The Politics of Petulance: America in an Age of Immaturity, Wolfe Alan

Alan Wolfe has an answer. In The Politics of Petulance he argues that the core of our problem isnt Trump himself--its that we are mired in an age of political immaturity. That immaturity is not grounded in any one ideology, nor is it a function of age or education. Its in an abdication of valuing the character of would-be leaders; its in a failure to acknowledge, even welcome the complexity of government and society; and its in a loss of the ability to be skeptical without being suspicious. In 2016, many Americans were offered tantalizingly simple answers to complicated problems, and, like children being offered a lunch of Pop Rocks and Coke, they reflexively--and mindlessly--accepted.

The good news, such as it is, is that weve been here before. Wolfe reminds us that we know how to grow up and face down Trump and other demagogues. Wolfe reinvigorates the tradition of public engagement exemplified by midcentury intellectuals such as Richard Hofstadter, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling--and he draws lessons from their battles with McCarthyism and conspiratorial paranoia. Wolfe mounts a powerful case that we can learn from them to forge a new path for political intervention today.