America started out as a paradox. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, unless you’re black or Native American. The founding ideals were great; the reality was badly stained, including outrageous cruelty. I still can’t believe that our Founders, with their righteous principles, didn’t have the guts to stand up to slavery. So who is a “true citizen” of the US? How many native born “Americans” could pass the test that naturalized citizens must pass? My grandfather was an ignorant racist, even having a black lab dog he named (n word). He had zero interest in civics, civic participation, volunteering for worthy causes, or anything else that good citizens do. He was born and lived here, that’s all. He was a net negative to all that advances this country, but he voted. He probably loved George Wallace. If he was alive today, he would have voted for Trump and pumped his fist at the rallies. True citizenship is a matter of, as MLK would say, “the content of your character rather than the color of your skin.”
56
I’ve been seeing more & more big trunk with a giant America flag attached to the back. I find myself chilled by this sight, & if they are behind me, feel threatened-This is not patriotic.
Like the maga hats-far from a symbol of unity. A pride in the wearer that screams Exclusion. A notion of Superiority. This is not patriotism.
Let’s call it what is is , fascist nationalism.
65
@Kate S I saw one on a Toyota recently. I was really confused. Or maybe they were being ironic.
28
A sense of entitlement seems to me to be the driving force behind the anger that Trump’s self-serving rhetoric unleashes. That this anger is misplaced as well as immoral is besides the point for those who feel it. Trump supporters are angry about their perceived loss of status and they are clear that those “others,” meaning the ones who don’t look like them, are to blame. One of the few things that Trump is good at is exploiting these fears.
Angry white dudes have actually had a good run that belies their complaints. Reality bites, though, and the current reality is that as the modern world became more complex, it also became more dependent on skills and the results of skill. Lots of them longingly remember when they were young white dudes with only a high school diploma and could count on earning a middle class wage in an assembly line job in a factory. Those jobs have dwindled. The jobs of the future require disciplined education, as well as skills that have long been seen as feminine: emotional intelligence, passion and a helpful nature. Competitive aggression isn’t as sure a ticket as it used to be. Trump cynically exploits these fears, and, even though his background and theirs bear no resemblance and he lies like he breathes, they think he “tells it like it is.”
Nationalism simply plants a trendy descriptor on top of what is little more than ugly racism.
56
Asking if the Republican cult can persist beyond Trump, is like asking if Russia will persist beyond Putin.
14
I think it is important to note that what is happening in the US is not just an American phenomenon - and it will get much, much worse if a deep recession occurs. Ethnic chauvinism is a part of human nature - more likely to be active in those of lesser intelligence and/or education and to be expressed in times of economic stress. Given that the US is in an expansion not a recession, blame for it is due to; the diminished state of "liberal" (or edifying, humanist) education in high schools in recent decades; the lack of bi-partisan spending on anti-racism media campaigns during that time of high non-"white" immigration; the present degree of wealth and income inequality; and the precariousness of employment for many in this era of free trade and globalisation. The US desperately needs to transition to being a social democracy. Don't let not agreeing with every policy they espouse prevent you from voting for Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders peeps. Let Congress polish the rough edges.
37
way down in the nether graphs, you finally got to Robert E. Lee, and thereby to the key point: today's American "nationalism" and "conservatism" is the defeated South trying to rise again from the ashes of its ignominious defeat. these are the "true Americans" of Nixon's Southern strategy, the folks who could never accept the defeat of the South, and with it, the end of slavery, a hard slog toward racial equality, a gradual moving away from life centered around the most conservative of the Protestant denominations. "nationalist" is a sneaky synonym for white supremacist, with a healthy dose of triumphal militarism thrown in. they can pretend it's about abortion or the God-given right to grab all the money you can from the halt and the lame, but it's the same old story we've been enmeshed in since the Continental Congress: are we or are we not a country for and by wealthy, white,land-owning, Protestant planters with sharply circumscribed lower classes of slaves, serfs, and aristocratic hangers on, modeled after Britain in the 16th Century?
63
An accurate and true perspective about "what" these so called conservatives are. Racist, homophobic, sexist, and xenophobic to the core. They completely reject America as a multiracial and multicultural society. They are hard core WASP who now to their horror have discovered "their" country is being overrun (infested?) by the sub-humans who have no business calling themselves American. It is this mentality that made slavery, the Civil War, the Klu Klux Klan, and Jim Crow inevitable. Then that darn Martin L. King and those Catholic brothers John and Bobby upended the apple cart in the 1960`s. After a couple of decades of this crazy notion that "All men/ women are created equal," the rise of the Neo-Cons beginning in 1980 sought to Make America Great Again. Of course over the last 40 years; they have become so entrenched that these days even Reagan would not be "conservative" enough for this mob. That is why such men as Max Boot are not shunned for daring to tell the truth about how true conservative values have been gutted under Trump. If you are not part of the cult; you are the enemy!
21
Mr. Wilkinson is absolutely correct that contemporary white nationalists reject the very notion of America. And the contemporary GOP (not just the Trump cult of personality but the governing strategies of old-hands like McConnell) rejects the very notion of democracy. Since the concept of America and the practice of democracy both require the recognition (and tolerance) of difference--different cultural backgrounds, different points of view--white nationalists and the GOP easily make common cause even if their goals are not precisely the same. Trump or Trumpism is what unites them. One can see both the determination and the desperation of this union in its dedication to violence, actual hate-driven acts of violence but also rhetorical violence of the kind Trump has perfected, his true supporters cheer, and the GOP effectively endorses (if only through silence). If I wasn't fully confident that global warming will destroy human civilization as we now know it within the next thirty years, I'd actually be more worried.
20
This is a good column at articulating just how un-American the so-called "Real American" (Love It Or Leave It) crowd actually are.
The only error in it is to hang it all on Trump -- it didn't start with Trump. As rotten and criminal as he is, he's only a symptom of a deep rot in the GOP that is deeply rooted in the 1950s. All we're seeing is the flowering of the fascism that was sowed back then.
The only difference is that so many things the GOP dog whistled in the past are now front and center in today's GOP, the extinction of the liberal and moderate Republicans over the decades, and the debasement of "conservative" as a descriptor to the point that centrist/corporate Democrats are the only remaining honest conservatives in the country.
What it means is that, however it ends for Trump, the problem will continue, and it's holding about 62 million Americans spellbound. Not the majority of Americans, but a vocal portion of it.
Either you crave a Christianist-theocratic, apartheid one-party fascist state America, or you want a vibrant, democratic, and diverse America -- the Democrats want the latter, and the GOP, the former.
32
The US has always been very diverse, but there used to be a thread of integrity and decency. People minded their own business. They were quick to help a neighbor in need. Trump is changing that with his bully tactics. He is bringing the worst out of our citizens. Trump always tries to find a person or ethnicity that he can humiliate and dehumanize. He wants to give his followers someone to hate.
27
"The way the nationalist sees it, liberals always throw the first punch by 'changing things.'"
So shouldn't we return to being a British Colony, or a Spanish one (Spain founded St. Augustine first)...or return the land to Native Americans? Or to mammoths and giant sloths? C'mon nationalists, pick the perfect cultural year for us to adopt.
15
So a bunch of white Europeans “discover” a land that was inhabited ten thousand years before they got there, claim it as “theirs,” and start killing off the natives through war and disease. Then they bring over enslaved black Africans to work the fields, Chinese laborers to build railroads, Mexicans to slaughter their livestock, and Indian computer programmers to staff their tech companies. Then one day they look up and say “Where’d all these colored people come from? What are they doing in “our” country?” Only a people totally oblivious to the enormous hypocrisy and contradictions of this history could elect Donald Trump.
88
@Richard
Its funny when you put it that way.
11
My bumper sticker for the next election is: "Had enough? Vote Democratic."
Based on this article, right next to that bumper sticker, I will have one of the American flag.
23
"But Mr. Trump will not be president forever". If, despite Russian interference, he is defeated in 2020, he will probably declare a NATIONAL EMERGENCY, claim fraud and try to cancel the election. If he wins, in 2024 we can look forward to Jared followed by Jr. and Ivanka. Otherwise he knows he will be jailed. I hop[e I am wrong, but I doubt it.
10
Why even pass the torch to them? He's already not-so-subtly suggested that he believes he ought to be president for longer than two full terms.
1
@CassandraI've been starting to think that Trump will do something like that if he loses the election. Refusing to concede power after voters have made a statement.
It reminds me of what is likely the primary reason Trump isn't howling about the election interference by the Russians: because he's hoping they will do it again to ensure him victory next November. A creepy man. Oh, traitor too.
Itt's also the reason Trump isn't howling about the election interference of the Russians.
11
The current direction of Republicanism in the country is taking huge swaths of Americans far beyond the ostensible "principles" that it long purported to represent. The party overtly stands for privilege, whiteness and denigration of the less fortunate. It is capitalizing on the notion that the United States is a Caucasian, Christian nation in which people of color and other beliefs are interlopers.
Lost in all this by some of Donald Trump's hard core supporters, an ironic label if there ever was one, is that he has never supported them, before or in return. The tax cut he promoted barely scratched the surface of their lives, instead favoring the wealthy and corporations. The looming deficits that are awaiting us all will hit them the hardest when revenue shortfalls become incapacitating and force cuts in the very programs they rely on.
His selfish policies are as anti-Christian as they can be. He does not love his neighbor, and he certainly doesn't turn the other cheek. He hates everyone who he does not perceive to be his equal, including his supporters who he uses like cheap labor. His current complaint-du-jour about urban decay belies the fact that his casinos sucked money out of clients, his university cheated students out of theirs, and his buildings weren't the least bit designed to house the less fortunate in our country.
All the while, Trump purports to be a man of the people while giving cover to haters and suckers who think he actually cares about them. Sad.
20
We have had a conservative nationalist myth for generations. It is the myth of the Old South, the Confederacy, where there are basically whites and blacks, whites run things, and strangers (Yankees, Jews, Catholics, immigrants, carpetbaggers, ethnics) are at best tolerated. Rural areas across the contry tend to be Confederate, and urban areas are melting pots and admire the Statue of Liberty (including the poem inscribed on her base).
American conservative nationalism is the ideology of the Confederacy -- small government, large class differences and their preservation and defense, anti-intellectualism, and fundamentalist religion and racism to supply ideas and explanations that block any appreciation of what is really going on. Blue-eyed Jesus made men superior to women, whites superior to blacks, the successful superior to the unsuccessful, and those with short last names superior to those with long last names.
Getting back to this will not be easy, and trying will be very ugly.
16
Republicans can be proud of their stable genius and his next move to save money so he can use it in more tax cuts for the 1%:
The Trump administration isn’t backtracking on its plan to take free school lunches from 500,000 kids while also taking food stamps from their families, ensuring that they’ll be hungry at home without relief at school. The change to school lunches would come with the administration’s plan to tighten eligibility rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with kids whose eligibility for free school lunches comes automatically with their family’s SNAP benefits losing out twice according to the Daily Kos.
13
It is kind of funny for the Republicans to call Hillary shrill when compared with Trump. Trump is both crude and shrill.
18
Well said. I’m not sure that white nationalists can grasp the real despair that overtakes minority groups when a Republican gains power, let alone cruel bigot such as trump. We know that people will be hurt. Women, gays, people of color , children, anyone not a white male, will be made to suffer. It’s not your country , if you behave and follow the rules we’ve made, you will be allowed to exist. Today we must watch belligerent , ignorant, deplorable , bigoted people in red hats bellowing and bullying their way through the town on their way to a rally. Where a genuine crazy guy stalks the podium, mugging for the crowd. They cheer as he insults people and spreads lies. This is referred to as “political genius”. Trying to concoct some intellectual rationale for this slime , is utterly ludicrous.
9
It should be obvious that conservatives actually hate America. They voted for a man who said far worse things about our country, than anything that has come from the so called squad. Conservatives have been duped and Trump is playing them for suckers. I just finished listening to interviews with people waiting in line for Trump’s cult meeting in Ohio. Everything these people said that was a point of admiration for Trump, was a lie. Not just a little lie, but a huge verifiable lie. How gullible are the American people anyway? We’ll find out in November of 2020.
16
What I am worried about: what is going to happen if Trump loses? Will he lead these people to violence? I mean, violent things are already happening...so will all of his angry hateful rants just escalate the level of violence? We need to be planning for this possibility in my opinion. I am not calling for Dems to be violent....just ready. Perhaps we need to talk about how to diminish Trump's allure with his people. Slogans like "Don the Con gave himself a tax cut". Or something like that....Get it all out there before the election. We can't have a close election and expect a happy ending.
13
I've always marveled at the how important following sports teams are in the midwest and south.
There is something in the mentality there that seems to inspire extremely fervent loyalties, and an "us vs. them" view of competition and life---and politics.
Yes, there are a lot of sports fans on the coasts, but not with the same intensity.
I would love to know if any sociologists have studied this.
5
Ummmm...Ever spent any time in Boston? We, and I include me, better watch the elitism In this essential conversation.
5
@JD
I'm glad you brought up the elitism aspect---
But we "coastal" folks need to remind everybody that the majority of us are not "elite"-- we are working just as hard and trying to keep up with life, just like people in Missouri and Ohio.
13
This is the result of massive GOP budget cuts to public education for tax cuts for billionaires.
This is what our citizens have voted for time and time and time again.
11
Many of our political, religious and business leaders, and their followers, have forsaken the fundamental principles of the common good, which, in our ancient Western philosophical and religious traditions, have been identified as flowing from the so-called cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. Today, Trump and his followers, exhorted to embrace greed and a lust for raw power, thrive instead on ignorance, selfishness, cowardliness, and injustice. Marianne Williamson got it right. Many who deign to call themselves "conservative" have called forth the dark forces of American history as cover for their corruption. The struggle for justice never ends. Thank you for your excellent column reminding us of what is at stake.
13
Superb essay, expertly clarifying how the hostile "other" is in fact the Trumpists and their enablers. They would gladly wreck our country in order to ensure their domination of the charred cinder that remains.
13
Trump needs the racists to win. Before the last election, he talked a good game about bringing back jobs. Sure, the unemployment rate has gone down, but it does not factor in those people who are "underemployed," or working two or three jobs. Trump riles up his base insulting "elitists," but he is the biggest elitist there is. He only hires from Ivy League universities, and looks down on anyone without an Ivy League education. So, you Trump supporters, what do you think Trump thinks of you?
13
Read "Dark Money" if you want to know who really runs this country. They are the 1% of the 1% of the 1% whose end-game is in essence to do way with government "for and by the people" altogether. Trump, and today's Congressional Republicans and Supreme Court "conservatives" are simply the best puppets they've ever had, and Trump supporters do their bidding by being suckered-in by every cliche of the culture wars from abortion to guns and setting the stage for their own demise.
329
@Cowboy Marine Yes, good book that puts things in perspective. The obscene racism of this administration, while real, is a distraction from the real and ongoing attle aainst what originally made America great. Obama was a lightning rod, and "T" was the strike; but the barn was already on fire.
23
@Deb
Thanks to both of you for stating the obvious (which apparently many people refuse to accept).
18
@Cowboy Marine - Thanks for bringing this up. A little late to read it, and only about a 100 pgs. in, but it's clear trump and his followers have been long in the making. What we're seeing is the flowering of thousands of poisonous seeds, deftly and surreptitiously planted over 40 yrs., by Kochs, Mercer, Adelson, Singer, Devos and their fellow travelers in the billionaire class.
Add the fertilizer provided by Rupert Murdoch,
Fox, etc., the Roberts court ruling that gave us Citizens United and the result is trump, his followers the poisonous harvest. The Russian aspect is coincidentally aligned in that they want to destroy democracy for the same reasons - power and wealth - their common bond.
With Moscow Mitch packing the courts, if we don't overwhelmingly defeat them in 2020, we may never get another chance.
67
I'm saving this one to read again, so well stated.
Just think all this just because I had the audacity to vote for a black man.
To me this is one of the essential questions, what happens to these people when Deficit Donnie ain't around? Where to they go?
Will they find another false god to raise as their golden calf?
Will they see the folly of their ways like stormy waves upon a rock? "We did What?"
Will they like hibernate like trailer park cicadas to emerge in twenty years and bring desolation upon the land?
Because, it really looks like we will not be able to liposuction the ugly fat on America's underbelly, its here to stay.
10
Reading this op-ed gave me a headache. Time to move to Norway...
Myth: America was founded by whites.
Fact: There were highly cultured regions in America before the whites arrived.
Myth: America was founded as a white, Christian nation.
Fact: RI, CN, NY, NJ, PA, DE, VA, NC, SC, and GA were founded as commercial ventures and/or allowed religious freedom. 10 of 13. Hence the 1st Amendment.
Myth: the far righters want to make America great, like it once was.
Fact: they want to make America what it is not and never was just so they can be in charge, telling us what to be and what to think and say. You have no rights because they are The Right!
7
Until we stop coddling or trying to ignore the worst of those on the right who are bigoted, racist, homophobic, intolerant, and unwilling to embrace the melting pot that is our country, we will allow the cancer they espouse to grow and spread.
These people need to be called out. When Hillary Clinton pointed out that there were people who were deplorable on the right, she was spot on. The problem is she didn't go far enough.
Democrats need to draw a line once and for all, and tell all of America that if you espouse the ugly, sub human,
dehumanizing actions and ways of the most vile of Trump supporters, racists, bigots and the intolerant they should be marginalized. They should be shunned. They should be fired from their jobs. They should be called out for exactly what they are, deplorable and disgusting. We need to turn the tables on those who point their fingers at people of color, the LGBTQ community, people looking for hope by escaping a death sentence when they stay in their countries by telling them we don't want them here. If they don't like it they should leave. We are right and they are wrong. I challenge anyone with kindness toward humanity to tell me why a bigot, racist, or intolerant, angry human being should be given the benefit of the doubt. We have done that for too long and we need to shut them down every time they denigrate another race, ethnicity, gender or religion, or those who are agnostic or atheist. Enough already. Fight back!
5
Distorted minds comprehend a version of reality that suits their emotional non-itelligence. The term "cult" is a perfect representation of these group-think subscribers. It's sort of a "hit of crack" for stirring a feeling of well being. And over-using the flag is a flagrant display of hypocrisy and inadequacy. The word fools comes to mind.
1
Exactly.
1
Where are the erstwhile courtly Republicans?
--Arnold Schwarzenegger
--Pete Wilson
--"Christie" Whitman
--Olympia Snowe
--Jeff Flake
--Mitt Romney
--"Jeb" Bush
--Chris Christie
--John Kasich
--Tom Campbell
--John Seymour
et al et al et al
They have no races to lose. They could stand up to the carcass of what was the Republic party.
Where are they? Evidently somewhere comfortable, holding their ankles and cashing their public pension checks.
9
Does the NYT write about anything other than race? I am so tired of listening to upper-class whites talk about how every white person is racist because they support trump or America.
3
What's missing from this essay is the black Antifa mask. Another ad nauseam hate-Trump tract from NYT Opinion Kingdom--"right-wing nationalism", anything that opposes Grand Collective Cultural Marxist stomping from the left. Marcuse taught them well, it seems. But once again for "free speech" at NYT:
Exactly: "Yet the question of who 'we' are as 'a people' is the central question … ."
American-Muslims, for example, are hiding their contempt for the American ethos by adhering to Shariah, e.g., Omar, while pretending to believe in the US Constitution and its "Bill of Rights", i.e., it is impossible, as Tocqueville pointed out some time ago, to be an American citizen and adhere to Shariah, the core of Islam, the driving force of the religion, what makes one a Muslim.
But bottom line, if there is no "social cohesion"--a common cultural ethos synthesis--, which given the Cultural Marxist stomping of the left--accept and submit--, e.g., this essay, isn't going to happen, then, as history has shown since humans have walked the earth, two choices will inevitably follow, civil war or gulags and night forests. Lenin-Stalin chose the latter and we know how the former worked out.
3
White nationalism is surging not only in the US but in Europe. It is an international movement to against liberal democracy. It mainly thrives in rural areas. Although white nationalists in America live in a racially diverse country they tend to live in areas that are almost all white. You don't find that many white nationalists in large cosmopolitan cities. In a state like Alabama they are probably the majority. The white nationalists seem to support fascism and appear to want to follow Trump in that direction. After what the white nationalists did in Nazi Germany is obvious this is an extremely dangerous movement that is capable of carrying out the worst atrocities imaginable. Hopefully children in cages is the last of their atrocities here but it might only be the beginning.
6
So this nationalism is "Building nations has always been about building armies, regimenting the population and centralizing political control."
Sounds remarkably like what Hitler, Stalin, and Mao did for their countries.
1
" . . . we know how to build a nation."
You mean on the backs of enslaved people and, to get ever more land, by Native American genocide?
1
Undocumented foreign nationals who refuse to comply with our congressionally enacted immigration laws are not "babbling immigrants." They are deportable aliens who have no place in this country.
4
Very nice statement of the Left's religious vision.
Great piece! It’s amazing how utterly absurd the “nationalist” ideology is when deconstructed and so clearly presented, and yet here we are: with an insane, racist, would-be dictator as our elected (with Russian and electoral college assistance) president.
1
Interesting. But of what use is your writing and thinking or talking?! For three years folks have flooded the world of ideas with ideas about how Trump is wrong etc etc. the funny thing is Trump doesn’t even read, and certainly doesn’t read these ideas/arguments! And the vast majority of the people who support him don’t either, and don’t have time for these arguments or anything that goes against their views. So, it makes one wonder what the point of pouring all this ink is! The vast majority of readers of this article probably agree with most of it or at least generally with it. The other side thinks it’s nonsense and probably wouldn’t even go beyond the first paragraph. Haha! So, what’s the point? What has been the pint of all this writing and stress the past three years??! The other side doesn’t care about “complexities” and all that doubt! They want a wall, check. They want immigrants out, check. Check check check. Just wondering. Would be interesting if somebody would explain to me what purpose these columns serve! Do they help “liberals” feel better about themselves and their misery at what Trump is doing or what?! What’s the point of “understanding!?”
