The Neutrality Trap

chapter fivethe hope and challenge of enduring conflict

“Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind [despotism] (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill‐founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”

—George Washington, “Farewell Address”

“… partisanship rips at the bonds of affection that tie the country state to state, political party to political party, citizen to citizen.”

—Joe Biden

With only the slightest modernization of syntax, Washington's famous admonition about the danger of factions could be about the perils of our time. “False alarms,” “enfeebled public administration,” “riot and insurrection,” “foreign influence and corruption,” these warnings from 225 years ago seem written for today. And Joe Biden appears to agree.

Our most important conflicts do not readily disappear. How they manifest themselves changes over time as do the players, location, and impact, but their roots are deep, and they stay with us as long as their ...