Domino Theory of Norms Spells Doom for US Politics
The shocking public reaction to the murder of a health care CEO is the latest sign of how fragile norms in America have become. Break one, and others start to crack.
Unjustifiable under any norm.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North AmericaThe habits of liberal democracy are self-sustaining only up to a point. The norms of orderly government have to be practiced to retain wide support. Once questioned, they’re at risk of breaking. For the past few years, the US has been finding out just how fragile these norms can be.
The latest source of revelation was the reaction to the murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare. We don’t yet know what kind of derangement – ethical, cognitive or both – plagued his killer, but even in a country too familiar with lethal violence, you might have expected a universal and unqualified condemnation of this heinous act. Far from it. A remarkable number of politicians, commentators and dwellers on social media saw the need to put the crime in context, as they would say. Murder is not the answer, most of them concede, but remember that the health insurance industry is also a violent predator. People are angry and right to be, they explain.