One of the best opinion pieces I've read in the New York Times . . . or in any publication for that matter.
2
They’re one renaming away from resembling a certain German political party from the 30s
1
The majority of white Americans voted for white Republicans or conservative independents for president for the last 50 years and most of those candidates played the race card...from Nixon to Reagan to Trump.
Many white Americans and indeed white people around the world are deeply racist. They truly believe black and brown people are genetically inferior. In other words, they aren't as smart as white people. Their poverty and struggling countries prove this.
Thus you have Reagan and his monkey reference, European soccer fans throwing bananas at black players, Trump continuously impugning the intelligence of black congressman and black news anchors, ICE operatives making racist references to refugees at the border. It goes on and on and on.
Is it un-American as this article argues? I don't know. Good ol' righteous America enslaved blacks for 250 years and then created laws and Jim Crow to hold them back for another 100. And today white cops are shooting them over minor traffic incidents, racist nationalists are on the march, and we're putting little kids in cages.
You would think an individual as intelligent and morally upright as President Obama would have moved the needle.
It did. It moved it backwards! What does that tell you about America?
3
"But what, today, do Americans call “home”? The next logical step would be to observe that the contemporary sum of rooted, lovable American elements" ... IS the true America.
In other words, as Mr Hazony may remember (but evidently chooses not to)
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thysef ... and practice a little acceptance and tolerance for thy American neighbor. Even the ones who dont look talk, and think like you, come from the same place as you do, or worship (or NOT) the same deity as you.
People can be easily frightened. It removes their ability to critically think.
Just like in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) in 1933 after Hitler's election. People who considered a "threat to the state" were issued special segregationist IDs. The threatening people were Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists and Polish and Jewish students. People were arrested and beaten for using Polish in public. The coat of arms of Breslau was changed by the Nazis because it contained the letter "W" which was considered too slavic. And of course the concentration camps where many were sent.
All it takes is FEAR and an authoritarian charismatic demagogue to start the march.
Unless people stop and THINK. Please do that people.
1
"The way the nationalist sees it, liberals always throw the first punch by “changing things.” " It's true. Remember those liberals like Jefferson, Washington and Adams? Why couldn't they just leave well enough alone. King George wasn't so bad.
4
A more truthful essay was never written.
George Carlin said it best: "Leave the symbols, to the symbol-minded." I am incredulous at how few people serve in the military, and how many who don't try to negate that by flying the flag, wearing the flag, having flag paper plates, and on and on an on. I would be too embarrassed to raise a flag at my home--maybe when our country isn't a global embarrassment--and these rabid cult members don't scare me--I served my twenty years, so you corpulent corporals can do serve and die in Trumps war--oh, wait of course you won't fight--and he won't fight. It is always someone else. Losers.
174
Following this logic it is bad to have the doors of your house close to strangers. After all it could be your fault that they are strangers. The way how regular folks see liberals is that liberals want the regular folks to pay for the "sins of the nation" so that they, the liberals, feel good.
Patriotism/nationalism is a manifestation of egocentricity. It's just the self-centered celebration of the accidental location of our birth. "MY" country is the very best country, by golly! Why? Well, duh, because "I" was born here.
2
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel"--Samuel Johnson
3
I am old enough, 70 years, to remember life in the late fifties and early sixties growing up in Detroit. We lived in an all white homogeneous neighborhood. We rarely saw a black person, after all they lived in the "inner city". There weren't very many Latinos at that time . Gay people were in the closet and invisible. Television and movies were almost exclusively white and heterosexual.
I think that it is false for the nationalists to think that liberals always throw the first punch by “changing things.” I think the changes resulted naturally from demographic shifts in increasing minority populations especially Latinos and non Christians. Gays came out of the closet. Blacks found a voice and champion in Dr. Martin Luther King. All the "hidden groups" within our society gained a collective voice shouting "We are here, we are Americans and we want equality. We want recognition". We white people lived in a self made cocoon that began to unravel.
This is the evolution of America, a nation founded by immigrants. The nationalists need to face reality, a reality not forced upon them by liberals but by a shrinking world. They need to leave Leave It To Beaver behind, especially since it only existed on a Hollywood sound stage. Opie is now a grown up cosmopolitan man.
The diverse group of 20 Democratic candidates in the debates would have never happened 70 years ago. Back then it was old white men in dark suits and red ties.
Ain't America great!
3
When Trump is gone, who will lead his party of racists? They will need a new showman and he will need to be louder and weirder and brasher and more crass. It will be an actor or a wrestler or a Fox News host.
2
"National Conservatism"? Does that sound to anyone else like another notorious political party name? (Hint: it became notorious in the 1930's.)
2
What he said! I couldn't agree more with this article. These rabid nationalists are as anti-American as the Russians.
1
Has Will Wilkinson ever met a conservative? Silly question, because I know that he has. But why then does he so preposterously caricature conservatives (and libertarians?) and their beliefs?
Yoram Hazony is a conservative? Then how come I never heard of him till a few days ago?
The conservatives I know get upset at being derided as deplorables who just fell off the rutabaga truck and as racists who are implacably opposed to allowing blacks and women and gays [and fill in the blank] their place in the sun. The labels are applied to them by opportunistic politicians who hope to profit electorally from dividing our country along race and gender lines. Paul Krugman said the other day that black Americans have never had it so good. So why are accusations of racism louder than ever before in our history?
I am afraid Wilkinson is paying his dues for getting published in the New York Times. But really, what shall it profit him if he shall gain the New York Times and lose his soul?
The word you are looking for is Fascism.
This column shows exactly how it works.
Until you can show any meaningful difference between Fascism and so-called Nationalism, then all you are doing is soft selling.
1
Something I wish those who support white nationalism and those who look away from this atrocity would understand is that the Americas were never white. They were populated by indigenous people of color and we essentially rooted them out and took over, only then to bring Africans in as enslaved people. My level of disgust with these people who want a white nation is beyond even my own comprehension. Oh, and I’m white.
3
Ah yes. The problem is stupid, racist white people who can't deal with a modern world.
As a life-long (71-year-old) liberal, I find the analysis presented here to be narcissistic and self-congratulatory.
I wonder if the author has even met a Trump voter, or had dinner at a Trump voter's home, or gone fishing with Trump voters.
We travel our country, 55000 in 7 years, camping in dispersed sites, and visiting with people in Trump country.
Know what? Just because some guy (Hazony) wrote a book doesn't mean he's an expert, or that a single Trump voter has even read it.
Mike Royko, the legendary Chicago newsperson, said that the motto in Chicago is "Where's mine?"
Actually it is the motto everywhere. And Trump supporters by and large are saying this. "Where's mine?" "The Democrats are focusing on every perceived slight by every perceived victim and are sending them bucket fulls of money, so where's mine?"
The elitism of this article, and the elitism of people criticizing Trump voters (while safely ensconced in their comfortable large cities) is appalling. Trump voters are real people too, and have been victimized by the changes in our world as much as any other group has been (except rich whites).
So, they see minorities and others as people who are getting the attention and love, and they as people who are getting the shaft.
But instead of seeing them as people, liberals, like the author, see them as monsters.
I'm embarrassed to be a Democrat.
The naivete of Yoram Hazony. As a Jew, he is not part of the nationalist ideal.
"We fight; we take it back."
I hope so. Or we could lose. Like the Chinese people, like the Russian people. Like the Venezuelan people. Like the German and French and Polish people until they were "rescued" by other countries lives. (Who do you think is going to come to a fascist America's aid. Britain?) I am not seeing much guts or real "fight" in the vast number of "shocked by trump" complainers. The middle and upper class Dems are too comfy. Will they even back the "least to lose" urban poor and desperate when they take to the streets en mass? Or say "tsk tsk that rioting is too scary" and fall back to "we will give you law (our law) and order (our order)? However you envision the "fight' it is going to be ugly and costly.
1
Donald Trump has to win the next election or he goes to jail. Apart from whatever else the FBI knows, the convicted felon Michael Cohen has certainly spilt the beans on Trump in exchange for a lighter sentence. We know for certain that Trump paid a couple of women to keep their mouths shut before the last election, which is a federal electoral offence. If he loses the election the FBI will pick him up in January 2021; if he wins, especially if he acquits himself in a more statesmanlike manner, four years later these matters will likely be forgotten. The coming election campaign promises to be a thrilling ride for America.
Last I looked, feminists are NOT "nature denying”. What is their problem with equal rights for half the citizenry?
1
It all depends on the morality or immorality of Americans. They will have to chose how they want really be soon.
I would like to see a backlash against these neo-nazi flag wavers ... I would like to be able to reclaim the American flag. My family served proudly. I paced the floors while my son was in the Middle East. I've earned the right to fly this emblem of my country without being associated with fascists who are hiding behind it!
182
I like this guy! Let's hear more from him.
2
There has always been a hierarchy in this country, with white Christian men at the top and white Christian women just below them. This “nationalism” is all about their fear, anger and concern about losing their spots. They can talk about religion, economics, government bureaucracies and every other issue under the sun, but those are all smoke screens for loss of status to people with brown skin and Asians.
This country has always been about immigrants, since the first settlers. In the 1800s and early 1900s the WASPs didn’t like the Irish, Italian, Jewish, Eastern European and other white immigrants. Now the Christians and the ancestors of those white immigrants want us to bar the door and keep everybody else whose not like them out.
1
I am a Democrat, moving closer to the middle by the day. Lately, I have been working on understanding how anyone in their right mind can support Trump. I do that by "chatting with the commenters on the Fox News website.
Two comments:I believe they do not so much resent the changing face of America as they do feeling ignored and "left behind"by the media, politicians, Hollywood, etc. I think that is legitimate.
They are also so tired of being called names by those on the (far) left (racist, homophobic, etc.) every time they utter ANYTHING about race, sexual orientation, etc. that doesn't strictly adhere to the far left creed.
I have experienced the same thing. EVERY time I try to make an objective, reasonable criticism of the far left on here, I am called names. This morning I was called a Nazi (I am Jewish) simply for pointing out that those on BOTH sides have been arrested for beating up someone on the other side.
Many of you may want to call me names also, especially after I tell you that I get called names much less frequently on the Fox site despite bringing up opposing views much more often.
Something to think about for those who care about actually fixing some of the problems in this country rather than yelling, screaming, accusing and labeling.
1
Throw out the bible and the Torah and you can't tell the difference between this side and the other side of the border? Mexico and Central America are heavily religions countries: 80%-90% of the population are practicing Catholics.
America is by far the more liberal and atheistic nation.
Among the hundreds of heinous failings Trump exhibits is this one: he does not even pretend to represent those of us outside of his "base". His innate attack-mode is antithetical to what we've always expected inherently from presidents: that they contend for the office but, when elected, represent and serve us all equally. Unlike President Obama, Trump has never even tried any such thing and actually belittles the effort.
An irony of "American Nationalism" is that Christians are so heavily behind it; yet, Christians might be expected instead to lead the movement for equalizing rights and favor for all people of the world, not putting Americans somehow above those from other countries. They should be the true believers of fervent globalism. "The least of them;" the stranger/outsider; the destitute: all people whom Christianity is supposed to elevate. Yet these Christians think being American is distinctly superior to being "children of the world."
Go figure. In fact, it really just points out the fallacy and emptiness of the religion itself.
291
@AM
Maybe you're right. But Christianity is shrinking. Churches are empty or even closed. So it's the idealized, nationalist Christianity that is feeding the right-white movement.
Christianity has become a "goodness" flag for this brand of conservative to wrap themselves in, not a divine idea to surrender to, that makes demands to love your neighbor as yourself, and forgive seventy times seven, not a true religion, but a cape of invisibility that hides the loathing. How many of the people who attended the conference Wilkinson writes about go to church or pray?
14
@AM
Those "christians" you reference were 50-60 years ago members of the White Citizens Council. The name is different but the aim is the same.
8
@mirucha Agreed. Perhaps "Christianity" ought to be redefined... These days, the acquisition of material goods/prosperity seems to be the overriding characteristic and goal. Less overriding is the sincere effort to embrace what is unfamiliar, different, along with an effort to be less "tribal" and certain of one's viewpoint.
5
US politics at the moment is a powder keg ripe for detonation. President Trump is a master showman able to whip his audience into a frenzy. A civil war is not as far fetched as one might think. There are any number of potential catalysts, but I would guess a national humiliation, like losing suzerainty over the world would do it. At which realisation it will be blamed on the liberals somehow.
Something in this country has been lost. I don't view most of the cultural changes in the past 20 years as positive. As I type Mario Lopez is in real danger of being fired because he said parents shouldn't take seriously that their 3 year old child wants to be another gender. This was deemed transphobic.
1
Well written and all true. I realize that being from Houston that I have a greater acceptance of others who are different from me. I grew up around a lot of different types of people. Maybe white nationalists who only know their tiny sliver of the country should come out and see what the rest of America is all about. No Republican, including Trump, can change the fact that America is a melting pot. It always has been and will always continue to be, long after Trump is gone.
2
See the former Yugoslavia for the inevitable end result of multiethnic societies.
There aren't any examples of successful nations without a majority ethnic group. The Chinese know this and are filling all their regions with ethnic Han to ensure stability. The US will inevitably split into multiple more homogeneous nations. Such is the course of human history.
1
Anyone reading Yoram Hazony's comments would surely conclude that the nation's source of unity is rooted in religious faith--i.e., Jewish and Christian beliefs. Do not recall ever reading any of that in either the lines of our Constitution or between the lines of the Constitution. That is very interesting, and also very troubling.
5
I loved this so much. It gave words to a truth I have only experienced as emotion and instinct. To read it on the page felt a revelation and a relief.
4
Very well written. Thank you for helping articulate my exact feelings. Conservatives wanting to take out country back need to answer the questions back from whom? or back to where?
4
Is America multiethnic, multicultural and multiracial, as Wilkinson claims? That depends on definitions. Around 85% of Americans are of European descent--if Hispanics are counted as descendants of Europeans (as they should be). In other words around 85% of Americans are of one race and one religion (either Christian or ex-Christian, the difference between Protestants and Catholics is negligible viewed from China or Japan) and of one culture. The remaining 15% of Americans are of different races---African, Asian, Amerindian etc.---but often of the same religion and culture as the dominant 85% majority. In what sense, then, is America multiethnic or multicultural? Only in the sense that 85% of Americans, with the exception of the descendants of slaves and Amerindians, descend from different European nationalities (or if you prefer from different ethnicities). I am not defending racist ethno-nationalists who worship Trump they are not altogether wrong when they describe themselves as true Americans.
5
intruding way to bend the statistics. At the end of the day, race is a human construct, not a biological one as many believe. That being the case, it's conservatives who classify people such as Hispanics as something "other."
3
This is an intelligent question. Seeing the US flag emblazoned with an image of Trump on its face changes the nature of its meaning. No other country has ever got so close to overt imperialism. No longer a wave for America for all, but a wave for its cult hero. Scary. M
6
Would Mr. Wilkinson suggest flying the american flag upside down indicating danger?
If the current situation is dangerous and the "right wing" has wrapped themselves in flag to boldly indicate their support of the hideous policies and then we could indicate our opposition via displaying flag upside down.
or would this be wrong or to offensive?
2
While I agree in principle with your argument - it is only a short step from acknowledging the absurdity of the concept of nations entirely. National identity is a double-edged sword: side one enables the scale of cooperation necessary to achieve what we have; side 2 naturally frames those considered outsiders as the enemy. Our national myth is somewhat unique in its abandonment of traditional in-group markers. But it is not immune to malign interpretation.
2
The level of naivete in so many of the articles about 2020 and race, and American society is amazing. Surely, if we are honest, we have to admit that human beings are in fact tribal in nature. That does not mean that people of color and people of white skin (most of us are sort of beige...never really seen a "white" person) can not live together on this planet, be friends, get married and still be most comfortable around those who look like us. I think people of color whose ancestors were brought here against their will (last date of slaves received in this country was 1859) should receive some form of reparations. The more we focus on our differences, the more we will become alienated and distant. We are on a slippery slope now...sliding rapidly towards two nations. Our enemies in the world are no doubt promoting this and will take advantage of a divided nation at every turn.
1
Trump has tapped into a rich vein of anger and fear felt by many white Americans (mostly men without a college degree). They are angry that the world they grew up in, where women and minorities knew their place, no longer exists, and they are afraid that the demographic change of whites becoming a minority in their own country cannot be stopped. This America has always been there in the form of the John Birch Society, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, Joe McCarthy, America Firsters, Father Coughlin, Henry Ford, the Ku Klux Klan, etc. What is different now is that the President of the United States expresses these views and gives permission to his followers to do the same. Samuel Johnson was right : "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
16
Humans learn about themselves as they grow.
Nations can also learn about themselves and grow.
The process is not inevitable and it is not even across geography or groups. Our current culture makes learning important. Resistance is inevitable. I hope we can learn the most important lessons before our national descends completely into the abyss of plutocratic dictators.
1
I hope that most Americans are as moral as they think they are. 2020 will tell. Hope it won't be too late.
3
Patriotism and religion are excellent shields against accusations of criminality, immorality and racism. I believe that why most US citizens are religious or claim patriotism. The bulk of the nation does not really believe in these things as can be seen from their actions and our outcomes. We don't have the worst healthcare because people are patriotic Christians. We have the worst healthcare because the majority of people are greedy and immoral.
15
Bravo! My idea of patriotism is being an informed voter who deeply loves her country and cares for its wellbeing. Working against Trump is patriotism!
11
If this is conservatism. I'm one too, inspite of being a liberal Democrat.
2
There’s much to chew on in this essay’s look-behind-the-curtain view of a nation that can’t even agree on what it once was, or what it now is, let alone what it wants to become. I think it’s true that competing narratives of the American “essence” are at the heart of our conflicted politics. This isn’t exclusively an American problem right now — Europe is struggling with tribal panic that has some parallels to our race, gender and culture wars.
Why this seems to be coming to a head wordwide at this moment in history, I believe, is that we are in the process of passing through some key tipping points on the way to undeniable and irreversible globalization: climate change that is now impacting everyplace on Earth, mixing of cultures stimulated by worldwide communications and mobility, and the permanent reality of an interconnected global economy.
Clearly, there is no realistic option to “go back” to some earlier version of the world. At least, not one that does not involve the destruction of civilization as we know it, and the elimination of a lot of people. It’s everyone’s job to make sure we don’t go there.
11
There is nothing new about hiding hatefulness behind the American flag. Generations in SC and elsewhere also hid it behind the Confederate flag until very recently, claiming it was about "honoring [their] ancestors," not racial hatred. Never mind that a large percentage of the population found it both immoral and intimidating, knowing the history of the people who flew that flag. To this day, I have been vilified for saying that there is no honor in flying a flag, any flag, but treating people badly.
8
Thank you for this-- it hits the nail on the head. The patriots are not in the Republican party as it now exists.
9
Thank you for this article. It lets me see Trump as simply the latest manifestation of a very old cycle instead of an unprecedented and nation-altering threat. We will defeat him and what he stands for and with any luck we’ll be better prepared for the next one.
426
@Neutral Observer- I basically agree with you but here is how to do it with a careful analysis of history.
Trump voters are basically three types.
1-A small minority app. 10% are outright bigots, racists and want to bring us back to the 1930s or earlier.
2-A great percentage, the biggest group are mainstream republicans who will vote republican if Donald Duck was nominated, likewise for democrats.
3-A small group and the most important are swing voters, independents of any party who fell for the Trump demagogue line and who are up for grabs. Trump demagogued legit issues that democrats under Hillary had no answer to. Hillary was a Neo con on trade, war, and Wall Street and an identity obsessed, social engineer zealot on social issues, 100% of what these swing voters did not need or want.
11
@Neutral Observer And be better for it.
3
@Honora
No way. There were not surprises in the numbers of votes that trump got; they were the expected numbers, given the makeup of the electorate. Those were almost all Republican votes. Republicans vote religiously, for Republicans. They did not vote for Clinton; therefore, they voted for trump.
1
American voters need to make it clear that Trump is not acceptable as our president as he is white nationalist divider. Trump has divided our country along racial lines and has attacked our traditional allies while fawning over dictators. Yes we know Trump wants to be our dictator witness his July 4th rally with tanks but his constant phone calls with Putin are worrying as he may be taking orders from his boss.
6
You have only to read Dan Zak's article in the Washington Post about Trump's rally in Cincinnati to see the lunacy that has infected Trump's supporters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/fear-and-gloating-in-cincinnati/2019/08/02/a6055256-b51f-11e9-8949-5f36ff92706e_story.html?utm_term=.a724e56141cc&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
4
Personally the Conservatives clothing, not hiding, themselves with the flag has robbed me of Patriotism while viewing it. The flag instills fear, instant idiotic echoes of obtuse Congressional Republicans statements reverberate in my mind, the thousands of lies, bigotry, redundant rhetoric, insane juvenile name calling, undignified reality star in the Whiten House has spoiled what the flag represents. They managed to shred the flag along with the Constitution. It is almost like they are posed for a coup, with foreign assistance
8
Exactly: "Yet the question of who 'we' are as 'a people' is the central question … ."
American-Muslims, for example, are hiding their contempt for the American ethos by adhering to Shariah, e.g., Omar, while pretending to believe in the US Constitution and its "Bill of Rights", i.e., it is impossible to be an American citizen and adhere to Shariah, the core of Islam, the driving force of the religion, what makes one a Muslim.
