The End of America

As I write this it appears we are approaching a climax to the escalating conflict brought into the open by the last election. A constitutional and legal crisis is upon us as the President refuses all cooperation with Congress; how it will unfold is far from clear. It will be decided most likely by the President’s Republican supporters, who will either continue to defend his ever more bizarre and dangerous behavior, or finally turn on him.

If the former we are headed for conflict, not just in the halls of Congress and the courts but in the streets; for Congress, unless it abdicates, will have no choice but to call on the people to enforce its rights against the executive. It seems likely that even if in the end institutions do their job, millions of Americans will not accept the result and, if prompted by Trump—a virtual certainty—will resist.

The outcome is uncertain because I think large parts of our country no longer hold to a common understanding of what it means to be American. Since the Civil War it has been generally accurate to say that the United States was as much an idea, or ideal, as a normal nation state. When you thought of yourself as an American it was not primarily as a resident of a particular territory or a member of a particular race or religion. The United States was defined by fealty to norms laid out in the Declaration and the Constitution and lauded at every Fourth of July oration: inalienable human and political rights, equality for all before the law, representative government, and the seemingly inextricable corollaries of self-improvement and opportunity and economic growth. Immigrants could come and, by pledging allegiance to these ideals, become Americans. In this way it was different from the Old Nations of Europe and Asia.

I say “since the Civil War” because before then, much of the country gave explicit priority to something else: a system of slavery and fixed hierarchy, where rights to property and ineradicable inequalities outweighed individual rights, including the right to self-government. We flattered ourselves that this view had been permanently defeated, especially after the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and 60s. But it had not.

Today we are returning to this pre Civil War America. When push comes to shove, a great many Americans seem ready to throw democracy and equality overboard in favor of other ideals.

o Our plutocratic class believes property rights come first. Democracy is suspect since the majority often seeks to redistribute wealth, and limit the power of money. Members of this class have waged a lengthy war to protect their wealth and power by using money and influence to put into office officials who will employ gerrymandering, voter suppression, and conservative courts to limit popular influence. They have fostered an anti-government ideology designed to discredit “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

o Our white, rural/suburban class believes its culture of racial privilege, patriarchy, and Christian fundamentalism comes first. If progress and democracy in today’s multi-cultural American threatens this way of life, so much the worse for progress and democracy. Anxiety and real economic disruption—perpetrated by the plutocrats—has made this class easy prey to demagogues spouting conspiracy theories and stoking racial and cultural divides.

o Our progressive class is beginning to think fighting climate change and expanding a panoply of identity rights come first. If democracy in today’s America means rule by Trump and a thoughtless embrace of planet-destroying capitalism, then what is there to defend? Recognition of America’s historic flaws and continuing shortcomings has, for some, meant a turning away from everything American.

Of course these are generalizations. Plenty of business leaders recognize the need to protect and expand democracy; plenty of rural, white Christians still see the United States as the welcoming land of opportunity for all; plenty of college kids have not given up on America’s unrealized promise. But there is a growing willingness by disparate groups to say out loud what for a long time was perhaps there but not admitted—we don’t really accept this whole liberal-democracy-everyone-is-equal-give-me-your-tired-your-poor thing. We don’t believe it. It’s not working for us. We prefer something else.

What the ‘something-else’ might be is, for now, not clear. For many nationalists and populists it is out and out authoritarianism in the name of ‘traditional values,’ a la Putin, or the slightly less crude version now being rammed into place in Poland and Hungary. For wealthy elites, it’s a globalized world of weak states where the rich can flourish by manipulating the system (until, that is, they can colonize Mars and create the libertarian paradise. You thought Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk just loved rocket ships??:). Liberals dream of an egalitarian society where all vestiges of hierarchy and exploitation have been eliminated, and smart automation means everyone gets a guaranteed basic income.

It is not clear that we have enough people left who both understand American principles and are committed to defending them. I guess we will find out.