Politics & Power Quote by Theodore C. Sorensen

A “nation under siege” is a deliberately alarmist metaphor, but Sorensen’s choice of “remain” does the real work. It suggests permanence: not a temporary emergency, not a spike in fear, but a settled condition that has begun to feel normal. Coming from a lawyer who helped shape mid-century liberal governance (and, famously, the Kennedy-era style of public rhetoric), the line reads less like cable-news panic than like a diagnosis of civic psychology: the United States has internalized threat as a baseline.

The intent is twofold. On the surface, it invokes external danger - geopolitics, terrorism, ideological rivalry - the kind of pressures that justify vigilance. Underneath, it quietly indicts what vigilance does to a democracy over time: it recasts citizens as targets, dissent as risk, secrecy as prudence, and emergency powers as routine tools. “Siege” implies walls, checkpoints, rationing, and the steady narrowing of acceptable movement. Translated into policy culture, that’s surveillance creep, executive latitude, and a public trained to trade ambiguity for authority.

The subtext is also about storytelling. A nation “under siege” organizes itself around enemies, not aspirations. It’s a posture that simplifies the world into inside/outside, loyal/suspect - politically useful, emotionally addictive, and hard to unwind. Sorensen’s line lands because it exposes how fear can become an operating system: not just reacting to threats, but structuring identity, governance, and the limits of the possible.