But bottom line, if there is no "social cohesion"--a common cultural ethos synthesis--, which given the Cultural Marxist stomping of the left--accept or submit--, e.g., this essay, isn't going to happen, then, as history has shown since humans have walked the earth, two choices will inevitably follow, civil war or gulags and night forests. Lenin-Stalin chose the latter and we know how the former worked out.
4
Why not be more straightforward and call right-wing nationalism a movement to establish a white Christian supremacy. And, let's face it, the movement has been aided and abetted by a small group with a slightly different agenda - to increase and protect their outlandish wealth and power, just as all historical Fascist/Nazi movements have been constituted.
The idea that this white supremacist movement is in any way genuinely "American" flew out the window when the first slave from Africa was imported to these shores, when the first Native Americans were attacked in order to take their land, and when Mexico was attacked and its northern half taken over in 1848.
4
People who embrace lily white nationalism in the name of God need to be reminded of something very important. God is not a white man. His son was not a white man, despite the phony pictures of a blue-eyed Jesus. If they believe in him, they have to believe in pluralism. Love your neighbors. All of them.
4
" That’s a recipe for civil war, not social cohesion."
And there it is. Finally, a recognition of where the Trump base is heading. They are spoiling for a fight. They have not given up on the Confederacy...because that represents the America they cherish. A time when people of color knew their place. A time when white aristocracy ran the plantations.
What Trump and his base wants is power. They don't want democracy. They don't want the rule of law. They don't care what the truth is. They don't follow science. They don't care if climate change is destroying the planet. They don't care how many species are going extinct.
Trump and his base care about one thing, and one thing only. Themselves. Understand me...they don't care about each other...just themselves. And they certainly don't care what happens to the USA. Make America Mine Again...MAMA.
6
Misuse of the word "progressive" to refer to TR's and Wilson's imperialism. For shame!
"Conservative nationalism" is just another name for ethno- fascism. It is an ideology based on hate, fear and greed.
6
Brilliant piece.
3
WOW, this was a LONG and laborious article that just said the same old thing--Trump supporters are racists.
This is why he's president, because as erudite as Mr. Wilkinson is, he has no new ideas. He's still beating the same dead horse.
Let me help you people out. There's more in the world than just calling people racists.
You have to re-examine things, change your perspective. You're embarrassing yourselves.
6
Interesting, I did not get that perspective at all from reading this article. Why all the animosity?
4
@Tim
Let me help you. Donald Trump is racist. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists supported him as a candidate and they still do.
That's why it's not surprising to assume Trump supporters are racists too.
Think not?
Remember Charlottesville.
Because most of us do.
2
Trump’s victory was not response to Obama’s two terms but rather an avoidance of life under Hillary. Enough people in the right places found her more deplorable then what was in the basket. The Left was worried about transgendered bathrooms while the Right was worried about the Supreme Court.
This fear mongering that all white people are in the KKK and organizing to take back America is false and further fuels the divide.
The Dems with their over stocked primaries, obvious and distinct factions with ideas that fall apart at their own onstage debates will assuredly subject us to four more years of an undignified and incompetent Trump administration.
45
@Norville T Johnson
"Ideas that fall apart on stage"
I don't think this is the case, and even if was, you seem happy with ideas that were never had any coherence, integrity, or value anyway.
52
@Norville T Johnson--It's not Democrats that will "subject us to four more years" of Trump. The only thing that will ensure Trump's reelection will be the people who vote for him. You don't want him for four more years? Then vote for his opponent. But, if he wins and you voted for him, don't blame Democrats--the choice was all yours.
69
@ERC
No I want Healthcare for all. Just don't want private insurance taken away. Everyone hopes it is like Medicare for all but what if it is like what the. veterans get? And giving to people here illegally is not a great idea.
2
“You throw out Christianity, you throw out the Torah, you throw out God,” Mr. Hazony warned, “and within two generations people can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman. They can’t tell the difference between a foreigner and a citizen."
The purpose of nationalism has always been to tell you who your enemies are so that you can fight them when the government asks you to. Otherwise, you might actually think the people on the other side of the mountain that you have been trading with and visiting are actually nice folks who love their families just as you do. Nationalists want to draw lines, so it's natural that they see pluralists as people without borders (look at how they claim that Democrats don't want any borders, which is a gross misrepresentation of their position on immigration).
Nationalists live in the fantasy past. Josh Hawley doesn't even want to live in it all the time--that's why he's in Washington.
The beauty of America is its organic character and continuing dialogue about where it is going. We are enriching ourselves by recognizing everyone in it.
This is a great article. It's scary to me to imagine that world of the nationalists where everyone "knows their place and stays in it."
9
To be lectured by a man named Yoram Hazony on the topic of American "national Conservatism" with its "Us vs. Them" underpinnings is just rich.
4
I've come to the conclusion that a lot of these 'so-called' Nationalists and outright regressives weren't so much angered and upset by the Presidency of Barack Obama as they were REALLY UPSET by the realization that a MAJORITY OF THEIR FELLOW AMERICANS VOTED FOR HIM.
Then final Kick to the Head was when he was re-elected.
Re-Election meant that the first time was not a fluke: The America these people THOUGHT they knew... no longer existed. The America these people remember and cherish would never have voted a black man named Obama into the Oval Office.
They experienced innate Culture Shock. But Not from Without... it was ALL AROUND THEM ALL THIS TIME.
These people really are the CULTURAL MINORITY. And they cannot bear it. It's No Longer 1950 anymore.
The author is correct. The Fight Must continue. CHANGE Must Happen. And it WILL happen.
Multicultural Cities and towns are a NATURAL outgrowth of global economic and cultural interconnection.
As a Black American...I REFUSE to only be able to walk on a sidewalk with the permission of some small-town, hick-parochial throwback...
America belongs to ALL of US. It's not just YOURS anymore. Get Over it. Get Used to it.
And I promise you...It will Never be 19-flinkin'-50 Ever again.
8
@Honora I know of some of those voters... They voted for a Non-Politician. They voted for a better economy for themselves where they lived. They didn't Trust Hillary.
I understand that vote.
What my anger is aimed at are the racists who Trump has given the signal to stand alongside side him in the bright light of day, to take the stage and proclaim that White Pride and White Nationalism, that Separation of the Races, that the Confederacy was about Honor & Freedom...
...and that things would be better if people like knew just went quiet and relearned our place.
They are now out in the light, smiling and smirking...and too many so-called 'Decent', 'Red-State' conservatives go quiet and say nothing. Proving to me what they're 'Conservatism' really was about at it's core. Because to them...This new America was always alien to the deep parochial rurals who hold onto this Norman Rockwell myth of the 'Heartland of America'.
Its the second set that my message is also for. They too, were never really comfortable with this NEW America...and they are willing to silently let Decency slip down the toilet and say nothing if it will bring them back to that Imaginary Mayberry County of Sheriff Griffith and Aunty May.
1
The U.S. flag is first and foremost a symbol of freedom. Those who are unable to appreciate this should wave other flags that more accurately represent their frame of mind. Wave the Confederate flag instead if you are about bigotry and oppression of other Americans who do not either look or worship like you do.
4
Maybe we should suggest nailing the Constitution on our doors instead of flying a flag on national holidays. It worked for Martin Luther in Wittenberg.
2
Without a major war going on, we have nothing to unite us. Thus, we sit around and study our own belly buttons and turn to such things as right wing nationalism. The counter balance, reasonable equality, hasn't the cement found in racism. It's difficult to start a movement based on reason.
While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, Trump secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
4
Among the good points made in this column is that Mr. Hazony's own words show that he's not a conservative but rather a militant fundamentalist.
It might be worth adding that whites in the U.S. before 1860 also confronted the fact that they had created a multi-racial society that they didn't want to live in. The slave states tried, especially after 1830, to get the USG to ensure that slavery would be perpetual, and the north passed laws banning African-Americans from entering their states, but the facts didn't change.
1
I find it very curious that the right wing would subscribe to the views of Mr. Hazony, an Israeli Bible scholar. By what authority does he suggest a panacea to America's woes when he is not a citizen?
3
@Jim: They all subscribe to the excuse that they're only doing what God commands them to do.
2
“...The Republican Party under Donald Trump has devolved into a populist cult of personality...
And – the Democrat Party after Barack Obama has devolved into several populist cults of personalities...
Sometimes, a squad’s personality – vs an individual one...
Seems that – for better or worse, regarding the moral equity or outrage from any viewpoint:
> GOP unifying and standing
> Dems dividing and falling
As far as:
“...The molten core of right-wing nationalism is the furious denial of America’s unalterably multiracial, multicultural national character...
Close – but a swing and a miss...
More like:
The molten core of right-wing populism is the furious fury at America’s inexorably rent-seeking and predatory governance...
4
@W in the Middle
I suppose it's amusing that Trump is the ultimate supporter and exponent of rent seeking and predatory governance. Evidently, much of the electorate is very gullible indeed.
6
@W in the Middle
"The molten core of right-wing populism is the furious fury at America’s inexorably rent-seeking and predatory governance..."
And the vast majority of that "molten core" reside in the red states--you know, the ones that routinely get disproportionately more federal aid than those godless, America-hating blue states.
3
It is a recipe for Civil War. I'm glad someone finally pointed that out. I would add that Civil War is actually an optimistic assessment. Alternatives to civil war include America going the way of Soviet pograms, genocide, and gulags. Or China's Maoist reeducation programs for intellectual elites. Or, of course, the Nazi concentration camps.
That half of America would go to war rather than passively acquiescing to rounding up the unAmericans is to be hoped for.
11
The core of your argument starts from an incorrect premise: The molten core of right-wing nationalism is the furious denial of America’s unalterably multiracial, multicultural national character. The USA is 70% white and predominantly Christian, and will be the majority until at least 2050. It is understandable that this majority feels they are being discriminated against when so many efforts are directed at helping only other races and cultures. The anger arises when this majority sees that the proposed solutions force them to not only accommodate other cultures, but pay for them as well. The loathing you speak of is much more present amongst the woke and minorities who feel that whites are the enemy.
8
@Dr B
"t is understandable that this majority feels they are being discriminated against when so many efforts are directed at helping only other races and cultures"
Not that we extrapolate from bananas to pineapples because they're all fruits, or anything like that, right?? :)
5
@Bill Nichols ?
And there you have it “pay for them”. Just an admission that they don’t consider brown people, or people with different cultural backgrounds, to be fellow citizens or neighbors. Maybe tolerable as visitors but that’s it.
But they ARE citizens and neighbors. You can be brown, eat different foods, speak other languages with your friends, and still be American. The refusal to accept that is what we’re talking about here. It is incidentally the very reason why I regard all rhetoric about only being against illegal immigrants as utter hogwash.
1
Asinine article. Conservatives realize the country is a melting pot, but we are tired of politicians from both parties selling us out to foreign interests. We understand business & trade is global, but a global utopia one world government will never exist. We are tired of having taxes raised, watching the government throw money at problems, and seeing no results. Obama’s infrastructure Bill and shovel ready jobs? What happened, where did the money go? Why is infrastructure worse today than after his bill? Too much corruption. Trump didn’t invent the movement, he is the only one who realized, understood, and tapped into it. The left can cry racism all day long but it’s simply not true. Their is a more diverse following who are finally starting to wake up & understand conservative principles don’t discriminate. African Americans have more in common with conservative whites than the left, they just don’t realize it yet.
7
@JOSEPH
You mean like Trump selling us out to the KGB Russia of Vladimir Putin? You mean the jobs recovery bill that the GOP refused to pass because it would have made the black guy in the White House look good? Conservatives never miss an opportunity to misinterpret the very facts in front of their noses. Conservative principles don't discriminate so long as you are rich. Otherwise, they are a bunch of trickle-down lies.
8
It’s not our fault that conservatives wed themselves irrevocably to racists with Trump. Excise him and his apologists from your party and you may find an audience for your economic points. Many of are just not willing to sell our decency - individual and collective- for tax cuts.
3
Whether Trumpism persists after Trump is gone - and I do believe he will not win reelection next year; his numbers are low and falling and his base is diminishing, though it is strong in places like, say, North Carolina and Texas - will depend not on the occupant of the Oval Office, even primarily, but on which wing of which parties are found in the two houses of Congress.
Senators and Representatives are far more critical to this nation's well-being or demise than a limited term president. They are there for longer, they craft legislation based on input from their respective electorate, and can either go along with the president - as both houses did when they were controlled by the GOP - or they can resist, as happened when President Obama was denied his chance to recommend a Supreme Court Associate Justice.
However, having said all that, I think the far wings of the two parties have become the New Normal. I do not believe many candidates will be elected on a platform of moderation in all things, of working together, and of finding out what is best for all citizens of the country, not just the Monied Class.
We are in dark days and we have many more in front of us.
PS. Nice last name, by the way, Mr. Wilkinson. :)
>>> ". . . his numbers are low and falling and his base is diminishing . . ."
Sadly, neither of those assertions is correct. If you look at the averages of his approval polls over time, you will find that he was at about 38.5% approval in October of 2017 and is at nearly 44% in the latest polls. His "numbers" have been steady or improving during almost every period of his presidency. That doesn't happen with a diminishing base.
Donald Trump represents not a majority but a very large minority of Americans. They really like him and a combination of demographic distribution and the reality of the Electoral College gives them more than enough power to continue to dominate much of our political process, including, quite possibly, re-electing Trump.
4
“You throw out Christianity, you throw out the Torah, you throw out God,” Mr. Hazony warned, “and within two generations people can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman. They can’t tell the difference between a foreigner and a citizen."
Maybe so, but we're sure getting better at telling decent from indecent.
291
@Fred The quotation you cite is proof that the long time belief that people cannot live their lives without control from a "higher" authority is alive and well in America.
19
@Alex
I don't see your point. For the most part, people are more tolerant and respectful... and that's what Trumpist think they need to stop.
18
This isn’t new. The Donners were driven to move west (and to disaster) through mid-western anti-Catholicism.
Edna Ferber's family moved from Iowa to Wisconsin and a friendlier environment for Jewish families.
And then there were the aboriginal Native American populations. Not a lot of them left in the Midwest, are there? They’re the people to whom wicked folks gave or sold clothes previously worn by white chicken pox victims. For the native Americans this was a fatal illness.
When are we going to become the country we advertise as a freedom loving and democratic republic?
1
Contempt & loathing, shame, self-loathing, judgment of most sorts-- the parsing of 'good' & 'bad', that which I accept & that which I reject-- have their roots in the hidden emotion of Disgust. Of the five most basic human (mammalian!) emotions-- anger, fear, joy, sadness, & disgust-- Disgust is the most difficult to discern and to address.
For me, nationalism is a corruption of patriotism. Whether interpreted by the Left or the Right, I want nothing to do with it. My mother's family was murdered by the nationalist socialists in Germany in the 1930s. Anyone who is old enough to remember what those German nationalists did to the world should reject outright a return to nationalism of any kind. Its modern defenders are deluded and ignorant. It is a poison movement.
7
Spent most of my life respecting what I thought was tolerance. Apparently now, according to the vast majority of NYTimes readers and no-nuthin' pundits like Will Wilkinson, I'm a racist. Guess I'll get me some T-shirts printed up and a MAGA hat, cause if I'm a racist, Trump is DEFINITELY winning next year.
8
Well and so. But the support of white Evangelical Christians is something different.
@gratis
Not really. Only the goals are different as the Evangelicals seek to bring about the rapture whereas the "nationalists" would like to remain here on earth surrounded by nothing but their lily white brethren. The means and the origins are the same.
This article, and the comments, reveal how divided America really is.
What are Trump voters and right-wing nationalists? Unreconstructed racists. Haters, fantasizing about a past that never was. Beyond the pale.
What can you do with them? Nothing. Because you can't reason with those people. The only political solution is to wait until demographic change puts liberals firmly in the drivers seat. Then the outvoted haters will have progressive policy rammed down their throats. It's Us versus Them. And They are going to be crushed.
Good luck with that.
4
Most of the comments here are folks just talking past each other as well as Mr. Wilkinson. But let's just have a shout-out for a thoughtful and well-written (not a raft of "loquacious prose") piece from a vital centrist organization.
3
Paragraphs 5 and 6 present a cogent and compelling picture of the resentment felt by some people to the progress of women, blacks and gay people, as well as immigrants. That's why those people view the fight for equal rights for others as "taking something away" from them or as demanding "special" rights.
10
You could have skipped the loquacious prose and shortened this article to Hillary's "basket of deplorables" comment. The dripping condescension towards half the country is just as palpable.
The sooner that liberals understand that nationalism is about Westphalian sovereignty, not bigotry, the sooner you will understand your fellow citizens. Our country was founded on the notion of rejecting oppression and respecting the sovereignty of every person. That central belief informs the respect for family, the checks on government tyranny, and the enforcement of borders against outside threats and problematic cultural mores. None of these concepts are in any way associated with race, sex, or any other -ism you want to throw out. They are simply based on one concept- respecting people's boundaries.
Boundaries are an essential part of human relationships, and they are just as important on the national level. If liberals continue equating the desire for boundaries with bigotry, then I wish you luck in your future elections. You're going to need it.
8
Trump and right wing nationalism in America today?
In our overpopulated, ecologically compromised, multipolar, globalized world what's triumphing is biology, biology with and without biological theory, biology which would triumph regardless of a science, theory of such over all the political/economic idealisms, but which is even more evident because we now do have a theoretical construct of biology to compare with political/economic desires.
We all are familiar with constructs of the world by religions; articles of politics such as the Declaration of Independence; theories of economics ranging from Adam Smith to Karl Marx. What all these constructs have in common is they are idealisms superimposed on raw nature, biology, chemistry, physics, the harder sciences. We live our social lives taking these idealisms to be even more actual than nature, even interpreting nature as being supportive of them.
But in our world today all these idealisms are dying from both our incapacity to realize them and our always increasing understanding, consciousness of science. We are having a crisis of paradigmatic, total social meaning, no longer able to retreat to religion or other political/economic idealisms to guide our lives. We are socially devolving to what biology probably best describes, and can overcome our difficulties probably only by advance to deeper scientific understanding in all fields over the idealisms we have held so far. Either we do so or live a politics of raw nature.
@Daniel12: The "God" of human imagination marshals the properties of nature to do things that don't just happen randomly.
I certainly agree with Mr. Wilkinson's argument. But this article could sure use some editing.
"The practical implication of the nationalist’s entitled perspective is that unifying social reconciliation requires submission to a vision of national identity flatly incompatible with the existence and political equality of America’s urban multicultural majority."
Really?
3
@CDJ: This is a fact of Senate apportionment and likely population shifts. A smaller percentage of the population elect a larger percentage of the Senate every go-around.
6
@Steve Bolger
Perhaps my comment needed some editing as well. I appreciate and agree with your statement. However, regarding the quoted passage, my point was that it was poorly written, making it difficult to comprehend.
2
the percent of the population can go down but the percent of the senate will not go up.
In a world that could end in the flight time of a barrage of ICBMs, I hope cosmopolitanism prevails over nationalism.
10
Will Wilkinson writes, "Indeed, roaring silence around our Trumpian reality was the conference’s most consistent and telling theme."
The more telling passage in this piece to me, though, comes in the preceding paragraph in which he quotes Yoram Hazony's lamentations that, as America has become a more secular nation, "people can't tell the difference between a man and a woman. They can’t tell the difference between a foreigner and a citizen. They can’t tell the difference between this side of the border and the other side of the border.”
This, to me, is the basic crux of the disparity between us, the oh-so-horrible liberal "attackers" - as they have so casually dubbed progressives or anyone to the left of their regressive desires - and the "nationalists" who consider themselves the true patriots protecting "their" America. It is that the latter insist upon first identifying and then promoting THE DIFFERENCES between people while the latter focus on what BINDS US together as a HUMAN race that values the lives of every human being.
That Hazony then resorts to calling for the return of cohesion to save this country is utterly laughable and wholly hypocritical in light of every Conservative and Nationalist ideal, policy and desire.
Methinks it's beyond time for these folks to take a good, long look in the mirror and figure out why it is that they resort to hate of another as an involuntary response to just about anything that isn't returning our country to the 1950s.
9
Take it back to what end? As put it yourself, that position essentially demands the other side’s unconditional surrender. We are all Americans, but we don’t have to be, and I see little point in the endless war over what that even means. Give the New Confederacy some land and send them on their way. The right and left in this country may be broad churches in and of themselves, but the gulf between them has grown too wide to bridge. Remove mawkish sentimentality from the equation and the most sensible solution for two different peoples who hold fundamentally different values and wish to live under fundamentally different laws is partition. When in the course of human events.
3
Thank you Will, for an article that gets to the heart of the matter about nationalism. I've come to learn that the bullying of flag wavers is nothing more than empty loyalty based on feelings of their own marginalization.
I'm thinking we may need them to beat Trump. Putting up Biden as a Democratic nomination is putting good against evil for most people to understand in deciding the affirmative for the good of the country and people. We've got so much bad talk about Trump already.
Perhaps even Obama himself suggested that Biden run this way and why Biden often refers to his connection to Obama. So far it seems the logical way to me, fight fire with fire. Also, I do think Biden needs to wrap himself around environmental issues to further secure his stand with most people.
2
Mr. Wilkinson mentions the originally progressive nature of nationalism, referencing Theodore Roosevelt and the emerging “global reach” of the US. That’s an accurate characterization - nationalism, not just in America, was initially a sign of progress, an natural step in the evolution of ever-widening organization and identity of human association. (From family, to tribe, to city to state, etc.). But the evolution goes on...technology and economics have spurred the emergence of globalism, the next healthy step in the process of social evolution. Nationalism needs to, and ultimately will, give way to Globalism. And, despite all the growing pains it will entail, that will be a good thing.
5
Beautifully written piece...thank you.
