How ‘Un-American’ Became the Political Insult of the Moment

To discuss what it means to be Un-American we have to define what it means to be an Authentic Citizens of the United States, a person who is committed to the Safety and Happiness our great nation, a goal that will be accomplished by everlasting vigilance and resilience. We all must work together to form a more perfect Union by preserving justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, and promoting the general welfare to forever secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. To be Un-American would mean one works in opposition of these foundational goals.
Opportunity distribution and debt servitude to those trapped by predatory economics creates the divided States of America. It’s worthwhile to consider health maintenance as a foundation of domestic security, especially when one could loose their home to a hospital these days.
Are the issues of today, as addressed in our organizational documents really any different? Authentic 21st century Citizens of the United States face the same challenges our ancestors did, eased with the luxury of advanced technology and medical knowledge, yet challenged with unimaginable environmental degradation.
Finally Americans live in North America and South America, and are all Americans, so the use of this inclusive term by an exclusive nation may be debated as well.

Academy Award winning Vietnam documentary, "Hearts and Minds" really brings to the fore opposing visions depicting perceived Un-Americanism.

My take away: how prescient were the comments of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1909. While there is a lot to celebrate about America, there is and has always been a dark side that twists the lofty language of being American to support its own intolerant and bigoted attitude.

Obviously, America simply needs to take over the world and place its trade mark on every country thereby convincing every single person therein that they, too, are now Amerikans living in Amerika. That the term "America" has become such a cheap stamp of political promotion and global iteration, is equally obvious in an age of intellectual claptrap and cheap personal self-promotion that everyone, no matter where they live are also, somehow, "American". Here's a thought: when those Americans here, in America, no longer feel internally compelled to hyphenate an ethnicity to the term "American" to describe who, exactly, they existentially are, then, and only then, will the brand "American" will the translation finally have meaning.

This piece is very well written and reasoned. It makes me want to cry.

What everyone thought was real progress against racism, white-nationalism and intolerance was merely illusion.

Maybe Canada is the place to go to realize and live the American dream.

"....these problems are of our own creation and are to be solved by ourselves."

No, the current wisdom is that our problems are created by others, Putin and Russia, and there is nothing wrong with our politics, policies, institutions and society. We are, after all, "the exceptional nation," unblemished and blameless.

i've been saying for a long long time that americans should really stop saying 'X is unamerican' because all the alleged unamerican things that happen--mass murders and hysteria--for example, happen so frequently that the term is american, not unamerican.

This is all a bit silly, no talk on class ? . Is that too much for the common folk? So , we look at another angle on the yankee the navel gaze/ family feud? Since forever.. I have been listening to this, increasingly twisted, parochial cant about the "American Exceptualism", "the beacon of democracy, and, of course, the shame-based taunt "Un-American ". Thrown onto the world stage as much by accidents of history, (WW1, WW2), globalism has now made Americans realize they share a world with other people and issues, that won't go away. You feel less "exceptional " , be you liberal or conservative, and so we read this handwringing- style of commentary. Get over it. American democracy needs to grow up. Democratic values aren't options ( an illusion that the wealthy and their minions are often able to sell) , they are the basis for survival. They were fought for by ordinary people. It will always be so.

Defining un-American should be easy if we can first define American. So what do we have? We have founding groups that came to establish theocratic societies, and to energetically propagate their social and political systems. We have those that came to make a buck, either short term windfalls or longer term enterprises. We have aristocratic slave owners, bringing some of the least democratic practices ever known. We have independent minded people who want little government, and would rather be left alone. And of course we have diverse indigenous people, with their long histories of conflict and cooperation.

We could not agree on the essence of American then, and are not likely to agree now. And anyone who claims a single way is the only true way defies our history, and probably defies any peaceful future.

What is an American is subjective. You could ask 1,000 people and you'd get 1,000 different answers.
All's I know is that I am truly embarrassed to be an American right now.
Even before Trump was elected, when I was abroad and others found out I was an American, all's people wanted to discuss was him. Really wasn't up for that conversation and just said I did not understand it either and tried to avoid discussing it further.
When travelling recently overseas my kid and I told some people we were from Iceland just to avoid any Trump conversation all together.
When you go away on vacation to another country the last thing you want to do is tell others you are an American and especially talk about Trump.
We better pay attention to the larger picture and start getting more angry about this whole nation going to hell.
Not getting too skewered by race, religion or sex and recognizing we will ALL lose if we don't start banding together to stop what is going on.

One of the reasons Trump won, ie HRC lost, per the analysis that does NOT have Putin playing king-maker

is that HRC et al, ran the wrong campaign, ie did not understand the Trump voter or would-be voter

The author here continues in that blithe and blithering ignorance and stereotyping, ensuring further victories to the trumpen-proletariat, thank you.

