Coronavirus Crisis: Still Dividing Americans More Than Uniting Them?

As the coronavirus shuts down their daily routines, some Americans have expressed the hope that the crisis would at last "bring us together" – or at least restore some sense of a shared national fate.

That is profoundly to be hoped. Public trust is essential in a public health crisis. Beyond that, there would be much to be gained by restoring a sense of national purpose.

As President Trump himself said Monday: "If everyone makes this change or these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus and we're going to have a big celebration altogether."

But in this moment, in this crisis, the portents are not good for such unity. So far, the sudden emergence of a killer disease rampaging coast to coast has served less to unite us than to emphasize what divides us.

This stands in marked contrast to the iconic moments of crisis and national response in our past. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 transformed the country overnight, converting a predominantly