Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut sees the current crisis in the U.S. as more than a political one. Americans have lost the sense of daily purpose and connection that are vital to happiness, becoming anxious, angry, and adrift, and the rich and well-connected have nearly uncontested control of our politics.
Sen. Murphy views the Trump administration’s assaults on democracy as a symptom of a deeper crisis: the abandonment of the common good as our country’s organizing principle. In Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America, he draws on history and political philosophy to expose how six different cults have paved the way to our current troubles: a cult of profit that punishes workers, a cult of globalism that weakens communities, a cult of technology that turns us against one another, a cult of consumption that undermines citizenship, a cult of credentialism that devalues those without degrees, and a cult of corruption that threatens democracy.
Sen. Murphy offers a new politics of the common good that is deeply rooted in our past, a radical challenge to the status quo, and capable of drawing support across the political spectrum, with a majority of Americans favoring policies that curb corporate power, control predatory technology, enhance face-to-face connection, grant workers greater control of their lives, and remove big money from our politics.