The appendage, employer-Yale, scares me; I am Columbia ('66) long before all this modern academic nonsense

Columbia is also full of nonsense these days

As a tired aside, Trump-olatry (worship) separate out LEGAL from ILLEGAL immigration and separates out DANGEROUS from SAFE countries of origin'

too much to ask of academics, re these distinctions I dare say,

but everyone else gets it wrong also,

except for the Electoral College majority, who got it right, ah yes democracy

Democracy, it seems, requires active participation by a reasonably well educated populace, and a basics of 'civics', so they understand what's at stake, and how best to accomplish fulfilling our needs. A passive sport it is not. Looking the other way will produce demagogues and charlatans "a la Trump". A free press, though essential to keep well informed, must be looked at with some healthy skepticism, and, if possible, double-checking the sources, and verifying the facts, and even empirical evidence may be better than blind belief in questionable tweets and social media. 'Un-american' may become a whipping non-entity, so criticism, however constructive, can be shot down in the name of liberty. No other country, to my knowledge, dares to spell 'exceptionalism', its reverse 'un-americanism', by too common a meaning for it's own good.

Am I the only person who would not be the least offended by being labeled un-American? The older I get the less I relate to nationalists of any country. I feel like I belong in any number or mega cities where ambitious people from different countries coexist. I've lived in 3 of them in 3 different countries and they all equally felt like home.

The Republicans try to keep the narrow range of their Party somewhere between "hypocritical" and "misunderstood", but these last couple of days take the cake.

One, we have Gorsuch being considered as a Supreme. This is a man who believes in fetal "personhood", where two cells within a woman's uterus have more rights than any female or male....
.... and why do I say "male"? Because Gorsuch also believes that it's wonderful to torture captives. The very thought of it makes him giddy.

This man is an ethical zero.
However, he's joined by the rest of the Republican Party in his ethical convulsions: They are offering a "health care bill" that has NO care in it at all!
No maternal care
no hospitalization
no prescription help
no pediatric care
no help in drug addiction

The list goes on and on.
So, we have Gorsuch who could not care less about real, live, breathing people AND the Loony Tunes of the R Party, as cold as the driven snow, determined to shut down all medical care except for billionaires!

"Un-American"????
Sorry, but this bunch is the Webster's definition of "in-HUMAN" and the literary definition of "Enemy of The People".

...Russia??? Gerrymanding??? Voter suppression??? $54 billion more for war-toys????
What does it take today to get charged with treason if you're a politician?
Evidently, anything goes, including trumpling on the Constitution....

Gosh - I do so apologize (not!) for boring all you righties who are sick of hearing how deplorable you are... TOUGH!!!

A while back ago, Trump, when told Putin was a "killer" asked the rhetorical question: "What, you think our country’s so innocent?"

Vladimir Putin, a product of the KGB and a murdering dictator should never be defended, but taking Trump and his questionable motivations out of the picture, the uncomfortable truth is: he is correct.

The US talks Freedom and Democracy but look at our history:

*CIA engineered coup in Chile that results in the death of democratically elected Salvador Allende and leads to the brutal Pinochet regime.

*CIA engineered toppling of Mossadegh in Iran leading to the rule of the Shaw and his police state, which of course ultimately resulted in the 1979 revolution. That did not work so well, did it?

*US support of Contras in Nicaragua.

*US invasion of Grenada.

*US invasion of Panama.

*Arms to Saddam Hussein in order to prolong the brutal Iran/Iraq war.

On can argue this was Cold War realpolitik, but collectively, it still leads to a tarnished image for our nation and a lot of blood on our hands--and that's hardly an exhaustive list.

If Un-American means going against our highest ideals (as opposed to actions) from our founding, then great.

But if American means blindly ignoring our bloody history when it is politically expedient to do so, then I guess I am not a good American.

Every generation gets to decide just what it means to be an American. We don't always get it right and often take two steps back for every step forward but that's just human nature.

When I think of what it means to be an American I think of two things that represent us. The bill of rights and the statue of liberty. Both of these represent the idea that in this country you are free to be anything you want to be and can accomplish anything you put your mind too because this is an inclusive nation where the rights of all people are protected.

For every ugly aspect of our history we've always been blessed with people who have pushed back against intolerance and discrimination. Those radical extremist views are soundly defeated every time.

The rise of Trump has revealed that we're not living up to our ideals. We still have work to do to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities. But much needed conversations are taking place once again about who we are and what we stand for and that's a good thing.

During the good times we get complacent. But I suspect that going forward we will push back against extremism and inequality. The civil rights movement, women's rights movement, and LGBT rights movement are prime examples of everyday Americans pushing back against prejudice and expanding more rights to everyone.

Our melting pot isn't natural but it's worth preserving. Trump and those like him will be sent back under the rock they crawled out of.