When I read the warning from Hazony about not being able to "tell the difference between a man and a woman" or "a foreigner and a citizen," all I could think was: great!
9
I am broken. Utterly and completely broken. I have a biracial great niece and nephew. A niece married to a black man. All of his family is my family too after 23 years. I have a Chinese-American DIL. She is a naturalized citizen, a lovely person from a lovely family, with deep roots in our country. Her mother and father also naturalized citizens, very important people in the world of education. And yet she was told to go back where she came from in a Houston Wal Mart. Just last week.
I am a 65 year old cancer survivor. I did not fight so hard to live to end up feeling unwelcome, my family feeling unwelcome, in my country.
43
@Jills If you haven’t found out already, the author of this article featured your commentary in a tweet. Please know that there are many Americans that welcome you and your family, and that there are many Americans with diverse families like yours.
@Jills
Please. Don't let these bigoted phony patriots break you. That's what they want --and We, meaning all of humanity needs you and people like you to remain strong.
Remember. We are AMERICANS.
And if anyone needs to "go back" wherever they came from -- it's THEM!
Projection of human nature onto all of nature is the world's most pervasive delusion. To move forward from here, all must agree that all claims to know what any postulated deity with a hypothetical interest in human affairs thinks about what we think about are bogus.
7
@Steve Bolger In other words, the millions of Americans who believe in God should abandon their faith so that our society can achieve what you call progress? Nothing arrogant about that demand. Do you understand what the term, pluralism, means?
3
I am back in the USA from Brazil. Certain circumstances made me return against my heart which will always beat in Rio, a city that is a thorn in the eye of trumpesque Brazilians because Rio, too, is a human salad with many different chunks in a creamy dressing of joy.
So I chose to return to one of the few places in the US where there is a similar harmony of diversity, Southeast Florida, i.e. Miami-Dade/Fort Lauderdale. My street here is like my street in Rio. My neighbor to the east is from Haiti. My neighbors to the west are two women - one with Canadian parents and the other from a family of immigrants from Cape Verde - and on down the street, different countries, different origins, different languages, different shades of humanity. This is my America. At the end of my street is a gay bar that wants to resurrect the old Harlem in NYC. In front is a Mexican taco restaurant. Across the street from there is a restaurant from San Salvador next to an Italian Ice Cream parlor. I am sure hat these "conservative nationalists" (shudder) would not like my street - but I do.
32
Brings to mind a variation on the old saying, "Methinks they pledgeth too much".
5
"To reject pluralism and liberalizing progress is to reject the United States of America as it is"
This is the fatal flaw in your otherwise cogently analytical piece.
The United States of America "as it is" is actually two perceptions of the nation vying for dominance. Pretending conservative nationalism is not a core piece of the nation - "as it is" - simply denies the ideas of half the population. You may disagree with their sentiments and ideology but you cannot simply "disappear" them because they do not match up with your own perceptions or the nation.
Indeed, aren't the nationalists simply another one of the pluralistic bodies you celebrate in your piece?
7
@Michael Bukosky - no, they are not. The fact that bigotry and repression "do[es] not match up with" my own perceptions does not mean bigotry and repression should be given equal consideration in the dialogue with those of us who embrace the plurality inherent in America's origins. What is not open to dispute is that America was born of an effort to throw off British social structures and embrace the notion of true equality among every race, creed and color. That is inarguable fact, not merely one ideology an American might choose to subscribe to. The half of the nation to which you refer is simpliy wrong to imagine and insist that the ideology of white, Protestant hegemony is somehow on equal footing with our foundational principles. This is the part so-called "nationalists" don't get. To be an American, you simply are not entitled to reject the constitutional guarantee that all men are created equal. You don't get to defend a profoundly illegitimate viewpoint that denies our national identity as spelled out in our founding documents. Period.
4
@Michael Bukosky
As long as "nationalists" advocate for such "traditions" as xenophobia, misogyny, racism, homophobia and religious intolerance, and want to re-write history to suit their own narrow agenda and attempt to obtain their goals through threats and violence, then yeah, they reject the United States of America as it is. The so-called "nationalists" are not "half of the population." A lot of them are, however, associated with white supremacist hate groups:
https://www.statista.com/topics/5306/nationalism-in-the-us/
In short, no, they are not "simply another one of the pluralistic bodies" that Mr. Wilkinson celebrates in his op-ed.
1
White nationalist movements exist and are dangerous. But the Democrats will not win in 2020 with thinking like this.
White working class people in the Midwest —where the election for president will be decided—are likely to prefer even a mean clown to someone who actively hates them (as Wilkinson seems to) and/or think they need to be “educated” by their moral and intellectual superiors (the attitude of several Democratic candidates on Wednesday night).
9
@Art Eckstein
No where in Mr. Wilkinson's article do I read anything that indicates that he "hates" white working class people in the Midwest.
In paragraph eleven of the essay, the one beginning with “What, today, do Americans call home?”, what group, what class, is completely and stunningly missing?
The real problem with Trump's rhetoric is an appeal to racism that escalates into violence. Trump is inciting violence against brown-skinned people, because nearly half this country believes as he does. He gets the votes he needs, and that's all he cares about.
But the danger of Trump's "strategy" is clear. The more he incites his racist base, the greater the threat posed to all of us who are brown-skinned Americans.
Liberal critics fall short in recognizing his rhetoric for the clear threat that it is. So far, most have felt comfortable treating racism as just one of Trump's many character flaws. But it is much more than this. Trump has energized his base by using race and will continue to do so. We see thousands of Trump voters, at his rallies, proudly screaming their hatred of dark skinned people. Having a president who is as racist as they are is all they care about.
But this won't be where it ends. Soon, shoving Hispanic migrant children into internment camps will no longer satisfy them. Then Trump will begin targeting families like mine - brown skinned American citizens. And he must continue to stoke his base's hatred, if he is to retain power. Any group of brown-skinned citizens may well be the next people he orders into camps, or that his rabid base targets in a frenzy of ethnic cleansing.
And the longer we kowtow to Trump supporters, the more dangerous he - and they - will become.
254
@James Tiptree, Jr. I am not a man of color but my sons will be. I understand and share your fear.
Yet I think about one side of my extended family who may well be among those in the Trumpist rallies you describe. A few in those crowds are indeed "proudly screaming their hatred of dark skinned people," but most are not doing quite that. Instead, they don't know what their relationship to dark skinned people is, or is supposed to be. They're not innocents; but they feel and experience rejection from everywhere.
I think of my dead cousin, ethnic white boy from Jersey lying in state, young. Opioids. I think about how he used to appropriate hiphop clothing styles and mannerisms. It made me cringe in its blind awkwardness, but it was a question: What are we to each other? Where do I fit in? Will I be 'welcomed down' in the endless American churn of humanity into acceptable value providers versus misfits?
Yes, that appropriation can in one sense be seen as a kind of disparagement of the image of blackness. But disparagement by whom? By my cousin? Or by American culture itself, with its Ur-Trumpism that is in everyone always, its commodification of everything, its relentless WinnerLoser-ism?
How not to kowtow to what Trump is trying to accomplish, which is made easier because it relies on an atomization that is already part of the American system, race or no race?
Be bigger than Trump, than fear, than the idea of separateness. Protect your children by teaching them to lead.
11
@biomuse,
I very much appreciate your sincere comment here. My only concern about what you write is this -- you mention those whites who are not screaming racist epithets, but who do not know what their relationship is, with people of color. And this is an excellent description. That said, my concern is that these whites will not stand up to the most vicious of the Trumpists, but will, instead, simply remain quiet. Believe that it is someone else's problem. Believe that they shouldn't get involved. If history is any guide, my concern is well-founded. All this said, I very sincerely hope you are right. But to hedge my bets, our family has found a home outside of the U.S.
32
@James Tiptree, Jr.
I can't gainsay your reading of history, which is reasonable. I have to hope and believe that it won't come to that. But if it does, godspeed and safety.
11
Achieving diversity is as simple as checking a box on a census form.
The easiest and fairest way to achieve diversity throughout American society would be to recognize all U.S. ethnic group instead of lumping more than 60 percent of Americans into the non-Hispanic with category.
If we recognized the ethnicity of German American, Irish Americans, Anglo Americans, Italian Americans, French Americans, Polish Americans, Norwegian Americans, Dutch Americans, Swedish American, Scotch Irish Americans, etc, we could achieve unprecedented diversity overnight. The American Community Survey gives us the data we need.
For example, we mistakenly count Mexicans Americans as a minority although the American Community Survey shows they are about to overtake German Americans to become America’s largest ethnic group. Yet they insist on minority status even in states like California, Texas and News Mexico where they outnumber all other ethnic groups combined. If we considered everyone’s ethnicity, Mexican Americans would no longer be a minority group.
If we permitted all students to designate their ethnicity on college admission forms, college campuses that lack diversity would become instantaneously diverse. We could enjoy all the tremendous benefits of diversity without resorting to racial or ethnic preferences in college admissions.
6
Just having finished Chernow's "Hamilton", I'm reminded of the "battles" between the Federalists and the Republicans. Both sides had good ideas, but it was only through compromise that the democratic "experiment" was able to survive. We need to be rethinking the idea of compromise... both sides have good ideas.
4
This “phenomenon” is not new. It’s always been there in one form or another. Trump has just legitimized the movement by turning over the rock and exposing it to the light of republican respectability.
2
Our Senator from Montana Steve Daines is going 100% #IstandwithTrump in his campaign for relelection in 2020. Steve Daines has turned into a Little Trump. His campaign is pure 100% Trump: Democrats are all Socialists trying to take away our freedom, black and brown Democrats should be sent back, no one has a right to criticize our country, build the wall, fake news, white nationalism, Trump is awesome...all while standing in front of a giant American flag. If Trump Mini-Me Daines wins in 2020 what won’t that just mean more and more Little Trumps like Daines?
4
How long can “national conservatism” last?
How long did apartheid last?
2
@George Shaeffer
How long can National Conservatism last? Long enough to destroy 10’s of millions of lives in WWII.
Is that long enough for you?
That photo!! No, no nononono. NO person's face should ever be superimposed over the American flag! My patriotic, military family blood is boiling right now. Trump supporters, what's up with that? I see Qanon flags with that ONE red stripe on a field of blue, like you just get to change the freaking FLAG into a symbol of partisanship, if not fascist cult adoration??
And here you simper about 'respecting our flag' and all that, while you cut it up into a (I can't believe it), an image of DearLeader. Let's just say, George Washington would have stopped that in a hurry, as post-Revolutionary politicians tried to get him declared king. Trump? He loves it. Loves loves loves his image ON TOP OF THE STARS AND STRIPES.
It's been obvious that republicans have put party over country for at LEAST the last 3 years, but now they buy flags of trump? They display altered American flags at their houses while they proudly wear their "Veteran" caps out in public, accepting citizens' 'thanks for your service'.
You don't get to make up your own facts, trumpists, and you DON'T get to alter the symbol of our nation into one that stands for your side only. IRONY: "One Nation, Under God, INDIVISIBLE, with Liberty and Justice for ALL", or even the word UNITED. That picture makes me sick, and I'm ashamed before the memory of my grandfather who died at Normandy.
11
Seems to me that the most "loathing" going on is in that headline.
4
How so? Trump literally hugs the flag while spewing hate at various groups of Americans. Please provide examples for your rebuttal of this article.
1
I despise Trump and all he stands for. But then, I am a white southerner. It has become fashionable to condemn the men who fought to defend their homes in the Civil War as precursors to the Nazis, a damnable lie. Being a Vietnam vet, I am familiar with this kind of thinking. If the so-called progressives keep it up, I may just sit out the next election.
5
@James R. Filyaw - defending their homes? That's a euphemism. Confederate soldiers were complicit in a treasonous attempt to overthrow the legitimate American government. Full stop. And nowhere in that do I see any plausible allegory with the U.S. role in Vietnam, which was meddling from the OUTSIDE, rather than from the inside of the country, as was the case in the American Civil War.
5
@James R. Filyaw
The problem isn't with the men who fought to defend their homes in the Civil War.
It's with Civil War and what it represented.
And there's nothing "fashionable" about slavery and human bondage.
Thank you for your service.
@James R. Filyaw
The current choice isn't between chocolate and vanilla ice cream. It's between ice cream and being punched in the face.
If someone can hear what Democratic candidates are saying and are so frustrated they feel like "maybe they'll just sit this one out," or if democrats keep talking about trying to find a way to make health care affordable then they may have to vote for trump, then I can't take that person as someone who would seriously have ever considered voting Democrat.
3
A first-rate article, explaining exactly how these racists think, and the excuses they use for their hate-fomenting ideology. So odd that a rabbi would expound such, but then, consider Mr. Netanyahu, and we see the equivalent in Israeli politics.
4
Watch "Gangs of New York"....Trump is the butcher....and we are ruled by him. Is this the coutnry we want?
2
“National Conservatism” sounds to me like branding for a new strain of mainstream-acceptable hate. Which, as Mr. Wilkinson rightfully points out, is a reaction to a black POTUS who honored all Americans and made us all proud.
The loathing from white supremacists is vocal, palpable and terrifying. I don’t care whether they substitute an American flag for a Nazi flag. Or call it “Trumpism” or “Nationalism”.
5
Know-Nothings unchained (again)!
1
Yep. They love America .... just can't stand many of the Americans who live there. Much like those who love to extol Judeo-Christian ideals could do without so many Judeos.
5
Yoram Hazony? That sure sounds like a name that right wing white nationalists will unite behind. Not.
6
amen
The only Black member of the House of Representatives is retiring. Is this the “Real America” the National Conservatives want to return to? Yes.
4
This is another vitriolic Opinion, published by the Times, expressing loathing and smearing many Americans while accomplishing nothing.
7
Can someone pls explain the difference between ‘trumpism without trimp’ and:
National Socialism ( Nazism) or
Putinism and any other brand of extreme right wing radicalism?
The GOP thinks this is their answer for survival
It’s actually the 1/3-1/2way mark of their death spiral
They will last but a few years if that after this racist incompetent buffoon is out of the picture ( starting Nov 4 2020)
2
Basically it’s the KKK minus the robes and pointy hats.
6
Who ya kidding? We are the KKK, the American Nazi Party, the John Birch Society, the DAR, The Proud Boys, Sen. McCarthy, etc.
Barack was but a dream we dared to dream.
Now we have awoken to the nightmare.
7
Man, oh, man, Mr. Hazony and the others of his kind paint a picture of a hell on earth. Who would want to live there?
3
@sjs - Send them...somwhere! Nationalist bigots should find a new country where nobody expects them to be decent and civilized to their fellow man, since America's foundational principles of equality for all are apparently so abhorrent to them.
There are two tested ways to control a population to your own political benefit. One is to deprive children of an "equal" education, rendering them unable to understand the events around them or their role in them. The other is to control the media as a political tool. The US is coming close to authoritarianism,
7
The phrase "national conservatism" makes my blood run cold.
What does that mean? A bunch of Nazi's who hate socialism, but who want to call their movement "National (something)" to emulate Hitler?
Maybe most every World War 2 veteran out there is six feet under, but I'm old enough to remember a lot of them. some of whom didn't make it fighting Hitler and the Japanese. The idea that any American would glorify, even with something that too seriously rhymes with a dogma that killed at least 30 million people, is so odious that it cannot be tolerated.
I don't care who you are. If you believe in that kind of label, then you have no business in the United States of America. This is not funny in the slightest, and the use of that label in the context of this administration's policies obliterates any "intellectual" message those groups want to advance.
263
@Charles Coughlin--Agreed. Nationalism of any kind is abhorrent. We need more writers like Mr. Wilkinson to peel back the facade of Trump's calls to nationalism and show it for the pernicious poison it is. Nationalism does not equal patriotism, and in fact, nationalism is actually anti-patriotic. Anyone who loves America should unequivocally reject nationalism.
25
I think perhaps a nationalist conservatism to these folks means a rejection of pure ideological conservative/libertarian dogma in favor of activist measures to benefit society along conservative preferences.
2
America is not a nation of white, Christian, West European decedents. The founding fathers purposefully ensured our nation would not have a officially recognized national language or religion. The cohesive "thing" that binds us is the idea of liberal freedom. Liberal as in the actual definition of the word, not the derogatory sense it is tossed around by those on the right.
I often speak to parents at my kids school who tell me how upset they are because "it isn't the same as when I went to school here," with the underlying tone being "there are a lot more brown people now."
But that is what America is. And that is why America is exceptional. To ignore our country's liberal pluralism is to ignore our existence in and of itself.
14
A poignant reminder that America’s uniqueness stems from social cohesion achieved by the ideals and vision of a new nation articulated so well in our founding documents not a specific ethnic identity.
7
Right wing nationalism is a mind-set, and a set of habitual, stress reactions to perceived threats that mostly never existed. And nothing more. It doesn’t even rank as an ideology.
As the author states, true conservatism would harken back to our founding documents, which were undeniably radical and revolutionary for the time, and which guaranteed freedoms that must always be interpreted, if we are to follow their lead, as expansively and broadly as possible.
23
I've seen it stated on Twitter that those that support Trump do so out of "survival." Survival of what of what exactly? Survival of the fittest? Those who can afford healthcare may survive (and it's liberals that would like to see everybody have access to affordable healthcare!). Those that have the means to weather extreme weather events because of our changing climate, may survive (and it's liberals that.... oh, never mind). But no, they're arguing "American Culture" - what is that exactly? Ask them and they struggle to answer. One person dared to say something about heavy metal music (to be fair, he was actually referring to "white culture" but still!). In my opinion, "American Culture" is, and has always been, a melting pot. It's the amalgamation of all the different cultures our descendants brought to this country from other places. The only culture native to this continent is, well, the native one and our European descendants killed that - literally and figuratively. If people are so worried about being outnumbered then for g-dsakes do something about it! Have babies. Go ahead, no one is stopping you... get busy! Oh, but that healthcare thing...
13
@rachel - spot on. I frequently pin my younger brother down: "In what way, specifically, are you in your wealthy, priveleged white existence being trod upon, as you raise that silly 'Don't Tread on Me' flag in your yard? In what way or ways, exactly? Please be specific."
1
This is the most important story in today’s NYT. I hope every mainstream news outlet in America covers it.
10
"But Mr. Trump won’t be president forever."
Are you sure he will actually leave office short of death?
11
@JMR is right, whose is to say Trump will leave office before death. He likes dictators like Putin, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and Kim Jung-un of North Korea who stay in power for life. He also wants to set up an American dictatorship for life for the Trump crime family like the one in North Korea for the Kim family. Wake up America. Trump, his family, his base, his conservative press backers at Fox News (and else where), the conservatives on the federal court system and legislators like McConnell and Graham are a danger to Americas democracy. Carl Cox
3
Mr. Wilkinson well said. Looking back much of today's faux patriotism must be laid at the feet of Reagan, the great divider. Reagan was elected president by fanning the flames of racism and planting the seed that if you are not a white conservative republican with a pocket bible you are not a real patriot.
Moscow Mitch and Air Force colonel/Senator Graham are the poster boys for wrapping themselves in our flag while dividing our country to get and hold political power. Colonel/Senator Graham is a particularly galling example of faux patriotism because he continually ignores the oaths he took to defend our country from enemies, foreign and domestic, both as a Senator and a colonel in the military. McConnell and Graham's behaviors with regard to the Russian interference in our elections is, at best, a disgrace and may approach treason.
Removing the draft, so that politicians like Commander-in-Chief bone spurs, could avoid embarrassing questions about why they didn't serve their country contributes to today's divided Nation. The draft, when not avoided by power and money, required Americans from all backgrounds to work and serve together.
That said, our country needs to have a mandatory military/public service program that does not exempt people born into wealth and power. Having the rich and powerful serve along side Americans from all backgrounds is not a cure for today's divided country, but it is a start.
Henceforth I will refer to Graham as Leningrad Lindsey.
16
Something wicked this way comes. Hillary Clinton had it nearly right when she told America back in 2016 that it’s either her or chaos. Nearly right because the choice wasn’t Clinton or chaos, it was Clinton or the Carnival: with the grotesque clown-king dispensing his topsy-turvy parody of statecraft to crowds intoxicated by his degradations of our shared language and shared symbols, his violent transgressions of social norms and utter travesty of the highest office in our elected government. Under the big top, every meal is candy, every rhinestone a diamond, every moment something to see. But circuses don’t last long, and just outside this one I can already hear the wind howling and the bells tolling. The clown-king and his court will soon be gone; the rest of us won’t be so lucky.
12
"National Conservatism". Sounds familiar; wasn't there something called "National Socialism" once?
12
@Len Safhay
Yes; it had an odious moniker and a trumplike leader.
3
Where have you been hiding Mr. Wilkinson? A very well put piece, I wish the trumpsters that I know would read it with open eyes and come to their senses. You and I both know that will never happen though.
11
Brilliantly written - Thank you, Mr Wilkerson.
6
As the recently released Reagan-Nixon tapes reveal, the racism, nationalism, misogyny, and xenophobia of the Republican Party predate Trump by decades.
The worst of this should be laid at the feet of Reagan, who brought this kind of vile thinking from the fringes (John Birch Society) to the mainstream.
12
Don’t kid yourself, the Republican Party is playing the same tune that the southern whites played prior to the CW. The hates are the same, the claim to victimhood by the liberals is the same, the refusal to recognize those who are different because they view them as threatening to and undercutting their economic well being as well as to their socio-cultural order.
