Now Is the Time to Reestablish Reality

The safeguards of democracy—including the exhausting, underappreciated work of so many people who uphold them—have stopped the U.S. from descending into authoritarianism, but the facts of our division remain bleak. Institutional distrust has been rising for decades. A Monmouth University survey found that 77 percent of 2020 Donald Trump voters believe that Joe Biden won the presidency through fraud. Trust in Congress is in the basement. Until recently, a majority of Americans at least trusted one another. But in a 2019 Pew survey, 59 percent of Americans reported little or no confidence in the wisdom of their fellow citizens to make political decisions. It's not hard to imagine that number might be even higher now.