Thread by @Samueltadros

Yesterday’s attack on the Capitol building was beyond troubling. Thought I probably have little to add to what million of others have already written, I feel the need to express my thoughts and worries.

First, though I am not an American citizen, I feel and have fully felt for many years, that I am an American, by heart, by mind, by choice. I believe in this nation’s founding principles and vision, and share in its future as a resident and as a father to American children.

Yesterday’s attack cannot be brushed aside and the role that the President has played in inciting it cannot be ignored. The failures of security need to be investigated.

But I think all of these, as important as they are, are just symptoms of a larger crisis facing American democracy and the Republic itself. Try, just for a second to ignore these events and look at these deeper issues.

This country is broken. We can no longer overlook this. I do not refer here to the political system, though that is obviously broken, but to a deeper fabric that makes democracy possible and that keeps the country together: social capital.

Tocqueville wrote about it, Robert Putnam expanded on the concept. Social capital: those bonds of trust and reciprocity that create social cohesion and make politics possible. Those no longer exist.

The idea that you can trust your fellow Americans even if you disagree with them. That you share something in common. That you can trust the system, even when you disagree with the outcome.

I remember a lecture I attended in Syracuse University back in 2007, where the Professor made the observation that the moment that democracy took root was when John Adams handed over the Presidency to Thomas Jefferson.

Adams disagreed with Jefferson, though their friendship would resume later. But he trusted that Jefferson was a patriot, that Jefferson’s victory was not an end to his beliefs.

Without this, without trust in your fellow citizens, democracy becomes a zero-sum game, where the winner takes all, and the loser has no future. That is the kind of politics we have in the Middle East.

I am afraid that this is the state we are in today. Not only do many Americans no longer trust the other side or the system, but they also believe that an election loss poses an existential threat to their lives.

This is not true of only one side, though the crisis is obviously deeper on the conservative side. We can debate the starting point: End of common enemy after Cold war, Clinton impeachment, 2000 elections, Iraq war aftermath. But result is still the same.

One cause, however, deserves serious thought: the role of technology and the media. In the past, there was one dominant source of information: the mainstream media, which despite its own biases, was trusted enough as a source of information.

This is no longer the case. The media bias has become more obvious, but more importantly, alternative sources of information have become available in alternative rightwing media and social media.

Americans today occupy parallel universes where they speak with only people who share their political views and read only sources of information that they agree with. I can write tens of stories of friendship that I have seen ended due to political differences.

Which brings me to the future. President Biden bears no responsibility for this crisis, but unfortunately it is his to grapple with. In 13 days, the burden will be his as he becomes President of all Americans.

Honestly, it is a burden that is heavy and nearly impossible for any man, even a President to deal with, yet alone solve. Only parallel may be the civil war divisions that Lincoln and his successors had to deal with.

I am encouraged by the tone of his speeches, by his talk of healing. This country is in a desperate need for healing and reconciliation. I have no doubt in his sincerity and decency. And yet I fear that the temptations of power will be too great.

Some Democrats may find the temptation too great to resist. With the Presidency, and both chambers of Congress in their hands, there will be some who adopt a winner takes all mentality. And who would blame them, the other side operated in a similar manner, they will point out.

This is what worries me the most. That this is only a beginning and not an end. That we are going to continue to see an erosion of the social capital that holds the fabric of this Republic together. That this poison will continue to grow.

America, for all its ills and problems, remains a shining city upon the hill. It remains an exceptional country. And no matter how many democracies exist in the world today, it remains an experiment in self-government, that has no parallel.

As an immigrant this country, as an American in heart and mind, an American by choice, I pray that this experiment in liberty continues to shine. But liberty is never enough without other things: virtue and prudence.

As Edmund Burke wrote “But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.”

Lastly, Merry Christmas to Copts, and other who celebrate Christmas today. Christ is Born. Christ is Risen. And so will we.