Senator Chris Murphy — Crisis of the Common Good
US Senator Chris Murphy discusses the breakdown of shared civic identity in America — and whether democratic politics can rebuild what polarization and isolation have eroded.
Why we picked this
Murphy is one of the few sitting senators who writes and speaks with genuine intellectual seriousness about structural political problems — not a campaign speech, but a real argument about democratic erosion.
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut brings his new book Crisis of the Common Good to Sixth & I for a conversation about what American political culture has lost and whether it can be recovered. Murphy argues that the breakdown isn’t primarily ideological — it’s social: the erosion of the shared civic spaces, institutions, and habits of mind that made democratic self-governance possible.
Murphy has emerged as one of the more substantive voices in the Senate on questions of democratic health — he led the bipartisan gun safety negotiations that produced the first major firearms legislation in decades, and he has been unusually willing to apply analytical rigor to questions about why politics works the way it does. His books and speeches consistently engage with political science research rather than relying solely on anecdote and grievance.
The Sixth & I venue — a historic synagogue that has become one of DC’s premier spaces for intellectual public events — is appropriate for a conversation about communal life and shared purpose. This is a ticketed event, reflecting the demand for Murphy’s appearances and the significance of the venue.