Being American

Being American

I have a friend who has been trying very hard to create a theory that at our core all of us Americans are really more alike than different. I’ve heard him mention this theme several times now and then just recently he published a story that he sent to me and to several of our mutual friends who operate at the far more conservative end of the political spectrum. He genuinely wanted us to respond to his treatise and presumably to prepare for the counter arguments that might ensue on the topic of our similarities rather than our differences. As soon as I began to read the piece, I realized that I simply fundamentally disagreed with the premise. I think for many years, it was a fair conclusion to suggest that we Americans were far more alike than different, but I believe that now the divisiveness in our society is not a false indicator of our differences, but rather, a very clear highlighting of just how fundamental those differences are.

It is his belief that these differences are more a fabrication of our media and the financial incentives they have for stirring that pot and promoting our differences rather than our similarities. I don’t disagree that those incentives exist, and I don’t even disagree that the media likes to exploit them, but I do disagree that the media is the cause of some false indicator about our differences. To my way of thinking, the media has reflected those differences and perhaps even magnified those, but they did not create them, and they are not pulling the wool over our eyes by making us think that we’re different when we are indeed more or less fundamentally aligned. It is the misalignment of the thinking of at least two major segments of our population that has caused this divisiveness and this rancor and I believe it’s more productive to examine that fundamental cause than it is to try and find an excuse to say that the differences don’t exist. By the way, I wish my friend was right because it would be a lot easier to grapple with the misguided media than it is to grapple with the fundamental disconnect in our society that I see.

My friend starts by declaring the things he believes in as “Love of country, belief in democracy, freedom, and “the American way.”” Unfortunately these are all platitudes in this day and age. We probably all love our country, but the question is what is it that we consider to be our country? In the recent movie called Civil War, actor Jesse Plemons plays a soldier in the revolutionary forces. When he captures the team of photojournalists who are the film’s protagonists, they tell him they are Americans. His question needs no explanation to be as poignant as it is. He asks, “what type of Americans are you?” Anyone who sees that scene understands immediately how very different the two groups of Americans being referenced are. The author/director, Alex Garland has been quite specific about saying that he made this movie as a direct reflection of the divide that exists today in the United States.

I find is so strange that when Trump and Republicans win points on something like the recent SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity, they speak of it as a great moment of defending the Constitution and insuring the democracy of the nation. And yet, those of us on the other side of that issue view the exact same act as being 180 degrees contrary to the Constitution and another brick out of the wall that forms our democratic standards. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that it’s a toss up as to which side is more vehement in their stand on the issue. This is not a case for similitude.

And then there is that wonderful word, freedom, the word that Ruth Bader Ginsburg once reminded the Supreme Court never appears anywhere in the U.S. Constitution even though it is a rallying cry for all of us. The problem with freedom is that one man’s freedom is another man’s offense. The word is simply too vague to be an indicator of anything.  Freedom is, unfortunately, subject to too many different definitions, pretty much one for every group.  Does it mean freedom to publish books on anything we want or is censorship allowed under the prevailing definition of freedom?  What about the freedom to love who you want? That has been the law of the land for some time since movements like the gay rights movement began in earnest in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn riot. We know that the 2025 Manifesto, that epitomizes the right wing approach to governance, advocates for Christian Nationalism and is decidedly anti-LGBTQ+ in its formulation. That doesn’t sound terribly freedom-oriented…at least not to the LGBTQ+ community. How about the freedom to define your gender as you want? Surely a libertarian frame of reference would allow for the “live and let live” approach to such a personal and non-harmful right? This all points to one of our nation’s founding freedoms for anyone in America to practice any religion (or not) as they choose and not be bound by the confines of Christianity. Unfortunately, freedom, as defined by the far right and as expressly indicated in the 2025 document, is modeled expressly after the Hungarian/Orban model of Christian Nationalism and returning the country to its “Christian roots”. That is certainly not any of the Founding Fathers’ definition of freedom. And let us not forget the freedom to have final say on your reproductive rights? I won’t even go there, because we all, by now, know that no matter how many times Trump and other Republicans try to soft-pedal their stand on abortion, their intentions to restrict women’s rights is well understood by all, driven by the false equivalency of caring for the rights of the unborn.  And then finally there is the “American Way”. I don’t even know how to address that notion since there are as many American Ways as there are people. My American Way is more closely aligned to my reality.  I want the America I grew up in between 1954 and 1980 in suburbia. That is my American Way, one guided by the liberal democracy tenets that guided this country so well from 1933 to 1980 at least. Is that how everyone would define it?  I doubt it. I recall that Archie Bunker pined for the days of Herbert Hoover.

I believe that our fundamental national reality is that we are a people with at least two differing fundamental sets of values. What I do not know for sure is how big the populations are that sit on the two sides. Given the long term history of liberal democracy in this country and the fact that it has survived a World War and a number of other military actions from Korea,Vietnam, Iraq and beyond, I think it is fair to suggest that we know that a large number of Americans support that value system. The harder determination is how many other Americans support the new vision espoused by Republicans (and Trump, even though he is trying to deny it now). The fundamental problem with that determination is that the misinformation is so rampant that it’s unclear how many fully understand the right-wing program. The fact that Project 2025 is getting publicized and explained finally and that more people who thought they were on the Right are appalled by what they see there, tells us that the Right may well not have the support they claim and that they wish they had. However, our two-party system leaves us with what may or may not be a radical contingent, as represented by the authors of the 2025 900-page document and this, in the absence of any other Republican Party Platform, may be the embodiment of the values that I will declare as radically apart from any value system that this country has ever embraced and that our Democratic Party Platform and doctrine espouse.

Americans may, indeed, be mostly the same, but that is not evident while half the country is allowing the contingent that authored 2025 and that has taken over the Republican Party in the past several years to speak for them.