The argument they present is one we have dealt with before and one that resulted in some MOC pummeling others to unconsciousness with a cane on the floor of the House: will some people in our society be forever kept from economic parity and general social advancement because they aren’t white? Today’s nationalist conservatives don’t say this but when you pry apart the me-me-me of their beliefs that is what you find. It may be somewhat more nuanced because they’ve got great word meisters, but basically it boils down to skin color and economics. Non-gazillionaire whites are just listening to half the story just as white workers after the CW blamed their situation on freed slaves, not understanding that they were now in the same economic competitive boat, as opposed to the Commodore who owned the boats they worked on.
5
But we all know the real flag so many of these "white Americans" (self identifying) admire the most: the Rebel flag of the losing Confederates, aka the flag of "traitors."
That's when the ugliness of nationalism becomes clear, when we see a flag that is NOT the Stars and Stripes supported by bigots who hate us. And when they use our own flag for hate is when they shame us all.
9
"You throw out Christianity, you throw out the Torah, you throw out God,” Mr. Hazony warned, “and within two generations people can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman. They can’t tell the difference between a foreigner and a citizen. They can’t tell the difference between this side of the border and the other side of the border.”
“The only way to save this country, to bring it back to cohesion,” he added, “is going to be to restore those traditions.”
So, how and where does Allah fit into the the conservative nationalist picture? They're strangely silent on that question.
7
Even in my liberal Bay Area city, it is not unusual to see mega pick-up trucks speed past me with giant American flags affixed and blowing in the wind. I walk through my neighborhood, attempting to speak civilly to acquaintances who hate immigrants while boasting of their patriotism and admiration for their dark messiah in the Oval Office. I have relatives who turn their backs on their own nephew who married another man. They say that America’s way is God’s way, and their maker’s way is against same-sex marriage. Those same in-laws pray for my and my daughters’ souls because we are pro-choice. This is America? The America that my Sicilian and Southern Italian grandparents immigrated to? Yes, loathing abounds. It is symbolized by Donald Trump. As horrible as this man is, we must remember that he is also a reflection of too many of us. It is time to stop the metastasis of this cancer within our nation’s soul and body.
20
@Kathy Lollock Yes, very sadly (and as reflected in this piece), Trump is not a cause but a symptom of the sickness and hatred living in many Americans hearts and minds.
5
Who says Trump won’t be president forever? He aims to be ‘president-for-life’ Trump, and hand it over to his progeny.
3
Stephen King created a Trump-like character 4 decades ago. Here is his interview, with juxtaposed scenes of his protagonist and Trump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXfklsKGwBU
The above video is scary, and should be redistributed to all potential voters.
After reading this, the first thing that came to mind was how Republicans would be so much happier living in Russia. It has a homogeneous population--majority white, authoritarian rule under a strong man, a militaristic mentality, anti-LGBTQ, women are treated as subservient to men, and nationalism is all the rage. So GOP immigrate!
15
With this op-ed, Mr. Wilkinson has presented a definitive description of the America worthy of our loyalty. The attempts by right-wing zealots to claim the United States as their exclusive property, as he suggests, is destructive to our democratic traditions and national unity. It is unlikely that the polarization that Trump and his supporters aggressively promote will be reversed by reasoned debate. Trump's escalating hostility seems intended to push our society toward violent conflict.
3
"...reactionary nationalism is seditious, anti-patriotic loathing of America hiding behind a flag — our flag." Well said. Trump is the one who hates America. He said as much in his Inagural Address. Peace.
5
We used to fight fascists abroad. Now we fight them in manifested our own government. I hope we will be able to overcome this dark time in 2020. What legitimacy does the Republican Party have at all to speak on behalf of the majority of Americans or to so misuse our tax dollars to commit acts of barbarism on asylum speakers and our own citizens? I hope that one-time tax cut was worth selling out your party and country for. The Trumpian Abomination Party will not stand.
3
The current misinterpretation of many is in the first statement: The molten core of right-wing nationalism is the furious denial of America’s unalterably multiracial, multicultural national character. At the current time, America is 70% white and is predominantly Christian. It is appropriate that such an overwhelming majority feels that efforts to appease the minority by taking from them is inappropriate. We are 30 years away from not having a white majority, and even then they will be the largest minority
3
@Dr B
"We are 30 years away from not having a white majority, and even then they will be the largest minority."
Oh, well.
I’m a left wing democrat with a hard core respect for the flag. Every day I am sickened by “patriots” unknowingly disrespecting the flag and proud in their ignorance. Displaying their “patriotism” on their do rags covering their body parts spreading it across their car hoods. The flag deserves better than jingoistic service.
4
Republicans can not extract white nationalism from Trumpism because racism is an integral part of the Republican Party. Trump has merely dragged it out into the open.
The recent revelation of Ronald Reagan’s racism shows how it has always run all through the party. It was the core of the Southern Strategy.
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones laid this out a year ago. His analysis rings truer than ever.
“Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist and bigoted appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons.”
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/08/nos-victi-reipublicae/
7
@Larry Roth I disagree with Mr. Drum only to the extent that the Republicans also use misogyny (see, appeals to "save the babies" as long as the babies are in the womb as opposed to (say) cages on the southern border), as well as racism, to win the votes of the riff raff.
Well written, necessary dialogue. Thank you.
3
The Republican party, as many have pointed out, is the party of Trump. Who will pick it up after Trump? Many have already started: Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and according to Max Boot, maybe Tucker Carlson. Look out America.
4
As a conservative I don't read the body of columns written by the Times editorial staff. I used to but Nowadays it's too easy to predict the vitriol and disdain they have for conservatives.
Clearly this is a war. We can only hope it ends well for America.
Liberals have staked out the "high" ground. They are the righteous ones. They alone know how to be good to the common man and woman. They understand decency. They are the learned and have been given the task of governing this country for their good, conservatives good and the good of all.
Apparently, (according to Rasmussen), 49% of democrats believe all conservatives are racist. This is an astonishing number.
30 years ago, this could have been incorporated into an SNL comedy skit.
But, no more. The demonization of conservative thought by the media and hollywood in conjunction with the Democratic party
is complete.
Science has been usurped by "consensus". Racism can be hurled by the left for any criticism warranted or not and governors in black face are fine as long as it's a democratic governor.
5
@Charles Segal If you support Trump, if you are not a racist, you are clearly "okay" with racism. Which, in my book, makes you a racist. And 90% of Republicans support Trump. As for science, do you remember when not a single Republican candidate running for president would not publicly admit that he "believed in" evolution? https://www.salon.com/2015/02/11/evolution_and_the_gops_2016_candidates_a_complet_guide/ And let's not get started on global warming ...
1
@Charles Segal
Conservatives bring on the vitriol and disdain with their own lies and hypocrisy. Trickle-down Reagonomics works for the average American worker? It doesn't and conservatives know it doesn't; yet they continue to lie that it does. Conservatives have staked out the low ground - pandering to racism, denigrating Gold Star families, waving the traitor's Confederate flag. Prove you are not racists, conservatives, and you won't be damned as racist. Back racist policies, politicians, and commentators and you'll properly be labelled racist.
1
That... my friends, is America in 1000 words or less.
1
Obama was a unifying force. As a straight white male (eek!) I felt very much included in his vision of America and his calls to do better as a nation in terms of social justice. Somehow he was able to talk about a "we" which included everyone, including me. He was not looking for monsters, but for our better angels.
But he was an aberration to the left's relentlessly bigoted vision posing as anti-bigotry. The Narrative is that all ills are result of "problematic whiteness" or "toxic masculinity."
Every. Single. Problem. The NYT Op-Ed column is saturated in this vision.
The very people who have the nerve to pretend to carry the banner of Martin Luther King, Jr. are telling us that all that matters is color and sex.
White people must apologize for white privilege and for all past and present white racism - to publicly admit their Original Sin - and to fail to do so only makes you more guilty.
So white people of goodwill have learned to wallow in conspicuous virtue signalling, to the point that they are showing anti-white bias in polls.
The prediction of white people becoming demographic minorities is always cast as some kind of gleeful prediction of a long overdue collective comeuppance.
And the left is shocked - shocked! - to discover that many people are seeking shelter under the wing of a wretched white nationalist demagogue.
7
@Livonian Nobody except the far right believes anyone is saying these things. It's an utterly delusional caricature of the central, mainstream opposition to conservatism. I will not say "left" because there is no organized left in America. But seriously, you should try talking to the people whom you believe are saying these things, see what they're actually saying.
As to the Times Op-Ed page being "saturated" with this attitude, I think you're reading a different newspaper than I am. Can you provide even a single example?
" the new nationalism’s disloyal contempt for the United States of America."
A movement-defining phrase in a fine article.
5
“I believe that what this president has done to our culture, to our civic discourse … you cannot unring these bells and you cannot unsay what he has said, and you cannot change that he has now in a very short time made it seem normal for schoolboy taunts and obvious lies to be spun out in a constant stream. I think this will do more lasting damage than Richard Nixon’s surreptitious burglaries did.” (George Will, 15July2019)
3
"Mr. Hazony warned '...They can’t tell the difference between this side of the border and the other side of the border.'"
Having just returned from a family vacation to Big Bend National Park on the Rio Grande, I can tell you that both sides of the border look the same. In fact, my proudest moment of the summer was listening to my just turned thirteen year old daughter explain why she felt that our border distinction was so absurd.
Mr. Hazony has a lot of growing up to do.
8
So what is the necessary unifying national objective?
Trump promotes a racist whites only island.
The Democrats are clueless, except maybe Andrew Yang, he may be on to something with his clarion call to rethink work and jobs and family economic well being.
The culture of Albuquerque is not "Mexican" it is Hispano. It may also be described as “New Mexican.” I’ve read multiple articles in this very publication which address this fact. However, the Hispanos of New Mexico are apparently the only ethnicity not worthy of being correctly identified. If this paper can ensure that a 7-year-old white child is identified by their preferred pronoun in its pages, it can also ensure that the descendants of the founders of Albuquerque are correctly identified by the term they have chosen for themselves. A culture and people who date back to 1598 certainly deserve that much respect.
3
@ARP: Thank you for pointing this out. This is my family background and I appreciate you correcting this mistake in the article.
To paraphrase the line in The American President movie, I don't understand how conservative say they love America and yet hate Americans.
7
The nation which Donald Trump seeks to create entirely for his personal convenience and profit must never come to life, because it would be the exact opposite of the nation which our founding fathers created by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Our problem is that when the Trump presidency ends – and it will end – there will still be people within the governments of some of our states and within our federal government who want white supremacists to shape the post-Trump government.
Some of those fellow travelers of white supremacy have personal profit as their primary goal, but they generally also have a deep-seated animus towards black and brown Americans.
There are many members of the Republican Party likely to hold some power after Donald Trump is gone. Those who support white supremacists range from highly ambitious hacks like John Ratcliffe to highly successful hacks like Moscow Mitch McConnell.
We can never rest until the roots of the racist weeds are destroyed.
4
"Whether couched in vulgarities or professorial prose, reactionary nationalism is seditious, anti-patriotic loathing of America hiding behind a flag — our flag."
Oh yes, the flag that Trump loves to hug and wrap himself in.
"When fascism comes to America, it will wrap itself in the flag and carry the cross".
In good old German the word nationalism is spelled Nazionalism.
4
Excellent, thank you.
America is not any ethnicity, theocracy, ideology, or such.
3
The barely veiled project of the white nationalists is to overturn the 15th, 14th, and 13th Amendments and return to a time when only wealthy white men had any rights at all. The rest of us will continue the fight for We, the People to include all of the people.
4
There is no “molten core” of nationalism and contrary to the author’s view Obama did not unify the nation. We saw tremendous racial strife, confrontation, and violence during his tenure. What occurred after the death of Michael Brown Jr in Ferguson, Missouri? Obama was not MLK, Not even close!!
What has driven this nationalist movement is the stripping away of economic security for the working middle class. People want decent paying jobs plain and simple. Their tired and angry at seeing production shifted overseas and their personal economic value in society crumble. They read of entitlements and the open door approach to illegal immigration, then look at their tax bills and ask the what the heck is going on here. Who is representing me in Washington? They’re stressed out over trying to provide a decent life for their family when their own government does not support them. This is what drives people towards Trump and away from the over promise and under deliver Liberal Democrats. It’s not an issue of race. Be assured there are a tremendous number of Non- White Americans asking this very question. They are feed up with the liberal nonsense and want a system that works. Is that really so hard for liberals to grasp.
4
It's time to acknowledge that the Republican Party of yore no longer exists.
The GOP used to be the party of a strong national defense, civil rights ("party of Lincoln" anyone?), freedom (“Tear down this wall!”), free trade, law & order and fiscal responsibility. It was the party of the heartland.
Today, the GOP is in thrall to the populist, racist, zombie corpse of the Old Confederacy.
It willingly accepts help from foreign powers to win elections (#PutinsPuppet), embraces murderous dictators, is fervently isolationist (“Build That Wall!”), employs tariffs, runs a fascist police state that locks up innocent children without trial, and spends money like a drunken sailor.
It should, therefore, change its name to the RINO Party.
2
I, along with many of my concerned friends, have been comparing these people to Beer Hall Putsch fascists for years now, almost always getting pushback from others, who call us “alarmists.” Well, maybe it’s time people might stop calling us alarmists and start calling this generation of Republicans exactly what they are.
3
The ugly underbelly of our nation has always been, and remains, institutionalized racism of black people and Native Americans. Stolen land. Stolen bodies. Stolen wealth. Stolen cultures. Stolen families. Stolen lives.
Until we fix that, we will never live up to our claim of being the beacon of freedom for the rest of the world.
We as a nation need to, finally and unequivocally, not only own our complete history, but alter our course going forward.
Ignorance, intolerance, racism and superstition are the hallmarks of conservative nationalism. The American flag has been hijacked by conservatives as a symbol of their backwards conservative solidarity. I automatically distrust anyone I see flying an American flag, emblazoning it on their car, or incorporating it in their internet masthead. Flying the flag is now code for being a right wing conservative hater. That hijacking of my flag disgusts and repulses me. The utter stupidity of flying an American flag on one fender and a Confederate flag on the opposite fender is absolutely lost on the racist owner of a gas guzzling pickup truck. The idea that the flag is more important than the citizenry is another conservative superstition. America, love it or leave it, should first apply to everyone flying the traitor's flag of the Confederacy, the well of hate from which today's conservative "thought" oozes to the surface.
2
Republicans are using the same logic as domestic abusers when they claim progressives "caused" their descent into fascism: "Why did you make me beat you?!"
Fundamentally, white Americans need to understand that all these things that enrage them -- same-sex marriage, women's equality and power over their own bodies, multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism -- actually have nothing at all to do with them. They need to learn to live and let live, which is supposedly a libertarian conservative value.
4
@Border Barry As someone said about civil rights, and, specifically, about Republicans complaining about minorities/women getting them as if that would take the rights away from Republicans: "It's not pie."
The pitch and tenor of this piece is perfect.
I hate to say it, but we have reached a point where righteous indignation at the debasing of America's founding values by the extreme right must be voiced at volume and with the purpose of forming solidarity against growing fascism in our country.
That I would ever write those words shocks me.
But the fact is that, along with the brutal original sin of the United States of America, a certain kind of cosmopolitanism, in the historical sense of Aurelius, Kant, etc. is woven into the fabric of our political founding.
America wasn't ever and will never be coherent in the sense Mr. Hazony calls for.
America is incoherent, and its incoherence saves it from tyranny and makes those bits of progress in our history possible. As an example of incoherence just pair it's greatest moments of progress with its foreign policy at and given time.
Democracy will never be fully achieved, and its meaning changes with time. This fundamental flux is a great challenge to human psychology. To never be certain, to never be finished, to never be allowed to rest in realizing the franchise of 'equal freedom' that Will Wilkinson mentions, this is our gift and our curse.
We are a fundamentally modern project, looking to the future and the possibility, but not the necessity, of progress.
These retrograde deplorable have given us the gift of a wake up call. The 2018 elections show what is possible.
8
In John Sayle’s Lone Star, an excellent and seminal film (and my favorite contemporary movie) a Latina teacher is hosting a parent discussion of the curriculum at the local high school. She speaks about their small town’s diversity and its mix of cultures, Native American, Mexican American, African American - they are near a military base - and Anglo. She asserts that all of their stories are and need to be told in history class. At this point the patrician white mother speaks up: “And that is what has got to be stopped.” Enough said.
4
“The only way to save this country, to bring it back to cohesion,” he added, “is going to be to restore those traditions.”
Never in the history of the world have traditions and "cohesion" been restored - only temporary simulacrums of things past. Political/social/cultural/religious/environmental entropy means there's no going back to what we used to know. It's an ancient futile plea of people who (usually mistakenly) believe they benefit from the status quo. Otherwise Republicans would have long ago "restored" us to the halcyon days of the Old Testament.
6
@Grover
They're sending you back to an Old Testament world right now. The current attack on women's health is a perfect example of things going backwards under an extreme right-wing government. And it will get worse.
3
This country belongs to its people, not to self-appointed cultural guardians who want to define an American by skin color and religion. If we looked forward to the future we want for our children, rather than backward at a past that never really existed, it seems obvious that we have a moral responsibility to treat all citizens with respect, as equals, rather than as suspicious members of enemy tribes.
17
You can say this a hundred times, and it's still nonsense. Everyone knows America is diverse. The question is do you emphasize the things that unify you or those that divide you. That's the difference.
8
Until someone confronts "middle America" aggressively with the facts and statistics of the cultural diversity of the U.S., and compels them to acknowledge realities, they will continue to hide behind the shield of the flag. Force them to see the millions of people of color and homosexuals who are educated, hard-working, principled, accomplished professionals in every sphere of business, science and public life who are making the country great every day, and force them to acknowledge that they are fearful and jealous of such people who have achieved so much more than themselves. No way out of this truth and it's just too bad if their self-image is damaged. Give credit where credit is due and step down.
12
There’s actual reality and there’s perceived reality. In actual reality the America imagined by flag waving Trump supporters has never existed, but, in the world I grew up, 1950’s to mid 60’s, that imagined ‘white America’, did exist, in most peoples’ perception. At that time, Christian whites were over 80% of the population and everyone else was segregated away, invisible and relegated to subordinate roles. So the only people most people saw were white Christians just like themselves.
8
You know I have a feeling that all the multi-culti division (vs. lovable multitudes) would be much less of an issue if we in the US in fact DID recognize that the USA is a real country, with real borders. It's fashionable not to. Listen to the Democrats debating!
Whatever their skin color, that foreigners seem to have more sway with US politicians than US citizens do is bound to result in a fair amount of cynicism. What's worse, millions of Americans appear to agree with it. And the US Flag = Hate.
In progressive liberal circles, the immigrant is the new oppressed, and somehow they've managed to equate US minorities with the immigrants. A Twofer!
Trump didn't do this (e.g., "Mexico" isn't, though the author may disagree, code for "brown people"), and it's not from conservatives. We can talk about the history of bigotry and how in 1961 someone made a racial or ethnic slur that is supposedly relevant in 2019 because ... well, because it fits a narrative ha ha.
But Mr. Wilkinson is just one more example of a liberal who first recasts any Republican action into the context of race, while claiming it's conservatives who are dividing America into conceptual racial enclaves.
I wager that Mr. Wilkinson's view that Trumpism is nothing better than cleverly disguised White Nationalism is premised on too much time spent decoding otherwise innocuous language. That and the support of a lot of like-minded people.
It's a paranoid delusion, but hey, it fits their narrative.
6
Stir fundamentalism into this nationalist brew. With creationism reinforcing their views of God's choicest people and how the world works, absent evolution. It is a worldview that was destined to conquer nations of native peoples and now, ultimately, the remnants of nature too.
Connect the dots. There is a thread between these fundamentalist, nationalist views and denial of climate change. There is an ark only for the chosen. Another world waiting for them after we destroy this one by the dominance of their world view.
8
Thank you for writing a clear assessment of what makes our country such an extraordinary place. We are the real America. Their failure to accept our long history of welcoming everyone is, hopefully, a dying view.
6
You write what i thought since years now. Nationalists are nostalgics of a past they didn't lived and that didn't even exist.
They are also driven by an ethnic definition of the nation, even if that nation has no such notion in his identity.
We have the same problem with our nationalists here in France. They didn't claim out loud, they didn't say it directly.
But for them, everyone that isn't white, isn't French. Even if there is no notion of ethnic group in the French identity.
As long as you share our values, you're french, where you're from as no matter.
Still, i think Mr. Wilkinson miss the conclusion. The nationalists despise their country, they hate it and they will do everything they could to weaken it. Everything and everyone that don't match with their idealized parody of the nation they imagine, don't belong to it.
The country they "love" don't exist, it hasn't and will never exist. But they will do everything to make it true,
Even if that mean causing harm to others or their real country.
It's sad but nationalists lives in a dream and they didn't even see it. We must be carefull about the future, because if we don't do anything, their dream will become real and our reality will become a nightmare.
6
That "nationalism" you speak of is really "white nationalism". And its grounded in racist fear. No one has "thrown out Christianity or the Torah or by association God. But these religious icons have been used and misused to pursue objectives and goals not helpful to pluralism and indeed even destructive of democracy.
8
We should promote diversity and pluralism by recognizing all ethnic groups that make up the United States. At present, we lump 60% of Americans into the catch-all “Non-Hispanic White” category, as if the only thing that distinguishes them is that their ancestors did not speak Spanish.
According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the largest U.S. ethnic group by percent of population are:
German American (14.7%)
African American (12.3%)
Mexican American (10.9%)
Irish-American (10.6%)
English American (7.8%)
Multi-Ethnic American (7.2%)
Italian American (5.5%)
French American (3.1%)
Polish American (2.8%)
Puerto Rican American (1.6%)
Norwegian American (1.4%)
Dutch American (1.4%)
Swedish American (1.2%)
Chinese American (1.2%)
Asian Indian (1.0)
Scotch-Irish (1.0%)
Russian American (0.9)
West Indian American (0.9%)
Filipino American (0.9%)
And there are dozens of smaller ethnic groups like my own—Manx American. Why are there no dual-language education programs for Manx Americans? I doubt there is and Manx language qualified teacher in the entire United States.
