In 'Last Best Hope,' George Packer asks if America can unite again

This rebroadcast originally aired on July 2, 2021.

Journalist George Packer has reported on strife and division around the world.

Now, he trains his eye homeward, and finds an America divided into four factions: the market-enthralled Free America; meritocratic Smart America; aggrieved Real America; and the impatient, rigid young activists of Just America.

It’s a failure laid bare by the largest-scale problem in a generation. Packer says of COVID: “The pandemic exploited our system weaknesses.”

So, not one America, but four. Can our country be reunited?

Guests

George Packer, staff writer at The Atlantic. Author of “Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal.”

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

Interview Highlights

Is America a failed state? 

: “Last year, I wrote an essay for The Atlantic called . And the headline got a lot of attention. I didn’t mean it literally. I have reported on failed states, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, places where the state is simply not present, or is actively a force of destruction against its own citizens. We’re not there. Last spring, at the worst moments of the pandemic, you could still get an ambulance to the hospital if things went right for you, if the hospitals had a bed