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And now, social media: algorithms that sequester

Americans in virtual gated communities where

they reinforce existing beliefs instead of evolving

the story with fellow Americans of other stripes.

This landscape helps make Donald Trump,

surfing the waves of TV and Twitter, so

successful: A salesman at his core, he

understands the mechanics behind storytelling

and how to spin a tale that packs a wallop.

“The best and worst leaders build themselves

out of stories,” James Poniewozik writes in

“Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television and

the Fracturing of America,” his 2019 book. “They

use their culture’s language … to express what

literal language can’t.”

And so you have Trump — atop the bulliest

pulpit in the land — characterizing the

American story Monday night: “Our country

always wins. That is why I am taking immediate

presidential action to stop the violence and

restore security and safety in America.”

And you have his challenger, Joe Biden,

characterizing it this way on Tuesday: “American

history isn’t a fairy tale with a guaranteed happy

ending. The battle for the soul of this nation has

been a constant push-and-pull for more than

240 years. A tug of war between the American

ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh

reality that racism has long torn us apart.”

What’s happening in American cities over the

past week shows, among many other things,

a vision of storylines at war. Over and over,

protesters speak of wanting to be heard, of

having their stories shape the larger story, of

needing the central myth of American life to

include them.

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