And why do we treat the second and third largest ethnic groups as minorities and give them ethnic preferences in college admission? Mexican Americans will be the largest U.S. ethnic group within a few years and will still insist on being treated as though they are a minority group.
3
@William Case
Nice try, but the vast majority of the ethnic groups you list are white and in all probability don't identify themselves as "German American" or Scotch-Irish. Put the Europeans back in their true category (white) and you have the real picture.
1
Thanks for reiterating what the Quakers have been saying since before this country was a country.
4
I realize this is a minor point. But it's hard to believe that a movement, especially one that believes in non-pluralism, would call itself “national conservatism,” with its echo of "national socialism." Or is that appellation actually a dog whistle?
4
Great piece. It’s also important to consider the new shadow America that exist solely online.
2
Remember, the slogan is "Make America Great, Again". A simple question, a retort to this nonsense, is to begin to challenge the slogan. First, what does (and always has) made America great? Second, "Again"....when did we lose our greatness? (And to be provocative, I will say it...has America ever been great??). National conservatives are viewing changes in demographics as an existential threat to their way of life. They do not feel so great anymore. Their way of life being just how they happen to be living now but with an unwritten, unknowable future ahead of them. So to write and know that future they wish to lay claim to a mythology of the past and use those myths as a way and means to control the present. Many are human beings acting out of fear. And many others exploit that fear for their own ends. These latter people, the politicians, pundits and proselytizers, earn their way by exploitation. Shame.
3
Mr. Wilkinson's solution to a divided populace and country is to reject E Pluribus Unum and further exaggerate cultural, racial, religious, and ethnic divisions. In reality, it is the Democrats and the Newest Left who demonstrate “contempt for the actually existing United States of America,” and the nation they propose
is surely not ours.
3
Having travelled from Maine to Florida to California and even Washington (state) it is impossible not to recognize the different cultures and peoples who created the continental USA. We are the end result of three colonial empires with a significant number of Africans added against their will. The Spanish presence is undeniable in California and the southwest - it is there in Florida too. The European mix varies from place to place; Italian Americans are common in the northeast, Scandinavians in the upper midwest.
We have even had China towns for more than a century, and have always been a place of refuge for those in trouble... till now?
Americans don't complain when the hotel maids are routinely Spanish speaking, nor do they seem annoyed that non whites seem to run most of the gas stations and convenience stores.
Controlling the numbers who enter should not make us deny the mix of peoples that we always have been and still are.
2
I'll have to save this to share to those high school Facebook friends of mine who post things like rump is the greatest president ever, in all caps with 8 exclamation points. I have started to push back on these folks with really basic statements, like - he is not great because he lies everyday and insults America and Americans. They then go off on all sorts of rants about every one else - not just Obama or Clinton, but also Adam Schiff :/ But if you just keep posting the original respond - rump lies and insults America and Americans - they eventually (usually than later) devolve into insults, then accuse me of being condescending and rude, but eventually they tucker out and don't respond or sort of come around. It's a crazy balancing act, but since I spend my work days in front of my computer at home, since I'm a freelancer, I can do this quickly and I feel that at least in my small way like I am throwing some light onto what is a very dark place. I know some will think what a waste of time, but when and where else will I get to try to impose some sanity into the unreality lived by so many Americans? It's also very practical since Facebook is such a hotbed of fake news and ignorant people. So, thank you for publishing this, but from my interactions above, I will have to simplify with easier words - not an insult to them - because they take high offense at anything that sounds even slightly intellectual :/ But, as this article says, we are all in it together.
5
I think that Archie Bunker on "All in the Family" describes what Trump nation believes about America "In the good old days" (the great depression?". On one episode, talking with disgust about civil rights and words like black american or Irish American, he said something like "back then, we was all Americans, if you were a (long string of ethnic and racial slurs), that was fine, you were that in private"). Kind of like those who scream about why there needs to be gay pride events, there isn't anything like that for straight people, it is because 'straight pride' or 'white pride' was so common it was background noise. Basically, what Trump and Co want is to go back to a time where they don't have to confront people who are different than themselves in any kind of context other than "we run things, and you better toe our line, do that you will be fine", basically it is small town, white, blue collar people telling others they better stay quiet while 'your betters' run things.
What I fear we are heading for is a kind of apartheid, where people who basically don't represent much of this country, a small minority, thanks to gerrymandering, the quirks in our constitution, and voter suppression, not to mention courts that reflect 1919, rather than 2019, are being allowed to 'take over'.
4
I first encountered this thinking shortly after the election of Pres. Obama. I had several people at a conference I attended (I was in education) tell me, "well, he might be YOUR president but he's not MY president." I was taken aback -- in my decades as a voting American, I had never heard this kind of comment after any election. The underlying sentiment is that if he is black he can't be a legitimate elected official -- the same idea that gave rise to the myth of his Kenyan birth, so heroically triumphed by our current President. These people live in a fantasy world of the 1950s, when we were a "godly nation" and blacks knew their place. I think it would appropriate if the local Cherokees started picketing with signs that say, "Send Them Back."
6
Are they hiding their loathing? It has always felt that they brandish it like a badge of honor. Sure they covered it with polished language, until Trumpy came along. Trumpy is conservatism personified and expressed. And it isn't conservatism as one would logically presume. It isn't as much about conserving as representing corporate interests. Conservatives will collaborate with anyone to further their narrow greed. Their xenophobia is simply a tool. To quote Bob Dylan we're just a 'pawn in their game.'
4
Our multicultural national character is only half the story. The other half is that at it's founding this was a slave republic. White supremacy is as American as apple pie. The entire economy depended on slavery and the entire country was built on slavery.
And so, white supremacy will always be part of our national character. Acknowledgment of that history is the first step in moving forward.
1
This piece, along with Thomas Edsall’s “Ignoring Trump’s racism betrays our country’s victims,” published in today’s Washington Post, should be read as companions that bookend where we white citizens find ourselves in America at this very moment. Do we continue to delude ourselves by embracing the myth of a lily-white “real” America whose stories and tropes only serve as palliatives? Or do we embrace our spotty history and lean toward the vision our founders and greatest leaders had for America: a multitude of individuals who believe “E Pluribus Unum” to be our ultimate mandate?
The time to decide is now.
2
If Trump loses in 2020, I'm convinced he isn't leaving the White House. When that happens, I'm curious to see who and how many in the GOP will stand to support him. I guarantee McConnell, Meadows, Gomert, The angry guy who never wears a jacket, I suspect all those clowns will be active participants.
4
A critical part of being a modern Republican is to claim that you are a victim. The thought that Christians are an oppressed minority seems crazy to those of us who have to quietly suffer through the 4 month Christmas season, but it is an article of faith among the Evangelical Christians. The Republican convention is a primal cry that wealthy white people are somehow an oppressed minority. And it is never explained how gay marriage adversely affects married men and women, but somehow it does.
This predates Trump, and we will have to deal with it when he is (mercifully) gone.
6
Isn’t it ironic the amount of words being poured and produced by well read women and men of letters, as result of a person who is little read and has written little, and also which words will be little read by most of the individuals the little read individual inspires.
All this pouring of words and reason and argumentation will barely be read by most of Trump’s supporters, most of who can probably barely comprehend the writing. It’s ironic, isn’t it!? They don’t care about anything, except, to make the lives of anybody who doesn’t share their skin color suffer.
But, again, it’s interesting to watch people powerlessly think and write so much about a powerful racial group of people who don’t care about anything the former write!
2
Trump voters are basically three types.
1-A small minority app. 10% are outright bigots, racists and want to bring us back to the 1930s or earlier.
2-A great percentage, the biggest group are mainstream republicans who will vote republican if Donald Duck was nominated, likewise for democrats.
3-A small group and the most important are swing voters, independents of any party who fell for the Trump demagogue line and who are up for grabs. Trump demagogued legit issues that democrats under Hillary had no answer to. Hillary was a Neo con on trade, war, and Wall Street and an identity obsessed, social engineer zealot on social issues, 100% of what these swing voters did not need or want.
3
When I saw Trump hugging the flag at a conservative convention awhile ago this came to mind "the last refuge of a scoundrel is Patriotism." Samuel Johnson. Brilliant.
7
If the average trump supporter knows what ethnonationalism is, I'll eat my hat. They are professional victims who see everyone else as the problem. At least your article wasn't another attack on democrats, so it has that going for it. But trying to put the GOP/trump cult into some bigger context is pointless. We will not come together as a country after this. The difference between people who are ok with kids in cages and those who would treat refugees with compassion are insurmountable. I wouldn't even want to try, as it would mean compromising values instilled in me as a child that are fundemental to who I am. Why should I compromise those to be "united" with people I find cruel and unpatriotic and unchristian?
5
For the most part, in my view, Trump supporters are that cranky old family member at Thanksgiving that longs for the days depicted in Norman Rockwell paintings, doesn’t like change, gays, minorities, technology, their niece’s Middle Eastern boy friend, foreign cars, vegetarians, seat belts, gun safety laws, and the gov’mint.
And how should the Thanksgiving host deal with this sort of family guest? Be gracious? Put them in their place? Seat them at the far end of the table? Placate them?
4
Americans of white northern European descent must remind themselves that whether they like it or not, Americans who don't look like them and don't share their particular cultural/ethnic background are here to stay, in fact, representing a growing proportion of our society. My background is Irish; I know that the Irish were reviled when they first arrived. The only difference is we weren't black or brown. Get over it, people! This is what America IS.
1
Agreed.
People with brown skin are the new Irish. Think “Gangs of New York” movie.
2
Wilkinson speaks many clear truths in this column.
Unfortunately, the people who need to read and understand these truths are the very same people who accept lies as being equal to factual truth, and accept contradictions and hypocrisy when it's "their side" that benefits from it.
You can't convince a Deplorable that their views are deplorable when they're actually proud of being a Deplorable.
4
Mr. Wilkinson's article is like a glowing torch held aloft, yet fueled by a heap of dung. Even as I'm moved to assent and even glee by its repudiation of the moral turpitude of Trump, I can't help but see the tradeoff the author is making and the tragedy threatened by failure to notice it.
Humanity needs to struggle, but it also needs peace in order to stop descents into madness. Peace needs an absence of material want, yes. But it also requires an absence of inner torment, a sense that one is seen and not rejected; that one has place in the universe composed of other people.
The rise of sick and desperate ethnonationalisms, typically against a backdrop of hopelessness and ritual pharmacological suicide, has been a problem for most ethnicities at various times in America's history. That it is now a problem for a majority ethnicity makes it no different from any other. Much has been written about the need for Black Americans to be conscious of white people's emotional states, and frequently more conscious than whites themselves, due to power differentials and the need to get by, to survive. The corollary is that as demographics change and power is more broadly distributed, such blind spots multiply.
The return of open white nationalism cannot be laid at the feet of the existence of Obama's presidency alone; it's also the result of academic theoretical frameworks of race that are fundamentally essentialist. It's a heavy charge that is not victim-blaming but friendly counsel.
I would love to see the Democrats "use" the American flag.
The flag belongs to ALL of us. Democrats, too, not just Republicans, can also be "patriotic".
Of course decades of advertising and cultural use of the flag (Chevy and Ford trucks, Bruce Springsteen, etc, etc) typically depicts working-class conservatism which then often translates to "Republican".
Democrats!... use the flag!
1
The Republican party was taken over by a dangerous mix of Reaganomics and the Tea party. Reagan claimed government was the problem, not the solution.The Tea party was a conglomoration of Reagan and opinionators like Rush Limbaugh. So, smaller government was transformed into the evil government. The list of kooky conspiracy theories is quite long. AIDS was invented in a government lab to rid us of Blacks, the moon landing was a government hoax, the government politicians are running a sex ring out of a pizzeria in DC. We the people hold the power of government in our hands. What better way to blunt or deflect that power than by making government the enemy? That is a major reason we are so frustrated and confused. Why so many voted for a lying con man like Trump. We do not need a con man like Trump in the White house. The economy, generally, is doing well in spite of Trump's fatuous efforts. We can do so much better.
Blue wave 2020!
4
"Nationalism", "exceptionalism", regardless of label, is a blight upon our society.
1
The overwhelming majority of xenophobes (Trump’s base) never ever sat down to supper or even struck up a conversation with a member of a group from which they seek to subjugate and fear. Hence, unfamiliarity evolves into hatred.
1
We hope that exploitation of race hatred, though at this time provably politically correct, will not forever constitute the governing philosophy of a decisive cohort of the voting population, and thus of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches, of the United States.
It's unfortunate, but there is real truth in the statement that "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels". The Trumpist movement is the latest outbreak of a sickness that has always been with us. It's last major eruption preceded the Civil War - the same people died the the thousands to prevent the abolitionist movement from being successful. Curiously, it was the same income distribution among whites too. The rich southerners sending the poor southerners to willingly die in droves. The difference between then and now is the global impact our current problems have. In the 1860's we were an interesting nation but by no means a world leader. Our self-inflicted disruptions can easily erupt in a global war. While the Trumpists shout "Make America Great Again", ask one what that means and not one can give a coherent answer. Not one can tell you what it would mean to them. They're just profoundly ignorant and deeply angry that the world changed and not just socially either. Trumpism and modern American conservatism is, in reality, a movement that against modernity itself, a movement that seems to have more in common with Luddites that they would like to admit.
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. "
- Winston Churchill
1
Don the Con isn't even a national conservative. He's just a con artist in pursuit of more money and power for himself, fanning the flames of low education white's fear and hatred of anything not like them to establish his base. It's brilliant and diabolical as his base is fully bought into this belief in their shared destiny of a pure white, Christian, straight America. What they don't recognize is that Trump not only can't get them to the promised land but has no desire to. He benefits from the ongoing fear and anger, not it's (impossible) resolution.
1
This is indeed spot on, but it is so wonkish as to be useless when speaking to the “great American middle” or pretty much anyone who actually reads the fine print in the N.Y. Times. In other words, preaching to the proverbial choir. Unless we climb down from the lofty perch, we’re going to lose, bigly. This message is so important. Our democratic candidates are missing the target, and until they hit it, spot on, in words the non-wonk will understand, we’re doomed. I’d say the same to David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Brett Stephens, and many other brilliant writers whom no one is reading but us.
It surely does seem like extremists are dominating every aspect of the media today.
I’d strongly recommend anyone moved by this article to look up “The Alt-Right Playbook” on YouTube. It’s a very good primer on the rhetorical tactics and ideological underpinnings of the far right, and will help you to hear what’s actually being said when they get airtime. And, crucially, what you can do about it.
3
I live in the fruited plain.
People don't like change. And they especially don't like it if they think someone is making a decision and not including them. They dig their heels in.
Someone lights a match (Fox News) and until everything burns to the ground (Trump is the flame) nothing is going to stop this.
My advice to Dems--explain to those ablaze how you are going to make everything all right. This should be super easy because every time these folks turn around, Donald Trump is squirting more lighter fluid on them.
We can worry about National Healthcare and who is going to use which bathroom once we've won. Until then you are preaching to the choir and not advancing your position one bit.
2
Why is it that so many Trump supporters think that driving around with an American flag flying on their pickup truck and displaying their loaded gun rack makes them patriots?
I venture that many know the words to God Bless America or the national anthem about as well as Archie Bunker did.
6
Washington’s letter to his wife should be required reading to register to vote. Ironically she complained to George that their slaves had too many different religious rituals; they unnerved her enough that she wanted to ban religious services for them. George wrote back saying he hadn’t fought seven years to deny anyone religious freedom, instead inviting Hindus and Catholics and Muslims and Jews to come to America. Slavery both took for granted a divine providence.
3
Frightening!
Unfortunately accurate.
2
Before just shooting at all these conservative beliefs, Mr. Wilkinson, have you stopped to consider why they believe these things? Notwithstanding that in many ways you're attacking a straw man- sure some conservatives consider blacks ungrateful, but take something like police brutality. When a conservative supports the police and brings up the fact that blacks have considerably higher rates of violent crime than the general population, and that shooting of unarmed black men is an exceedingly rare phenomenon (i.e. you're statistically more likely to get struck by a bolt of lightning than shot by an officer if you're black), that's pretty different than saying "all blacks are ingrates." It's muddying the popular narrative with some difficult, contradictory realities, which is important.
But perhaps the most frustrating of all is the claim that they don't believe America is multicultural in character. There's no denial of this, but there is a difference in the appropriate way to express this. Not all conservatives are against immigration, many, if not most simply feel there needs to be an idea of national identity and a push towards assimilation. Why is your culture sacred because you're a Muslim, Hispanic, etc., when my family came here and submitted to a common dream and culture? Being American in these cases didn't mean losing your former culture, it meant syncretism and assimilation. The assumption that assimilation is racist though is just inflammatory and fallacious.
1
This was a conference that specifically tried to exclude racists and still had a speaker argue that we should take more white and fewer nonwhite immigrants. Nationalism is tainted by racism to the core. There would not be much nationalism in a more multiracial America, just as there is not much nationalism in Canada.
2
Occasionally you read a really good analysis in the NYT. This was one of them.
1
What occurred to me recently is that all these problems are made worse by the fact that America is such a large country. I think one of the reasons there aren't bigger protests or mass mobilization is because it's too easy to live in your community and ignore the national conversation. And many are relying on their local government to save them. The change in media coverage from a half century ago is key too, because people are consuming from many, many different sources all over the place instead of planted in front of a TV watching Walter Cronkite with their families. It's impossible to gauge how informed people are, and journalists on television are equally challenged in how to cover a fragmented country. The country is simply too big.
This is spot-on. And as someone who does not adhere to this mindset, what I find dangerous is that so many of us are letting these folks define patriotism. Pluralists must not let nationalists “own” the patriotic argument. Trump wraps himself in the flag (literally and figuratively), but this is not love of country—it is a thinly veiled hatred of mankind.
Yes, our country has a troubled, uneven past. Yes, things are far from perfect. But, as a progressive, I hang my flag proudly thinking of our constitutional principles, our unalienable rights, our unlimited potential, our “more perfect union.”
Trumpites want you to conflate his national vision with patriotism. And when those who strongly oppose him eschew patriotism as gaudy, naive, boastful, we let him win. We must not do that. This is our country, too. We can—and should be—both patriotic and pluralistic.
202
@MBD
And that's where language is a lot more important than the flag. When Trump welcomes Russian interference, he is being a traitor to his country. When his supporters scream "lock her up" they are mocking our laws and institutions, and when they say "go back" to the country you came from to other American citizens they are soiling the very basis of our society. When they support the actions of Trump and McConnell to subvert our institutions they are being antidemocratic.
The issue is not to display the flag, but to call a spade a spade and don't let them redefine what it is to be an American and what are American values. They cannot be supporting a fascist, antidemocratic government trying to suppress the popular vote and call themselves Americans.
35
@MR- I don’t disagree, but the words and the symbols need not be mutually exclusive. Both have their own power and reinforce one another; for me, the symbols don’t mean much without the words that inspire, create, and heal. The words have helped the symbols evolve. But words require listening, a skill that seems in short supply these days.
5
@MBD
You comments are as spot on as the article.
7
The Founding Fathers put very high ideals in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution there were in total conflict with the idea of white supremacy and the US being a country for white Anglo-Saxon Christians. This conflict has never been completely resolved. Millions of Americans are pursing the high ideals while millions of other continue to believe that the US was founded by white Anglo-Saxon Christians and it should be their country. The white supremacists believe the white race is superior and that it is threatened by mixing of the races. Neither of these views stand up to scrutiny but they continue to persist. White supremacy will remain a threat with or without Trump. He is appealing to these people whom he agrees with to gain power and others are likely to follow. But they are outnumbered and need to rig the electoral system to maintain their power. The biggest threat to the white supremacists is fair elections because they know they will lose.
6
One of the best pieces I've read in the past few years on the Trump phenomenon.
14
Trumpism can't exist without Trump, because the essence of Trumpism is to enable Trump. Nothing else matters. Nothing at all. All slogans and policies exist to make Donald Trump feel good. This other bit, "national conservativism" is just an American version of the sort of movement we've seen in many other countries, that always ends badly. And one of the many things to keep in mind about these movements is that they always end in anti-Semitism. It looks as though some conservative Jews hope to define "national conservatism" in a way that will leave them feeling accepted. It won't happen. People on the left all too often show anti-Semitic prejudice, but at least their nominal principles are against it. The principles of people like "national conservatives" tend to lead to "I'm purer than you" competitions. Anyone who's liable to be targeted by a well-known prejudice should stay away from this thinking (as should the rest of us, of course).
14
@Stephen Merritt I read the Cato Society critique of Hazony’s book. As I was reading it, I found myself wondering if Hazony expects all Jews to move to Israel, because I did not feel included in his vision for nations. As with most countries, Israel has produced some amazing thinkers, but it has also produced some crackpots. Hazony is definitely one of the crackpots. Netanyahu must love him.
Remember "Future Shock"? Toffler's 70s-era prediction that the pace of change would quicken to a point that social tension and breakdown would start to occur? One wishes one could go back and tell him what a prophet he was.
13
There are no current Republican national politicians that are guided by Sen. McCain's principles, his concern for American values, the Senate’s institutional values, and his belief in bipartisanship. Republicans are corrupting the political process with their know-nothing populism and defending Trump no matter what.
17
There's been a steady decay of a sense of a national identity in the U.S. since the end of our common obligation to national service; that is, the draft. Were there cultural, political and every other kind of difference in draftee Army? Sure. And they could become nasty. But, the national sense of a universal obligation to our nation made us fellow citizens. Even, the shared "hating the Army" brought us together. And, for some of us, there was nothing quite so creating of a respect for the guy next to you as learning to trust that you have his back and he has yours.
