An America not merely fractured but altogether splintered by extremism, hyperpartisanship, unprecedented vitriol and widespread disdain for democracy. A world order threatened by autocracies, and a Europe threatened by a tyrant demonstrably ready to conquer territory by force. A Mideast taken hostage by genocidal terrorist enterprises funded by Iran, long adjudged the world's foremost state sponsor of terror. And that's just for starters. For Americans struggling to keep up with a 24/7 cycle of news-or what purports to be news-it feels as though we are on the brink. And it feels that way because we are.