[The Viewpoint of Dongki Kim] Cultural Crisis Leads to Political Crisis

As the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States fail to reach a compromise on the budget, certain functions of the US government are currently suspended. This situation symbolizes the political division in the country. James Davison Hunter, a professor at the University of Virginia, argues in his book published last year, "Democracy and Solidarity: The Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis," that the political crisis in the US is fundamentally rooted in historical and cultural dimensions. He is also well known as the author of "Culture Wars," published in 1991.

The most profound problem lies in the fact that the "hybrid Enlightenment" that has supported American democracy since its founding can no longer fulfill its role. The Enlightenment, which blended various intellectual currents such as Calvinism, classical republicanism, and Lockean individualism, was once a source of social solidarity. Although this philosophy promised liberty, equality, and universal justice, it inherently contained contradictions from the outset, as it denied these values to a significant portion of the population. Nevertheless, American history has been a process of overcoming these contradictions.

Today, however, the sources of this hybrid Enlightenment have been depleted and can no longer provide a foundation for solidarity. This means that the deep cultural structures that once made political life intelligible have collapsed. As a result, there are now almost no shared assumptions about the nature of a "good society," and the common political ground has largely disappeared.

The void left by the collapse of cultural foundations is being filled by a nihilistic cultural logic that transcends political divisions. This leads to epistemological failure and moral inconsistency, dismantling the common ground necessary for democratic discourse. Nihilistic culture defines the other side not as a "reasonable opponent," but as an "existential threat," turning politics into a struggle aimed at mutual destruction. Anger and hatred deepen. As organic solidarity becomes impossible and politics degenerates into nihilism and hostility, authoritarian impulses to forcibly resolve division grow stronger. The current political conflict has transformed into a struggle to acquire the coercive power granted by the state. Competing sides attempt to impose their ideologies through laws or executive orders, regardless of opposition from the other side.

Authoritarian impulses are found not only among specific political factions but also among technocratic elites. These elites argue that it is justified for experts and bureaucrats to determine and implement the public good, regardless of popular opinion, in order to solve complex problems. This is an attempt at "enforced solidarity" that bypasses democratic deliberation and procedures, making procedural democracy, which has operated for a long time, extremely vulnerable.

These deep-rooted problems lead to dysfunction and inefficiency throughout the political system. Without consensus on truth and moral principles, public discourse is filled not with rational exchanges of opinion, but with aggressive trading of slogans, insults, accusations, and abuse. This results in distrust of government agencies and public institutions, further eroding the state's ability to solve problems.

Hope for the future requires more than vague optimism; it demands moral imagination to envision and clarify an ethical vision for public life that transcends the current hostile dichotomies. Professor Hunter argues that the role of the poet is more important than that of the political broker in imagining and voicing such a vision. Hunter's fundamental diagnosis of the American political crisis could also be applied to our own reality. Now is the time for us to reflect on what the foundations of solidarity that make productive politics possible are, and how we can strengthen them.

Kim Donggi, author of "The Power of the Dollar" and attorney