The Great Unraveling: A Consequential Year of Democratic Decline

A year into President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the political landscape of the United States has been fundamentally and alarmingly altered. The promises of a more aggressive, retributive administration, made openly during the campaign, have been realized with a speed and intensity that has shocked the political establishment and terrified defenders of democratic norms. This period has been characterized not by incremental policy shifts, but by a systematic, deliberate campaign to dismantle the institutions that have underpinned American global leadership and domestic stability since the end of World War II. Analysts David Brooks of The New York Times and Kimberly Atkins Stohr of The Boston Globe, in a recent discussion with William Brangham of PBS NewsHour, provided a stark assessment of this consequential year, painting a picture of a nation at a critical juncture, grappling with self-inflicted decline and the rise of a corrosive, illiberal ideology.

The Hollowing Out of the American State

The most immediate and tangible consequence of the past year has been the deliberate hollowing out of the American government’s capacity. David Brooks frames this as the dismantling of the post-1945 institutional architecture—entities like NATO, the Department of Justice, and USAID—which were pillars of both international order and domestic governance. This decline in “state capacity” is not an accidental byproduct of incompetence but a targeted strategy. The purging of experienced civil servants, the decimation of agencies through budget cuts and political interference, and the rejection of international alliances have created a vacuum. Brooks chillingly contrasts this with China’s focused investment in science and technology, framing America’s self-sabotage as “an error of historic proportions” that cedes global leadership to an authoritarian rival.

Parallel to this institutional collapse is what Brooks identifies as a deeper, decades-long societal rupture. He points to a profound disconnection between the American “establishment”—encompassing media, universities, and cultural institutions—and the working class. This schism, fueled by economic policies on trade and immigration that marginalized vast segments of the population, created fertile ground for a political upheaval. When people feel invisible and believe the system is rigged against them and their children, they are willing to “flip the table.” This phenomenon, as Brooks correctly notes, is not uniquely American; it is a global trend visible in the rise of figures like Nigel Farage in Britain and far-right movements across Europe, all born from the disruptive forces of the information age and a failure to manage its inequalities.

The Assault on the Rule of Law and the Rise of Tribal Justice

If Brooks provides the macro-sociological context, Kimberly Atkins Stohr delivers the searing legal and moral indictment. For her, the defining feature of this era is the “erosion of the rule of law.” She points to the immediate and symbolic act of pardoning the January 6 rioters, a move that signaled impunity for political violence directed at the heart of American democracy. This was coupled with the active “weaponization” of the Department of Justice to target political enemies, transforming an institution meant to be blind into a blunt instrument of partisan retribution. Stohr, speaking as an attorney, expresses profound alarm at this perversion, noting that the President’s public directives on platforms like TRUTH Social—exhorting followers to focus on Democrats in the Epstein files while dismissing allegations against Republicans as a “hoax”—demonstrate a complete disregard for impartial justice.

Stohr identifies a through line connecting policies on immigration, the purging of the federal workforce, and attacks on universities: race and the ascendancy of white Christian nationalism. She argues that the administration’s rhetoric and actions consistently demarcate a hierarchy of human worth, welcoming white South Africans while denigrating other nations as “hellholes.” This, she contends, is an ideology that has “taken over the federal government in a way that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime,” creating an official culture of exclusion and xenophobia that fundamentally contradicts the nation’s founding principles of equality.

A Failure of Institutional Courage and the Long Road to Repair

The discussion rightly highlights the complicity of other branches of government in enabling this democratic backsliding. Stohr points an accusatory finger at the Supreme Court, which has used its “shadow docket” to allow the administration’s most controversial actions to take effect before their constitutionality is even adjudicated. By the time a legal challenge winds its way through the system, the damage is often irreversible—deportations have occurred, agencies have been gutted, and norms have been shattered. This judicial abdication of its role as a check on executive power has been a critical enabler of the administration’s agenda.

The conversation then turns to the perplexing and distressing lack of a robust, collective response. Brooks laments the absence of the “civic renaissance” he had hoped for, a mass mobilization of civil society institutions—businesses, universities, churches, labor unions—to defend democratic norms. He identifies a “collective action problem”: individual actors are intimidated, fearing reprisal if they stand alone. Our civic institutions, weakened by decades of decline, may simply be too frail to mount the coordinated resistance seen in other nations facing authoritarian threats, such as the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos.

Both analysts, however, find a sliver of hope in historical precedent. Brooks recalls the period of rupture and repair that followed the crises of the 1890s, which spurred the creation of enduring civic organizations like the NAACP and the Sierra Club. This cultural and civic rebuilding, he argues, must precede lasting political reform. Stohr echoes this, pointing to the necessity of a “sustained plan” for repair, akin to Reconstruction after the Civil War, while warning of the inevitable blowback from those who profit from division. The immediate test, she notes, will be the integrity of the upcoming election, where new obstacles to voting threaten the most basic mechanism of popular sovereignty.

A Moral Reckoning for the Soul of America

This analysis, while stark, is a necessary clarion call. The events of the past year are not a normal political cycle; they represent a fundamental challenge to the American experiment. The systematic dismantling of institutions, the replacement of the rule of law with tribal loyalty, and the official embrace of a divisive ethno-nationalism constitute a clear and present danger to freedom and liberty. This is not a partisan issue; it is a constitutional one. The principles enshrined in the Bill of Rights—equal protection, due process, freedom of speech and assembly—are under direct assault.

The failure of a broad-based civic response is a symptom of a deeper moral decay. When the language of public discourse becomes coarsened, when norms of basic decency and respect are abandoned, it becomes exponentially harder to articulate a defense of higher principles. The corrosion, as Brooks notes, is not just in our laws but “in our minds, in our language.” Rebuilding requires more than political strategy; it requires a moral and cultural renewal, a reaffirmation of the humanist values that reject the categorization of people as “less than” based on their origin or faith.

The path forward is daunting. It demands courage from every sector of society to overcome the fear and collective action problem that currently paralyzes dissent. It requires a clear-eyed recognition that the grievances fueling this upheaval are real and must be addressed with economic and social policies that restore dignity and opportunity to those left behind—but without capitulating to the politics of resentment and bigotry. Most of all, it requires an unshakeable commitment to the truth that our system of government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, protected by laws that apply equally to all. The great unraveling of this consequential year must be met with an even greater resolve to weave the fabric of democracy back together, stronger and more inclusive than before. The soul of the nation depends on it.