The World Needs a Unified and Resolute America

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

The rest of the planet does not pause while Washington sorts out its internal food fights. Republicans—and other Americans—need to put aside their childish squabbles.

First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:

• The Kamala Harris problem
• Israel’s two reckonings
• “We’re going to die here.”

Childish Squabbles

Two years ago, I wrote my first newsletter for The Atlantic, in which I worried that the United States was “no longer a serious country.”

Of course, we’re still a powerful country … But when it comes to seriousness—the invaluable discipline and maturity that allows us to discern matters that should transcend self-interest, to set aside churlish ego and emotionalism, and to act with prudence and self-restraint—we’re a weak, impoverished backwater.

When I wrote those words, the world was emerging from a pandemic, but many Americans were still refusing