What is a "Fire in the Basement"?

The title of Bob Herbert's editorial, "A Fire in the Basement" is a metaphor for describing the state of America. In his editorial he addresses problems in America's society such as: partisanship, racism, failure to follow founding ideas, class struggle, and the indifference to abuses of power and social injustices. By "fire in the basement" Herbert is referring to the underlying problems of society that people can't see but are definitely there. The problems "burning" in the basement are a threat to bring the whole building down. The U.S. being the building. Fire in the foundation of the building affects everyone. So the underlying problems threaten to bring America down and affect all of it's citizens.

I think Herbert makes a good point and I agree with him. He talks about partisanship, which means the democrats and Republicans don't work together anymore. Before they used to be able to get stuff done but now they can't come to agreement on many things, weakening our country. Herbert also points out racism by talking about a story where a group of black men were wrongly accused because of their color. This is happening today and we are at a point in our country where we should be past racism but were not. Americans don't care about abuses of power and social injustices in our society. We are not informed enough of the governments mistakes and hypocrisy in our nation, but when we are informed Americans are indifferent and don't speak up. In the future this leads to more abuses of power and more social injustices. Also the diminishing middle class is posing a threat. In today's economy you are either rich or struggling.