Somewhere between the extreme scenarios of social collapse (“coming apart”) and great awakening (coming round, perhaps) there lurks the mundane possibility that the United States could muddle along for quite some time with its current levels of social polarization. After all, it took not just a Depression but a world war to produce the egalitarian, meritocratic America Charles Murray so fondly remembers.

Still, as the father of a newborn American, I would much rather he didn’t grow up in one of two hopelessly separate nations. So, rather than muddling along, I say we tackle the inequality issue head on. This is the perfect year to do it, after all. The choice in November will be stark. On one side, the president’s project to make America more like Scandinavia, with higher taxes on the rich and yet more federal programs to spend their money on the poor. And on the other?

As Murray shows, there is a conservative solution to the problem of inequality. Scrap the failing welfare programs of the ’30s and ’60s before they bankrupt America. Ensure that everyone has a basic income. Then simplify the tax code to restore the incentives that used to exist for everyone to work hard. Finally, end the state monopolies in public education to launch a new era of school choice and competition.

Calling Mitt Romney: read Coming Apart before your campaign comes apart.