your essays of the last 13 years of american politics. do you see any analogs to the moment we're in with the intraparty soul searching going on of republicans in the last time frame? >> we've had dispeptic moments before, 1790s, we were beginning to understand the party system, what being a loyal opposition. 1850s, the nation was arguing about big questions, could some human beings come, could slavery expand to territories, et cetera. what makes today different, it is hard to know what you could do with a law that would make people happy. if people are unhappy about their status, about the perceived condescension of others, hard to write a political program to address status resentments like that, which is why this is a cultural and class conflict we're in and