Most of us served out our several year obligation and returned to our civilian lives and political and cultural differences. But, none of us ever forgot our common experience and sense of being fellow citizens with a common obligation. We often argue political differences. But, we can argue with the respect that our fellow citizen deserves.
Historically, the military has inculcated citizenship. Truman's 1948 desegregation of the military was a significant boost to the civil rights struggles to come.
Restoring a national service obligation would be a significant challenge. Among them is the lack of need for hugely enlarged military. But, there are large infrastructure and public service needs. Of course the costs would be high, particularly since women should serve. But, the costs of doing nothing . . . of our national deterioration into tribes and cults is much higher. It’s destructive of us as a nation.
16
@Max from Mass
Agree with much of this. Some type of national guard/Infrastructure development type, 2 year national service to eliminate student loans...or something of the kind, would be a good thing for our nation. However, I'm not sure enough people are willing to make the minimal sacrifice (tax increase) to bring such a thing to fruition. Catch-22
5
@Max from Mass
Dear Max,
I was a young lawyer when we last had a draft, handling many Selective-Service and military cases. Selective Service was well named; it was enormously selective. The "common obligation" to national service fell almost entirely on people who were economically disadvantaged. The draft was enormously discriminatory along economic lines. People who could afford to buy medical documentation of real or "spurious" (and I use that word quite deliberately, given that our current president cannot even remember in which heel he had the disqualifying bone spurs) conditions got out. People with the same conditions who could not afford documentation went in. People with enough expensive education behind them found teaching jobs or other occupational deferments. The only deferment that was not economically discriminatory was the hardship deferment--the III-A.
The draft after WWII was never a common obligation.
8
@WTig3ner But despite all you say, overstated or not, the universal draft (note to quotation marks) was infinitely better than the nothing we now have.
3
Superb, incisive analysis. Forces on the left, mostly the young, are mowing down barriers— of gender, ethnicity, even our national border— faster than human attitudes can easily evolve and faster than prudence (or Obama) in the service of national unity might dictate. But the vision, the mythology, promoted by today’s right wingers, under whatever label, has no historical or moral justification. It is little more than ginned up, vulgar, crowd-reinforced fear and ignorance. Demographics will eventually triumph. If only we had a leader with the vision and rhetorical skill to smooth our passage.
55
Years from now, when historians try to understand the Trump era, they will read this essay. It captures brilliantly and concisely the truth about the present moment. It seems to me like an instant classic.
95
@Cal Prof
I agree, this essay was spot on and insightful.
5
Insightful and courageous. Thank you, Mr. Wilkinson.
25
There are reasons why some white Americans think of the past as about "them" and not about all of us. The most cogent examples that come to mind are how our textbooks, mostly from the 50's and 60's, but surprisingly including some up to the present day, refer to Columbus "discovering" America, for example. He did no such thing, of course, but he DID discover it for white Europe. The same is true for texts that largely ignored the contributions of people of color, giving the false impression that American history was White History. Another example is how television, well into the 60's was almost exclusively white. De facto segregation in all of the country except the South, where de jure segregation was in force, meant that American society and culture was thoroughly segregated, also well into the 60's, and still remains largely intact for residential neighborhoods. So, part of this nostalgia for "the way things were" is that these are things that many white Americans remember, even if it was a distorted view of the country as a whole. We have come a long way from those days. Sure, there were plenty of references to America as "The great melting pot", but the overall picture was of exclusion of non-whites. This is not meant to be a justification of such views, but it is meant as a partial explanation. Countries, and their societies, evolve. (Please see next comment.)
27
@TRA - good points, all. Funny, too, to consider that Columbus is celebrated as making USA possible, but as an Italian he'd have been considered foreign and not-quite-white by the nationalists in their sheets a century ago.
The whitewashing also ignores that Columbus did his voyages on the dime of the Spanish monarchy (also not quite "white" enough for some) and that the United States of today includes a great deal of former Spanish territory. Yet people whose families have been occupying our southern tier since before 1776 may still be told to go back to where they came from.
This new "conservative nationalism" is really just whites, with perhaps a small concession to admit that many, but not all, Catholics of European-enough heritage can be part of the party.
8
@b fagan
Well said. I completely agree.
1
@TRA -- He wasn't even the first white man to visit N. America. That would be the Norseman Leif Erikson.
I was lucky enough to grow up in California in the 60s, and when the Texas contingent of my family would visit and see all the Latinos, Asians and blacks in the same restaurant as us they were in shock.
4
Let me make an oversimplification: what you are describing is tribalism. It is part of human nature. All species fear the "other," the unknown. Survival requires vigilance and mistrust.
Survival also requires that we stick together. We circle the wagons, protect our families, and join groups for physical and psychological safety. Our groups embrace myths, rituals, symbols, and ceremonies to demonstrate our loyalty and thus strengthen our personal survival.
Conservatives want to maintain the old order which has provided safety in the past. Liberals believe that including and befriending others is an important strategy for long-term survival.
If liberals ever expect to broaden the minds of conservatives, they need to address emotional safety. Liberals must speak to the conservative concerns about their culture, shared resources, religious beliefs, and fear. The conservative vs. liberal divide is not an intellectual one, it's emotional.
26
@cheddarcheese: Just why do the Liberals have the responsibility of bringing the Conservatives out of the past and into the present, let alone the future? Don't the Conservatives have the responsibility to America to move forward too? The Conservatives only speak of Liberal values, concerns and culture to viciously attack them. IMHO, what we Liberals need to do is stop the constant childish bickering, infighting and "my way or the highway" attitude and form a united front to win elections. W can't change the world if our candidates don't win elections.
10
Why is it the liberals’ responsibility to broaden conservatives’ minds? Why shouldn’t conservatives grow up, stand on their own two feet, and stop quaking with fear at every cultural innovation that differs from their precious, tender worldview? The fact is, conservatives are humans first; and as such, owe the same debt of respect and tolerance (if not understanding) to their fellow men, both here and around the world, that we all do. That’s what it means to be a well-adjusted, civilized adult.
So I say, grow up, Trumpists. Enough with the tantrums and adolescent name-calling, already. Learn to share your toys and your space just like the rest of us did, way back in kindergarten. It’s high time...
6
@Jeff I think cheddarcheese has a good point but I would state it a little differently: You can't expect a child to grow up to be a well-formed, emotionally strong adult without guidance. The most effective adults are those who were engaged as children, not constantly challenged. White nationalists really are like children. That sounds snarky but I don't mean it that way. They are scared, and they are ignorant. Liberals can fight them, or liberals can engage them. It's pretty obvious when you think about discussing overtime pay, the five day work week, child labor laws, etc. with white nationalists. They probably like these ideas because they benefit from them. So help them understand how they benefit from liberal ideas.
2
Telling people their version of history never existed isn't the way forward. The Civil War happened and some people have a different perspective of Robert E. Lee. How can it be truly American not to accept that? For any nation it is necessary to acknowledge the past not redact its history.
5
ViviaAbsolutely appropriate to understand history: Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army fought for human slavery and the dissolution of the United States of America. They lost the Civil War, but they were also on the wrong side of human decency, morality, and ethics. They belong in textbooks, just like all losing sides of any war. But beyond that Putting up monuments
47
@Vivien
No one who advocates for the removal of monuments glorifying those who fought against the United States of America and killed its citizens advocates for removing them or their actions from history books. There is much to be learned.
But here is what Robert E. Lee said about a proposed Gettysburg memorial in 1869: “I think it wiser, not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.” Lee himself was against such memorials and monuments.
What other country honors and raises statues to those who tried to to defeat it? Where are the statues to the other enemies of the United States?
What is this "different perspective of Robert E. Lee"? Why are the statues raised to Lee for his service as general against the United States rather than his work after the war to to help, however reluctantly, to help pull the country back together? Where is that memorial?
13
@Vivien Well, then you would also have to have people accept that African-Americans were brought here by force, built America through sweat and blood, and are entitled to reparations for the historic wrongs done to them. Even if they have a 'different' perspective of Robert E. Lee. And how do you think that sits with the exclusionary view of the far-right?
1
Progressivism used to be a movement that focused on helping the working man, whatever his race. Today it focuses above all on finding new and original ways to accuse white people of racism and blame them for all of America's problems. Is it really surprising that this frightens many whites, and pushes them towards their own identity politics?
Mr. Wilkinson is grossly unfair to "national conservativism" -- it is in fact a last ditch effort by establishment conservatives to stave off the kind off the white identity politics that progressives are pushing us towards. If it fails, then Mr. Wilkinson may indeed get the kind of country that he -- very mistakenly -- believes he is already living in.
12
@ Johnb
A little insecure maybe?
Well to be sure. The kind of country Trumpers want is intolerable to me. Speaking as a white woman, I can look in the mirror and acknowledge my white privilege, acknowledge the sins of my ancestors and yet hold my head up that I’m a good person trying to make the country a better place for everyone, not just me and my white friends and family.
4
Raising the minimum wage, health care for all, making college affordable, ending mass incarceration and creating new green jobs are what progressives are about. Do those not help all working people? Yes we also stand up to unconstitutional and immoral bigotry and xenophobia where we see it - they are not mutually exclusive
2
@JohnB It is true that as we collectively wake up to the reality and impact of racism in this country that it can and will go to far.
This does not in any way reduce or remove the fact that race has been a force of oppression for people of color. To dismiss this because the call of racist is sometimes over used is a convenient way of avoiding the issue.
When the Republican party starts to address the real concerns of people of color in this country, the calls of racism will diminish.
There's a awful lot of malevolence hiding behind that flag.
Every now and then I see someone in a red hat peek out or even scurry into the light of day for a few moments.
They are not hiding. They are awaiting their orders.
The extreme right wing of the republican party will not stop until they create mayhem in our cities and towns.
No one should be under any illusions as to their goals.
They will twist this country into a place that only a Jim Jordan, a Kevin McCarthy, a Devin Nunes, a Rick Scott or any other republican zealot could inhabit.
Think "Moscow Mitch" McConnell on steroids.
Think Donald Trump with a functioning intellect.
Think a Supreme Court firmly on the right and totally unrestrained.
64
a generally good article,but
your columnist makes the
mistake that many advocates of so called
pluralism make. when the
Italians,Irish, Jews and
Poles came here in the
early twentieth century,
they came to assimilate
into American culture,
to learn the language, to
become part of our country. the immigrants
coming today want all of
the benefits of citizenship
without learning the
language or respecting
our laws.example,I often
watch baseball games and
marvel at how many Latin
players who have been
here for years still require
translators because they
have not learned English.
many immigrants display
no desire to assimilate
at all.this is what creates
resentment among many
Americans. and this is not
even mentioning the jobs
which they take from low
wage workers.to conclude,
it is much more dicey and
complicated than many
leftist commentators
think and bemoan almost
daily.we need to come
together with a common
language and adherence
to American law and
customs in order to be
one nation under God.
8
@Frank
Sorry, there were many immigrants over the last two centuries who never learned English, but their children did. Today similarly, it would be a very rare person born in America who could not speak fluent english. Possibly due to higher melenin in their skin or due to different facial features they don't look quite like you ... but so what. Maybe they wear a head scarf, so what .. others wear tattoos or too skimpy clothing or maybe aren't quite like you.
As a child of immigrants, I am also always confused by this american culture. Sure immigrants act a bit different,they have different foods and maybe traditions. Maybe they live in small apartments, so they picnic in state parks. Maybe they talk louder.
Unless you fluently and without accent can speak a second language, you cannot fault others who are not able to achieve that very difficult feat.
72
@Frank I taught Sunday School at a local church full of Latin immigrants. The adult service was in Spanish, but the children's service was in English. Why? Because ALL the kids spoke perfect American English. ALL of them, there were no exceptions.
47
Good point, but Americans are guilty of the very same thing. I have consulted with nonprofit organizations around the world for many years. inevitably, you will find American enclaves where American expats have not learned the language, do not send their children to Public Schools, and stick together for social and religious events. Americans do not assimilate any better than anyone else.
24
Mr. Wilkinson's article shows the inconsistency and irrationality of liberalism.
His article boils down to this:
"As a left liberal, I do not believe that right liberals (republicans) are liberal enough."
Continue throwing stones of unprincipled exceptions. I wonder when you'll realize that you and "national conservatives" are on the same team.
The author of this piece is critical of the kind of nationalism that is not comfortable with the changing demographics of our country.
E Pluribus UNUM
2
Exactly right. But we should call the "nationalism" championed by Trump and his allies by its true name: white nationalism. It is a racist creed with a long history in the US. And it has flared with each new wave of immigrants. Opposition to white nationalism gave birth to a counter-narrative emphasizing diversity, pluralism, and tolerance. It is the story of America that Wilkinson tells here. It is the tale of the nation we have long been striving to become. That some conservatives now embrace a resurgent white nationalism speaks to how successful the pluralist counter-narrative has been in shaping contemporary politics and culture. That white nationalism helped put Trump in the White House and now dominates the Republican party warns pluralists not to take their ultimate victory for granted and reminds us that we still have a long way to go.
15
@Stephen N
"Exactly right. But we should call the "nationalism" championed by Trump and his allies by its true name: white nationalism."
I would go further: proto-fascism.
1
Flag waving was a late development, truly a post-Civil War phenomenon. The children of Dixie never fully understood God’s judgement, nor for that matter did the Northern “aggressors.” Flying the Stars and Bars is sign of mental trauma.
The pledge of allegiance was an end of the 19th century attempt to socialize the immigrant “hoards.” The adding of “under God” was in response to the godless communism we were fighting in the 1950s. Reciting the pledge and including those words is arrogant foolishness. As is singing “God Bless America.”
We don’t need a secular religion. We could use some education, and a willingness to keep our American “exceptionalism” private. We are not exceptional. We are merely have gigantic egos and a fear of our own judgments before an imaginary father. God save us all indeed.
23
Mr. Wilkinson well said. Looking back much of today's faux patriotism must be laid at the feet of Reagan, the great divider. Reagan was elected president by fanning the flames of racism and planting the seed that if you are not a white conservative republican with a pocket bible you are not a real patriot.
Moscow Mitch and Air Force colonel/Senator Graham are the poster boys for wrapping themselves in our flag while dividing our country to get and hold political power. Colonel/Senator Graham is a particularly galling example of faux patriotism because he continually ignores the oaths he took to defend our country from enemies, foreign and domestic, both as a Senator and a colonel in the military. McConnell and Graham's behaviors with regard to the Russian interference in our elections is, at best, a disgrace and may approach treason.
Removing the draft, so that politicians, like Commander-in-Chief bone spurs, could avoid embarrassing questions about why they didn't serve their country contributes to today's divided Nation. The draft, when not avoided by power and money, required Americans from all backgrounds to work and serve together.
That said, our country needs to have a mandatory military/public service program that does not exempt people born into wealth and power. Having the rich and powerful serve along side Americans from all backgrounds is not a cure for today's divided country, but it is a start.
21
Senate Politburo Chief Moscow Mitch should explain why he blocked a bipartisan denunciation of Russian interference in our election before vote in Sept 2016.
Americans deserve to hear why McConnell did not trust them with the evidence that he and 11 other congressional leaders received in a confidential briefing in September.
54
The great irony is that many of the original settlers of the US from Europe were different, outsiders, unwanted or shunned in their home country seeking to find a place of acceptance and tolerance. That people wish to see that America become a place of intolerance and homogeneity is the antithesis of our founding.
Yoram Hazony is wrong. God is not necessary. The Golden Rule existed before Christianity. Civility, respect, manners, and caring do not require God. In fact, it seems religion, as practiced by those seeking to set themselves apart as better than others, breeds intolerance of others which stands against the values of a civil society.
The United States was set upon a non-religious foundation, but one that insured freedom to practice your religion not the freedom to impose it upon others.
48
@Marie
You are using the wrong definitions the gold rule, it is not treat others as you want to be treated but rather it is whoever has the gold makes the rules.
Always was always will be ...
1
A quick perusal of some of the comments about this article are most telling. As one of my anthropology professors once noted, 'the problem of a diverse, multicultural and multi-faith democratic society which encourages individual expression is that, lacking the cohesive power of outside threats to it, it will almost inevitably begin to eat itself alive from the inside out.' This is exactly what we are doing to ourselves, and this was understood as far back as 1838 by a young Springfield lawyer named Abraham Lincoln who noted that the greatest threat to the US came not from some foreign power, but from our own divisiveness. "As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide". He, of course, was seeing the destructive effects of slavery on the government and the nation. We are still suffering from the aftermath of becoming a nation of free men who, yet, allowed slavery to attend our birth, and Lincoln's warning is going unheard.
22
Wow, you must have had that common sense speaking professor decades ago. You would never hear such wisdom expressed by a faculty member at any of the nation’s universities today.
On my way home from a long day of volunteering to clear a trail deep in the Oregon backwoods, my 70 year-old frame tired from having hiked 9 miles, climbing 1000 feet, to cut large logs out with a two man crosscut, I saw one of those pickups drive by flying the big American flag on the back.
Those people annoy me, especially because I suspect their owners did not serve overseas in the military for two years as I did. They think they own patriotism.
When I volunteer in the woods or in the math lab at the local CC. I stay busy, so I don't think of the evil things I wish on those people when the next recession or weather-related disaster comes as a result of climate change inaction.
76
@Mike S. What's even more ridiculous is that these false flag-wavers who put flags up on their cars and houses don't ever take them down, so the flags get rained on, they get dirty, they get tattered.
I saw a pickup truck with a bunch of stickers with various Republican slogans on it ("Love it or Leave it", etc.), and the most dilapidated disgusting flag I'd ever seen hanging off a pole coming from the cab. The colors were faded, it was torn in about 5 places, and the stripes were closer to brown than white. It was clear this dude had put it up some years ago, and never touched it since then.
How does that show respect for the flag, in any way whatsoever? That's what is so laughable about the false patriotism that these people hold; it's SO obviously a farce that it's hard to understand that they genuinely don't understand the irony of telling people to respect the flag, trying to make flag burning illegal, while they proudly display one that couldn't be in worse condition even if it HAD been set on fire. But Irony is completely foreign to conservatives, it seems, as is Integrity, Honesty, and Patriotism.
7
@Mike S. Annoyance at the appearance of a pickup truck and an American flag, and "wishing evil" on people who did nothing more than (probably) vote Republican in the last election. This sort of contempt for the working class is what elected Trump, and as much as I hate to say it, will probably re-elect him.
1
@Charlie Reidy
I'm working class, do not own or drive a pickup truck with an American flag on it, and didn't vote Republican in the last election. I know a lot of working class people who fit this description as well. Your generalization is foolish. You don't speak for all the "working class." And I've heard and seen plenty of "wishing evil" from the right wing towards people who don't agree with them: The incident in Charlottesville and the pipe bombs sent to various Democratic leaders and Trump critics last year are a couple of prominent examples.
BTW - When I do fly the flag, I make sure it's clean, untorn, displayed properly and treated with respect. I wish a lot of the self-proclaimed so-called "patriots" who use the flag as a prop during a Trump rally (that includes Trump), or as a garment/accessory would do the same.
4
An elegant and persuasive essay indeed!
One possible caveat,in my mind, is that Trumpism — in the form of vicious white nationalism, even a totalitarian or fascist governing ethos — may well persist after Trump: A Senate ruled by Moscow Mitch, a judiciary that is no longer independent, journalists and media understandably targeted for violence if not death, and a military that may become just another arm of the executive branch tasked with conducting wars against imaginary opponents and keeping the peace at home only through intimidation of many parts of America.
I salute the thoughts and observations of the essayist, but I am not sanguine about the future!
20
@Kathy
"A military that may become just another arm of the executive branch tasked with conducting wars against imaginary opponents..."
Well, the President is the Commander-in-Chief...
And I hate to break it to you, but America has been conducting wars against imaginary opponents well before Trump.
4
@Jack Well the enemy was usually real enough. Whether or not the wars were justified is another story altogether.
But you are absolutely right that military boondoggles didn't just appear with Trump, we've been doing that stuff for over a century.
2
@Samuel and also @Jack:
You are both right in many ways, and the boondoggles for corporations/buisnesses (think uniforms...) go back to the Revolution and the Civil War. The problem, to me, is that Trump appears to be slowly building up to war with somebody (us first strike, made-up provocation like Tonkin Gulf?), meaning to me that all the "domestic" needs (infrastructure, for instance) will be forgotten in the DOD build-up.
Obviously, of course, Trump may be CoC, and he appoints syncophants across so many cabinet secretaries (e.g., DOD, or others) and other high-ranking (e.g., now intelligence) positions. They will do his bidding. Maybe the military ought to be expected to do that, but would we not be better off with military leaders who actually understand war, threats to the US, and intelligence briefings, so that they can protect the US from some whim on Trump's part. I don't believe we have that "security" against Trump's ill-informed wishes now.
“So the blame for polarizing mutual animosity must always fall on those who fought for, or failed to prevent, the developments that made America into something else — a country “real Americans” find hard to recognize or love.”
That sentence and the several preceding it in its paragraph are about the best-written summary of our present time that I’ve seen. I’ve often noticed how all the exhortations to connect and listen seem directed at those of us who think this current state of affairs is a cruel travesty. Again and again we’re told we must reach out to the people who elected Trump, our failure to listen is what got him elected. I don’t see any effort on their part in reaching out to people like me, trying to expand his base.
The real story here is that, thanks to basic geography and math, Trump’s base is shrinking. It should be the lead story every day in every news organization while we make our way through this mess.
Thank you, Mr. Wilkinson!