Have you been listening to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Democrats? The word 'unamerican' is constantly applied the political right.

Un-American ? How about lying through your teeth over and over again.

"Un-American." "Un-British." "Un-Japanese." "Un-Roman." I think the world's languages could do without such terms, because they are fundamentally meaningless. What crime has not been committed on the soil of this country, or any other, in the name of some national group? By decrying something as "Un-American," we are just closing our eyes to the less savory part of our very own history.

Sorry, you lost me in the second sentence. Liberals love the democratic process?? Are you kidding me? Liberals have achieved most of their victories through the courts or, barring that, through president Obama's thousands of rules and regulations which were written specifically to get around the legislative, i.e., democratic process. I'll just ignore the other comment about the country all of a sudden becoming another era of Jim Crow. That's simply ludicrous. And you got paid for this?!

I will not openly state my political leanings, but if I did, guess whom I would describe as "untested in war, incompetent in peace but still first in the hearts of his fellow un-Americans."

I saw America in the movies, it was a dream-like place. That was in the late 40s and early 50s. I used to marvel at the cohesive family and neighborhood structure and apparent lack of class differences.

I came to America for a stage in my education for a couple of years and returned home with my lovely American wife. Eventually, in the mid-70s we came here to stay. In the last 40+ years, I saw the gradual erasing of the dream-like quality but retained my trust in the American system with its institutions and its resiliency, believed that the system could fix even the major mistakes. Lately, however, I have come to conclude that much of the problems are actually systemic problems created by the politicians trying to ensure their re-election and the ultra rich trying to get even richer. Ultimately, they "got married" and forgot about the "American" idea, nay, they created a new "American Idea" that excluded the rest of the America. It became a country "by the rich, for the rich."

I don't have much to complain. But seeing how the political and the money system pushed the rest of the America breaks my heart which has always been full of enthusiasm for this way of life. Alas, until we fix the system, America will remain "Un-American." Stop the big money meddling in politics, eliminate the bizarre districting for political advantage, prioritize "by the people, for the people" beyond mere words, and bring honor and dignity to life in politics, a public service.

KKK, HUAC, racism, bigotry, segregation, 200 years of reducing Native Americans to a shadow of the people they once were, well what could be more American?

Democrats have turned into McCarthyites, promoting conspiracy theories about Kremlin infiltration and denouncing those who don't agree with them as "un-American."

What a strange diatribe. The author dwells on the term "un-American" and gives a fascinating tour of how the terminology is designed to fit political agenda. The article fails in the middle ("The problem, of course, is that this is not how America was made") without a consequential statement of how the country was built into what it is (and isn't).
And what the heck does the last paragraph mean? Maybe she means that the best traditions of the USA were forged in the struggle against the worst traditions (as in racism, sexism, economic exploitation).

A nation founded on slavery and genocide should hardly serve as the basis for anyone's knee-jerk sanctimony, though of course, politics in this country today, particularly since the Reagan/Gingrich/Delay era assault on common decency and fairness, is based much more on emotion and ideology than on intellect and/or the importance of facts. What we are witnessing today is a vastly amplified version of that politically expedient descent into playground-level us-vs.-them mentality, name-calling, and basic lack of respect for anyone and anything that one disagrees with, for the sole sake of gaining some perceived political advantage. It is the triumph of childishness over maturity, self-interest over species-interest, the reflection in the mirror over the rest of the room, indeed, the neighborhood.

Because Trump is an un-evolved 12 year-old and has surrounded himself with similarly damaged individuals, this disease is currently eating away at the foundations of democracy itself, ours in particular, and doesn't stand much chance of improving. I agree that those who do not embrace the current fascism might do well to avoid this semantic trap, and instead of relying on this vague, indefinable terminology, should instead graduate to something more descriptive. How about "inhuman"? Certainly fits with this crowd.

Ms. Gage, you have taken the meme of "un-American," and picked it clean,
as Seinfeld might say, "Like a tramp on a chicken bone."

Let's make this very easy.
In Trump's America, anyone who is not for Trump in "Un-American".
Of course, this has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution, or the fact that being "Un-American" is first and foremost contingent upon one's race, ethnicity, religion, geographical location, economic standing, level of education, occupation, and last but not least, one's political affiliation.
Given all that, it's very easy to called "Un-American" these days, and very few approved ways in which to prove otherwise...which is actually, un-American.

What's Unamerican?? Starving grannies, the REAL death panels; GOP style, giving yet more tax cuts to millionaires, while implementing a
" totally great " healthcare plan. You're on your own. Good luck.

You know what is unquestionably un-American? Not caring that a foreign power worked to interfere with our election. (And I'm not even going to go to whether there was actual knowledge of, incentivization or help with that interference)

Care to find an analogy for that which shows that such actions are indeed "distinctly American?"