Americans are appalled by a myriad of issues: a deteriorating moral code; falling educational standards; rising political polarization; glorification of the drab and ugly; collapsing social mobility; a brazenly inept and horrendously corrupt ruling class. That is the reality. Addressing it with aesthetic and compositional élan—and continuing to explore timeless human themes—will thrust non-leftist creatives into the national psyche far more effectively than a masturbatory mission to create work that merely appeals to one’s own tribe.