Sophistry as an analogue for current political discussion
There is a gap between what people know at the commoner level and what people know who study the past in an academic setting. One problem that faced Greece pretty much throughout the existence of that culture was the problem of sophistry, where people would bastardize the principles of their cultural virtues (reason and rhetoric), and use them as tools in selfish pursuits. That's basically an allegory for modern times, where the intelligent voices are essentially exploiting the public for their lack of philosophical understanding.
Aristotle as the symbolic representation of essentialism
Aristotle was before Christ, but the Christian virtues of Saint Benedict are shown to be of the same accord with Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics indicating that part of the Christian influence in America is a sense of hopeful optimism about life, and the general feeling that good behavior is returned with meaning and success.
Nietzsche as the symbolic representation of existentialism
On the other hand, there is the Nietzschean influence, the intellectual rejection of all the ways humans try to create order out of such a chaotic existence. Nietzsche says that people are basically weak and stupid, and anyone with a brain should be able to use that against them. He says that power is the only true virtue. This is allegorical because it helps explain the modern phenomenon of unbridled skepticism and distrust of authority that is also present in our zeitgeist.
The fall of Rome as an analogue for the present day
In academia, there is an entire army of thinkers all advocating that the real purpose of ethics was to show us when we were on the verge of disaster by analyzing past human behavior and drawing parallels to the present day. This is an essentialist practice, so many existentialists don't buy the analogy, but the evidence presented here by MacIntyre is assertive. The West needs to come up with a standard ethic, or else pluralism and bipolar politics will rip the USA apart.
Telos as the symbol of what's missing in Western ethics.
The practice of teleology is a Greek idea and a classically important idea. The concept is rooted by the idea that to understand something, one must understand the end purpose of the thing, or it's ultimatum. By focusing on the idea that similar systems find similar conclusions, hopefully it will legitimize the Aristotelean practice of ethical predictions, telling what kinds of behaviors will bring humans to their fulfillment of potential, or their telos. In other words, telos (Greek for 'end' or 'fulfillment') is a fundamental component of classical ethics.
