Thirty years ago, author James Davison Hunter looked over American politics with foreboding. In his book “Culture Wars,” he lamented how politics was being taken over by cultural issues on which compromise was impossible. Back then, it was mostly just abortion. Today, he told Politico in a recent interview, it’s so much more, too: “Part of our problem is that we have politicized everything.”

The “whole point of civil society,” Professor Hunter said, is to provide the mediation that prevents violence. The Constitution provides the framework, but it depends on citizens to do the work. But what happens when they don’t – when they instead use politics as a tool to attempt to not only defeat their opponents but also impose their will on them? “Part of what’s troubling is that I’m beginning to see signs of the justification for violence on both sides,” he said.

Much has been said about the threats to American democracy, but for Professor Hunter, this expansion of the culture wars is one of the deepest drivers. By his reckoning, the only peaceful way out is to find a way to break their hold. “Talk through the conflicts,” he said. “And whatever you do, don’t just simply impose your view on anyone else. You have to talk them through.”

“What is going to underwrite liberal democracy in the 21st century?” he asked. That is the question America must find a fresh answer to, together.