" imagines that, by putting up protective walls against imports, we can reconstruct the old manufacturing base. This ignores the importance of foreign investment in creating American manufacturing jobs. For instance, German, Japanese, and Korean automobile plants are in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina...