The American Experience versus Nationalism

The American Experience versus Nationalism:

A reply to Rich Lowry and Liah Greenfeld 

Economics (and Politics this time) Without The B.S.**: 

[**  Double entendre intended.]

Rich Lowry and Liah Green feld had a discussion on American Nationalism for the NPR program 'On Point'.

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/11/05/rich-lowry-the-case-for-nationalism


This is my reply:

This discussion by Rich Lowry and Liah Greenfeld is disheartening; neither gets to the core component in explaining what has driven human development, DEMOCRACY, simply defined as the ability of people to govern themselves.  Democracy has not been sustained by nationalism, or even American Nationalism; it is the American Experience that has sustained the democratic urge of people, both in this nation as well as around the world.  But these are not American values, in the sense that only Americans can promote them, these are universal values that anyone can aspire to.

So let’s review the historical record to set the argument.  The largest geographic empire on Earth was the Mongol Empire (of many nations) of Genghis Khan/Kublai Khan; but the one that had the greatest influence on us [so far] is the Roman Empire (also of many nations) because it was that system that emphasized universals that we still acknowledge today and has been the underpinnings of the Western Culture which has predominated over other cultures.  When the Roman Empire collapsed those universals were carried in the institution of the Catholic Church.  When the Catholic Church emerged from the Middle Ages with a fractured Europe which stopped the advance of the Islamic influence and Mongol Empire, was faced with the Protestant Reformation following the Renaissance, and latter developments in the Enlightenment, Age of Reason, Return to Nature; this thread in history can be characterized as the advance of humanism to the very present.  However, there is a distinct marker in this advance of humanism, DEMOCRACY!

Why does the advance of humanism from the Renaissance stall after several generations and is followed by short bursts of energy followed again by more repression over several more generations?  It is because – as noted by Kenneth Clark in his ‘Civilization’ series in the late 1960s – there was no weight to this movement because the benefits only served a select few in society.  It will take the impulse toward democratic governance to sustain the benefits that come from the humanistic movement.

It is the American Revolution which stands out in this advance of humanism.  For people to succeed in governing themselves there must be a system of governance that promotes the general welfare and must have some sense of fairness that all who are subject to that governance are willing participants in the system.  We must recall however that the American Revolution was immediately followed by the French Revolution in Europe that was also promoting democratic rule.  But the influence of the French Revolution has had difficulty in promoting democratic values throughout the 19^th Century and even well into the 20^th Century; unlike the influence of the American Revolution which has met challenges like Manifest Destiny, the American Civil War, Industrialization, the Great Depression, World War II somewhat successfully.  Why the American Revolution and not the French Revolution in Europe for advancing the case for democracy?

The value system embedded in the American Revolution is an inclusive one; but, it did not start out that way, and you can even say we have been dealing with this inclusiveness or the lack of it ever since.  Who gets included; who gets left out?  While the American Way has not had the difficulty in succeeding like the French Revolution in Europe, the American Experience has been characterized by a continual re-examination of its values through the various generations with a renewal of liberty as articulated by President Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address.

At the core of our American Experience are:

(1)           the conflicting values as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, especially individual liberty and equality as played out in the commons;

(2)           the fragmented political structure of our federal system (national government, state, and local and regional government bodies) with representative government characterized by checks and balances throughout that structure;

(3)           an economic system of free enterprise that promotes and rewards individual initiative and creativeness in providing the wants and needs in a society, and can concentrate economic power with its resultant influence in the political sphere;  

(4)           and a process of governing that includes civic engagement of the people which constantly requires the building and shifting of coalitions to interface with that representative governing structure;

(5)           all to coalesce with the Will of the People somehow being expressed so that progress can thrive. 

In short, unlike the European view of democracy that comes from the influence and spread of the French Revolution, that looks at democracy by holding people to high ideals, the American Experience is a dynamic system not a static system that is constantly re-evaluating our values to fit contemporary circumstances so that what results are practical solutions although they may be imperfect and subject to change at another time.  Our bedrock foundation is in the process, not some ideal view of society; life is in the living, in the journey; the process of life is about change.  Our American Way is about adapting to change.

Furthermore, we came late to realize that to preserve our democratic values they must be the basis of our national security strategy as we engage the rest of the world.  This is not globalism; this is pursuing our self-interest, an enlightened self-interest that we spread internationally by way of alliances with like-minded allies.  We engage the rest of the world not because we think we are better than others but because our economic system tells us that promoting the general welfare involves us in engaging the rest of the world in the allocation of resources, scarce resources, in the most efficient and productive manner to secure the very best for all who participate in this sort of behavior.

Following the 1960s we have failed to promote higher rates of economic growth; higher rates of economic growth gave us the vitality our nation needs to address new issues of social justice, that greater vitality in our economic sector gives us greater vitality in our political sphere to address issues that should be part of our public policy agenda. Instead we have settled in for maintaining the status quo with growth, but much lower rates of growth and therefore less vitality in our economy and our society.  We emerged from World War II by putting ourselves on the world stage for the first time as the world leader.  That world back then, and still today, needed [still needs] democratic leadership to promote peace and economic betterment.  To make change we need to invigorate vitality, economically and politically.  Our lower rates of economic growth are not enough to overcome the built-in inertia of the status quo to make the necessary changes for remaking the world order into a more peaceful and democratic way of living.  Our national self-interest is vested in our ability to make those changes.

The study of history is influenced by the social movements that affect people at any particular time.  So in our history, the role of the individual in a society and the role of government in that society, the expansion of the American nation westward and the conflict of cultures between a native inhabited people and new settlers, slavery and civil rights struggle, the industrialization of the American economy from a rural/agrarian economy along with labor/management issues in a corporate setting, immigration, the participation of women in society to include politics, are all topics , among others, that get discussed and can be influenced by the particular generation that deals with these issues.  The American experience is a unique experience in the historical context.  The fundamental principle of our nation’s founding was that people could govern themselves.  We are not the oldest democracy; and, we are not the only republic that was ever created.  But our founders did create a system for governing with the consent of the governed while respecting dissenting opinions – a constitutional, democratic, republican form of government.

An understanding of American history does not come naturally.  It takes effort.  Our diversity can pull us apart.  We have had a historical common thread as one nation, with its faults, but never-the-less with progress shown.  For the most part, the American people through history have not been won over by an idealistic notion of existence.  Americans, for the most part, have been a practical people who have fumbled their way forward, sometimes making mistakes, but ever trying to right the way and do a practical justice for their forebearers and progeny.