Often you hear people on the right arguing for the existence of a cultural crisis, a crisis of the family, a crisis of moral anomie and nihilism, and arguing that this crisis exists because of cultural liberalism.

In this piece, from last year, Thomas Edsall gathers together some actual data that shows, reasonably convincingly, that no such "crisis" exists, and insofar as there are data points that some mistakenly (or in bad faith) take as evidence for such a "crisis," those data points are manifest in just those groups--e.g., white working class men--who it is reasonable to assume are most opposed to the ideology of "cultural liberalism," and in fact most attracted to the ideology of the right wingers complaining about "cultural liberalism."

It is clear that good thinking exists--some of it empirical, some of it more theoretical--on the problems America faces, and it would be a good move for thinkers on the right to focus on this thinking, and learn from it and try to build on it. There's certainly a "conservative" response to such thinking. It is not the reactionary and anti-liberal response so common now, it is better than that. I wonder who will be the first conservatives to try to inhabit that position.

In the meantime, the rest of us have to think about what to do, and Edsall's piece points to some of the good empirical research which could help us get a better picture of our situation, and how we might best undertake to reform our institutions, our ways of living, and our individual selves in order more fully to live flourishing and decent lives together. 

After the Coronavirus has gone--as I hope it will, one day, a year or more from now, be gone--we will have to think about the changing shape of American public life.  The amazing expansion of moral concern that we have seen in recent decades, more quickly in recent years, and even more quickly in the past month or so, will be a central feature of this reality.  It will require a great deal of intelligence, and a great number of distinct intelligences, to help us understand it.