Instead of “Americanizing” the Middle East, he notes, that the U.S. has become increasingly “Middle Easternized. The polarization of American society is so extreme that the Republican and Democratic parties resemble warring tribes that see each other as existential threats.

A large number of Republicans seem to regard loyalty to the person of Donald Trump as more important than their commitment to any higher goals like the rule of law or preservation of democracy internationally.

The Democratic Party, for its part, has shifted away from the broad class-based coalitions of the New Deal and Great Society to advocacy on behalf of its component identity groups: African-Americans, women, the LGBT community and the like.