Donald Trump is a symptom, not the cause, of America’s spiritual unraveling. Make no mistake: he is no ordinary symptom. He could prove fatal to our 250-year experiment in multicultural democracy. But our nation would make a grave error if we believed we could repair what is broken within us simply by defeating Trump—or his successor—at the ballot box. No, a deeper rot festers in the American soul: a callousness toward our neighbors, a me-first selfishness, a relentless focus on “getting mine” even if it leaves others behind. Today, we worship false cults—profit at any cost, consumerism instead of citizenship, a blind faith in technology, a winner-takes-all politics—that leave us feeling empty and devoid of purpose.

Excerpt from Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, USA, 2026, pp. 7-8.

Synopsis by Author (Introduction, p. 8)
[Quote] This book tells the story of how America’s concern for the common good came apart at the seams, giving rise to a new, deeply unsatisfying me-first era that has left so many Americans feeling empty and adrift. It is the story of how we came to worship a set of false idols, causing us to forget the bond between true happiness and a connected life full of shared purpose with people about whom you care deeply. It’s also a proposal for how we can recover those sources of fulfillment, through the work of government, civil society, and all of us as individuals. Even in a time of rising political danger and division, Americans across the right-left divide share similar worries about our false cults and similar hope that we can undo their hold over our nation. [Unquote]

The Six False Cults of America’s Spiritual Decline
Murphy traces the evolution and manifestation of each destructive, false cult before presenting proposals for addressing each one to restore our common good.

• The Cult of Profit: rewards corporations and investors; punishes workers; guts unionized worker power; prioritizes profit and material enrichment over virtue; strips dignity from work; ends social contract.
• The Cult of Everywhere: consolidates corporate market share nationwide; hurts small businesses; destroys local social infrastructure (like parks, playgrounds, pools, walking trails, and libraries); weakens local communities.
• The Cult of Technology: outsources human cognition to artificial intelligence (AI); kills friendships; promotes social isolation and loneliness; turns us against one another and poisons our youth.
• The Cult of Consumption: turns everything into a commodity (health care, education, prisons, military operations), even ourselves; carves rich and poor into separate spaces; undermines the idea of citizenship as contributing to society.
• The Cult of Credentialism: promotes a college degree as essential for higher wages; bankrupts those who cannot pay exorbitant college debt; devalues those without college degrees; creates growing education divide.
• The Cult of Corruption: outlines rampant corruption under the current administration; billionaire class captures our political system; infuses winner-takes-all mentality; adulation of the grifter-in-chief; threatens democracy.

---

Chris Murphy has represented the State of Connecticut in the U.S. Senate since 2013. Formerly a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Connecticut state Legislature, he is known for his work to combat gun violence, political corruption, and the scourge of loneliness in America. He is the author of The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy (USA, 2021).

Senator Murphy grew up in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and attended Williams College in Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law and practiced real estate and banking law with the firm of Ruben, Johnson & Morgan in Hartford, Connecticut.