44
Many people in the country basically live in a bubble and have never experienced anything other than their own surroundings. A poll earlier this year found 11 percent of Americans have never left the state in which they were born and about that number have no desire to travel anywhere. It's hard to change a group like that when the only perception they have about what's "out there" is what they get from the media they choose to consume.
31
@Scott Agreed! I went to my high school reunion and found that, by and large, most of my large graduating class had never lived and worked beyond their native city, and espoused "worldviews" that were anything but. My school class was also a monoculture, such as the grass on a golf course. All they know is what they see in the mirror...an old loaf of Wonder Bread past its sell-by date.
21
@Scott "11 percent of Americans have never left the state in which they were born" ? I find that frightening.
1
At the Trump rally in Cincinnati last evening, some people held a sign that said, “Immigrants Built America.” Trump supporters ripped it and tried to take it away while Trump stood there and watched. That incident says it all.
By the way, Cincinnati and Hamilton County are heavily Democratic and moderate. The people at the rally were largely from Northern Kentucky or neighboring Warren County, Ohio which the Republican Party has gerrymandered so mathematically that the people of Hamilton County are effectively disenfranchised. (As for Warren County, its tiny town of Lebanon is still waiting to be reimbursed for the public safety costs it incurred from Trump’s rally held there last year.)
103
@J.
Thank you. Good to know. Especially since there are SOME places (like NYC), where Trump would never dare to hold a rally.
Sadly, Lebanon will probably never see that money again.
27
Trump reneges on virtually all his or family debts, so why would the folks of that town expect anything different??
7
Perhaps the biggest error of the sixties was burning the flag, not because of the act's intent to defy a government gone astray from its own principles, but because we lost the opportunity to embrace a symbol of this country which can represent the best this country can be, not the worst. To all of us who exercise the right to protest, to be inclusive, to care about human life and to honor the statue of liberty: let's take back the flag.
20
@Barbara Kennard Agreed. I am often carrying a small one when I attend protests that lean left. It’s our flag, too.
19
@Barbara Kennard
Yes! And insist that Donald Trump’s face is taken off of it! Where do people get off putting his image on our country’s flag?
Getting nostalgic about place, people or institutions is easy, and most of us enjoy indulging in the better moments from our past. My mother grew up as a child in a Puerto Rican family living in NYC during the pre WWII years. Although she had many fond memories from those years, her adult life was permanently scarred by the insitutional biases she endured during her formative years. The line “back in the old days” holds a very different meaning for each of us, and we’re fortunate that life in America has changed in large part for the better.
39
Thank you, Mr. Wilkinson, for this brilliant essay. I became a fan of your brand of Libertarianism several years ago (“The Tax Bill Shows the G.O.P.’s Contempt for Democracy,” Dec. 20, 2017) when you offered up this insightful statement, “...ruling elites in pre-democratic states arranged political and economic institutions to extract labor and property from the lower orders...[which explains why] their demand for political inclusion generally isn’t driven by a desire to use the existing institutions to plunder the elites. It’s driven by a desire to keep the elites from continuing to plunder *them*.”
What this article describes is the socio-political equivalent of what is, fundamentally, an economic argument: Steal peoples’ lunches and they notice. And if those who’ve gotten a free ride for a (very) long period of time—the most extreme example being slave labor—feel that they’re losing their systematic economic advantages they’ll fight tooth and nail to hang onto it. That, to me, is the definition of “national conservatism” of the sort embodied by Trump supporters.
33
Will asks: “But Mr. Trump won’t be president forever. Can the cult persist without its personality? “
The answer is unquestionably “Yes”. The cult has a history going back decades, and is financed by a group of crafty but bonkers billionaire aspirants to the replacement of Democracy. They own the GOP and most State Legislatures. They control the most successful and multipronged brainwashing apparatus of modern times.
Yes, persistence is probable.
47
@John Brews I think you're conflating two different things. Conservatives being delusional liars is nothing new, but the very concept of a "Cult of Personality" is that it is wrapped up in a particular person, and will almost certainly collapse when that person is gone. It's a great way to build support in the short term, but it never lasts beyond the lifetime of the personality in question.
1
@John Brews I have a feeling there is going to be a huge backlash after Trump. The GOP will pay for their cowardice and indecency.
Columns like this are why we continue to become divided as a nation. Continuously telling one group that they are horrible people and telling them why they have their opinions does not lead to cohesion and acceptance.
When was the last time you sat down and had a real conversation with someone that has opposing viewpoints? I think you would be pleasantly surprised how many things you actually agree on. Or you would find that the differences between you are more on the approach to solving many of the issues we are seeing today.
14
@SH I agree that there can be areas of agreement. But the underlying problem is that some people consider themselves to be real Americans and that other people should just be grateful to be here. It should be noted that the sense of otherness is most prominent among people who have little interaction with people unlike themselves.
18
@SH That would be a great idea, except for the fact that it's not a battle between two different, but roughly equivalent ideologies. One is based in facts, reason, and honesty, and the other is based on hyperbolic lies and irrational appeals to emotion.
People who support white supremacy are horrible people, and I frankly don't care if it hurts their feelings to hear us say that out loud.
I don't care about cohesion and acceptance, when it comes to people who believe that they should have the right to compel me to follow their religion by force, or for people who believe that they have the right to deny to others the same civil rights that they themselves enjoy.
This divide isn't about differing opinions on the issues. Conservatives who actually care about issues have been silent since Trump took over their party, because they know that reasoned arguments have no place in the modern GOP, but they stick with it anyway for some reason.
3
@SH
It's impossible to have a "real conversation" with a group of crazy people who don't even accept basic facts and don't care when you point out that they're spouting illogical and contradictory viewpoints.
Remember all the people who hated Obamacare, but didn't want Congress to take away the Affordable Care Act? You can't have a reasonable conversation with people like this.
How about all the people who object to urban people getting "handouts" from Welfare, but gladly accept free coverage for their black lung disease (which is provided by Obamacare)? Or they ignore the fact that most of the money for welfare and foodstamps actually goes to rural Red states? You can't have a reasonable conversation with people like this.
How can you have a reasonable conversatiom with people who deny LGBT people rights because of what the Bible "says," but suddenly don't care when hypocritical Conservative politicians and preachers break Biblical rules against infidelity, sex out of marriage, etc.?
You're wrong: Columns like this that tell the truth and point out the misinformed premises and the contradictory illogic of these people aren't what's dividing this country; you can't bring people together without working from a baseline of true facts and basic logic.
Rather, the problem is that these people who are misinformed or illogical are unwilling to accept the truth, and they react as if they're being "attacked" when the truth and their contradictions are pointed out to them.
5
U.S. conservatism has, despite a good deal of grumbling, united under the banner of Trumpism. It's a losing strategy in the long run, given the diversity of our population, but they have many things going in their favor in the upcoming election: gerrymandering, Faux News, Russia, voter suppression, Electoral College, higher voter power in low population rural states, fossil fuel industry money, and general cheating, which they now consider a virtue.
All of these issues will require a very large turnout of Democrats to overcome. If we manage to trounce the Republicans across the board, most conservatives will return to their tv sets and comfy couches to grumble (while collecting their "Socialist" Security); but I imagine that a small but vocal group could take up their guns (something like nearly a half billion at last count) and become domestic terrorists. One way or another, they wont go down without causing mayhem.
38
In a nutshell, the real problem behind Conservatives, Republicans and Donald Trump is the fact that they see America as a whites-only club where no one other than that belongs.
Most people of color have known this for a long time because it hasn't exactly been a state secret.
But the thing that makes it so alarming (and sad), is the ferocity with which the darkest days of America's past are now roaring back to life with the sheer racism and hatred that's reminiscent of the days of slavery and Jim Crow -- and all of this at the behest of a president who is supposed to represent the country and ALL the people of the United States.
He's already made it very clear that anyone else who doesn't fit the bill can "go back where they came from".
And you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know what he meant by that, or to know those sentiments will never make America great again.
143
@N. Smith
Make that a "Straight White Christian" club, and the rest of your reply is completely on point.
To those who would think this way, I would remind them of something a mentor of mine many years ago would love to say. She would say "The strongest pure metal is still weaker than its weakest alloy."
3
@N. Smith They also view it as a MALE club with no need for women except for their reproductive capabilities.
2
@JustJeff
That much is so obvious there was no need to mention it.
Your observation that Trumpist nationalism represents a fundamental if unacknowledged rejection of American pluralism which if unaltered lays the foundation for unavoidable conflict is deeply insightful.
One can hope that those that feel "entitled first to a country that feels like home to them" can learn to recognize the founding tenet that the United States should be a country that feels like home to, embraces, and values, all people.
49
Poetry in prose; an excellent review of our shortcomings in upholding our core human values, in recognizing the richness of our diversity, and the need for solidarity in spite of our differences. Can't we realize that our strength resides not in belittling each other (read, abhorrent white nationalism) but in finding common ground and becoming one in our purpose to assure equal justice for all, hence, allowing peace in the world? Withput social justice, humanity might as well disappear, as peace shall remain a distant dream. If we were to persist in this tribal "Us versus Them", we might as well go home and drown in our own pettiness, currently a Trumpian trademark.
22
I think this column has a defensible point about modern America, but also describes an erroneous revisionist history.
National unity and social cohesiveness really did exist in the past to a much larger degree than you see today.
16
@Mmm And the reason that it existed was that women and minorities were oppressed with laws and traditions that were designed very carefully to keep them all in their places. They dared not complain because the entire system was built to keep them quiet and compliant.
76
No, it really didn’t. It just looked that way and that’s exactly the problem. White nationalism is really espousing a desire to go back to to a myth of national unity that never really existed for anyone who wasn’t white, male and straight. Over the last fifty or sixty years historically marginalized groups are rising up in an effort to make that national unity closer to truth through equality for everyone, something considered an unacceptable threat to many of those who benefitted for so long from the myth.
3
That’s true.
You forgot that the division you see today was always there.
“Nice people” simply went along then.
Never again.
1
A nicely written essay. But these appeals to our national character; our attempts to “reclaim history” don’t ring true. America has always been racist. The founding fathers did not care at all about the freedom of anyone who wasn’t a land owning man. America itself was born of a hissy fit about taxes, framed in flowery language about freedom. Exactly like today’s republicans.
Because of parts of our culture, our prosperity, and the equality written into our laws with the 14th amendment, America has the OPPORTUNITY to be a beacon of welcoming and equality for all people. Sometimes we make good on it. Sometimes we don’t. But to claim it was always supposed to be thus is just jingoism from the left. Let’s focus on what we’re going to do to be good and decent humans today, shall we.
28
I agree with your comment about being focused on the here and now. But there is validity to the point that something like the 14th Amendment is a product of the same struggle from a different time. There are many other examples that show Americans of the past have fought this fight and they have pushed us forward in their time. We must do the same in ours.
29
@Sarah I completely disagree with that. It’s a fashionably cynical take on our founding.
The idea of establishing yourself apart from your king, and of rejecting birth position and aristocracy was radical in 1776. Every great idea has to start somewhere. To state that all men are created equal...you have no idea, apparently, what a shocking concept that would have been to monarchical society. The king wasn’t EVER even at birth the equal of any man. And these men were the king’s subjects.
The Magna Carta, written 300 years before, established only that the PEERAGE could have a say in the country alongside the king. The Declaration of Independence says that any man could have that right.
Then they scared themselves and had to define “men” as being of a certain age and sex and color and position. And the story of America is our attempt to extend those rights ever outward.
But that first step wasn’t nothing. It was an astonishing idea in its time. We can look at our history and be ashamed of slavery and genocide and the many ills of our society, but we need to at the very least view people within the context of their time.
69
@Sarah:
You make the common assumption of many on the left (and right) that somehow the founders were perfect, or that because of imperfections the founders were therefore bogus. It is very easy to point out that the people who wrote about equality for all denied it to women and of course the stain of slavery, but that also leads out that even back then people were fighting against those scourges (Jefferson had written slavery out of the Declaration of Independence, but it was removed because had it stayed in, we would still be eating bad food, drinking tea and have terrible teeth).
The beauty of the founders, something that neither Trump nor the left really understand, is they left a framework for change, that the constitution could be amended, that courts could set precedent (almost every civil rights change in this country started with the courts, not Congress or legislatures). If their vision of freedom was imperfect, they left a country where it could be changed. They codified it in the bill of rights, wrote it down (which England never did, and if you look at rights in the UK, they are fraught, take a look sometime at their vision of libel or that freedom of speech and the press is not guaranteed).
24
I agree with G. James about the insight of this piece. My father was an Indian immigrant and arrived in 1953, during the period so revered by today’s conservatives. But based on newspaper clippings, his recollections and medical and school records from the period from 1953 to1970, the attitudes displayed at Trump rallies today would have been backward and insular during that time. People from that era looked forward to an America that looked like it does today.
17
So many people came to America to escape a reality of the place where they lived- poverty, racism, illness. They made arduous journeys to get to America fed by an idealist illusion: it will be better there. And when it wasn't, they pushed further west, to new New Worlds, There isn't any new land left to escape to.
There never was. The idealist illusion is now settled on the past, not the future. And the old way of life was not based on hard work or self-reliance. It was based on grabbing others' lands and forcing others to work hard on our behalf. It was based on government payouts to GI's, on agricultural subsidies, on all the programs that Roosevelt instituted to get us out of the Great Depression. America has never lived up to the "America" of illusions, and it never will.
Presidents win elections because they give the populace a new narrative to live by. So instead of fighting each other, Democratic candidates should burnish their speeches, and help the best one win. Winning means creating a narrative that fits the real America but allows all of us to believe there is something better to look forward to.
18
@mirucha
"There isn't any new land left to escape to."
There wasn't any new land back then, either. It was stolen from Native Americans and had existed all the time.
3
Well said. The people driving this strange form of nostalgia want a past that never existed.
58
@khughes1963 Actually, I'd take the mid 40's and the 50's in a heartbeat. Those really were the best of times in America.
5
Yes, back when unions were strong, CEO’s made only 5 times the average salary of their workers, and the wealthy actually paid their rightful share of taxes. What a dream.
68
@Robert Howard
Top Income Tax Rate of 90%. Wait a minute, what about Civil Rights?
17
E Pluribus Unum is not this country’s motto and hasn’t been since the Eisenhower administration. I hope Mr. Wilkinson’s vision of Americans embracing a pluralistic society comes true but that doesn’t seem to be what the majority wants. The next election will test his assumption that Trump won’t be president forever.
6
@Tfstro Honestly, I think the majority, if only a slight one, does want a pluralistic society. Otherwise, Obama would never have even come close to being elected. The trouble is, a slight majority is no guarantee of progress. We still need to work to solidify our gains.
11
@circleofconfusion It's more than a slight majority. The problem is that we're lazy. Just look at patterns of Democratic voter turnout, and you'll see all you need to see.
If democrats (I mean voters, not politicians) made even a half-hearted effort to turn out for elections on a regular basis, the GOP would never win another national office again. But we are lazy and complacent, so they manage to slither into power much more often than they ought.
1
T group are still a 45 percent minority everyone must vote.
1
As articulate and concise a rendering of what it means to be an American as I have seen. The very notion that America is or ever was a white ethnic Christian nation is belied by the fact that from its inception, America was multicultural and multiracial. Indigenous peoples outnumbered the English and Spanish explorers and first settlers from the beginning and in 1619 the arrival of the first of millions of black (largely Muslim) slaves. I suppose "national conservatism" as a movement was inevitable since every day the modern GOP moves further away from its founding principles as they use tax policy and law to make corporations individuals with rights and make government the agent of corporations, the Congress of the United States a national Board of Directors, and so government and the means of production become one. In short, the Republicans have proven they are the real socialists and now their vanguard leads us to to their brand of socialism - national socialism.
41
The story of American unity and love thy neighbour values was a Hollywood construct, one so successful that many Americans and people all over the world came to believe the USA was the place where all of mankind's problems went to be solved. But these days, even in Hollywood, happy endings are no longer a given and America, far from any longer representing a solution to be widely emulated appears to be a sorry farce that has only been paying lip service, at best, to its finest aspirations, the first among which being, All men are created equal.
11
Nice work Mr. Wilkinson. Your work here about Character and National Identity move beyond one sided opinions about the "good or bad" side of our current political party. Our struggle as you pointed out, really is a battle for a final National Identity. Your effort along with your colleague Mr. Brooks piece on candidate Williamson/Decency are both thoughtful and needed works that focus us not on our perceived political differences, but ask us about our collective future. I believe that intended or accidental, America is a collection of the dissimilar working towards a common good for all and an Identity that is marad and just for all. It is possible as evidenced by nations today who reached their identity. And it is this identity in and among nations that will attempt to solve our climate threat.
14
@Jon
National Identity. Two words that are constantly used and abused nowadays. "Identity" used to mean what made a person unique; now it seems to mean what group a person belongs to, and his or her individuality is ignored.. And I learned in school that "nationalism" lay behind the liberation movements in 19th century Europe; when did it get to be a dirty word?
I'm white. Recently I was sitting in a NYC subway car where only a few other passengers were white, thinking how wonderful and welcoming it is that, as Walt Whitman put it, "City of the world! (for all races are here; All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)." How inspiring! Then the thought occurred to me that if a Trump supporter were sitting in this subway car they might not feel as I do. They might feel uncomfortable or even afraid. I just don't know how America reconciles that?
75
@Robert As a white man living in trump country, I can say "uncomfortable or afraid" is exactly right for most local trumpists. So many years of being fed so many memes about "the other" and very little personal experience... except maybe in the military. But I, too, don't know how we fix this.
23
@Observer I think it is fixed with the same cure that will fix most other forms of ignorance. Education.
4
@Observer The way we fix this is to teach children better, and wait for the people you describe to die. Once they're gone, life will be better for everyone so long as we ensure that they don't pass on their prejudices and hatreds.
2
Reason for hope on the corner of Lexington and East 51st, NYC. Yesterday, as I waited to cross Lexington, a father of a small family asked me which way to Park Avenue. I pointed west and said keep walking that way. A young woman about fifteen, their daughter (they all looked very much alike), asked me, "Do you live here?" I do. "It's all so wonderful!" She gushed. "Is it always this exciting?" I smiled at her unabashed enthusiasm for a street corner. I asked her, "What do you like about it?" "All the people! So many! All so different! So much to see!" As we started across, she asked me "Do you think I could live here some day?" I asked her where they were from. "Indiana." I didn't look at her parents but I imagine they traded startled glances. "Sure, why not. New York's a great place to live."
205
@SurlyBird. My sister lived in Indiana for a decade. It’s a beautiful state, but I was struck when we went to a local lake park that everyone looked so much alike. They seemed to all be members of the same family. There were very few people whose gene pool background varied from “the norm.” Coming from NY, I found that striking.
17
Most conservatives have no issue with a multiracial America. However, I think we do take issue with the unlimited celebration of multiculturalism. We simply feel that some cultures are indeed superior to others, and we have no shame in this belief. Note that I said "some," not "one." We believe that cultures that embrace and celebrate the values of education, family (as in marriage before children), honesty, respect for the laws of the land, hard work, self-reliance, etc. are superior to those that don't.
16
@Southern Man
I thought liberals in the 1990s lost interest in "multiculturalism" once they realized that the biggest subculture was evangelicals who opposed their abortion policies and demanded the right to vote on the issue.
2
@Southern
I believe every racial group in this country believes in the values you wrote of. There are deep ancestral and especially spiritual reasons why some groups of people appear not to have those values. It has nothing to do with superior and inferior cultures. Correct the things that are infecting them spiritually and you will see their true culture.
3
@Southern Man So then do you support a Republican Party that consistently votes down or withholds educational support, especially for teachers? A Republican Party that does not allow a sitting President to legally get a vote on his Supreme Court nominee? A Republican Party full of member who skirt the laws of the land to allow cronies to enrich themselves when war is started through lies? A Republican Party that welcomes electoral assistance from Russia then does nothing to investigate or thwart these attacks? A Republican Party that effectively does everything it can to destroy unions that represent "hard work"?
18
I have a neighbor who is actually a pretty good guy, but he rails on and on about "line cutters." He is not a sophisticated guy, so when I wanted to point out that his "line" was nothing more than an hierarchy wherein white males were firmly in the front, I thought better of it. Clearly, he feels that hierarchy had been violated unfairly and needed to be restored.
The conservative nationalist project starts from the very anti-American premise that America is a zero-sum game. This is antithetical to everything the rest of us hold dear:
endless opportunity, innovation, inclusion, optimism about the future and a hundred other monuments. So I feel sorry for these people, but they make it impossible to take them seriously on any level. They do not even know their own country and history.
171
@Brian Prioleau
Sorry Brian but you are wrong in some of your assumptions.
The view that America is a zero-sum game is very much the Liberal presumption. Some people have too much so the government should take it from them.
Growing the economic pie, rather than redistribution, has been the conservative mindset. And optimism, renewal et al has been the conservative mantra at least since Reagan.
8
Unfortunately nothing from this conservative mindset ever comes to fruition, with the glaring exception of wealth inequality, which a cynic, or rather a realist, can clearly see was the intention from the outset.
37
@Alberto
If the "trickle down" economics, essentially fiscal policy since Reagan was really capable of "growing the economic pie" we wouldn't have an obscenely wealthy 1%, a ludicrously wealthy 9% after them, then the rest of the 90% trying for a sliver of what the 1% has already. I'm not saying that forced redistribution is the best or only answer, but the "conservative mantra" rings hollow for the vast majority. Things are imbalanced, I think all sides can agree on that.
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The route that the Western World has traversed is the slow, painful, hazardous path of the recognition of equality of man.
But at each stage, the dominant forces have resisted this movement by invoking the essential superiority of the ruling class.
The Magna Charta is a tiny, limited step toward the diminution of royal power which is followed by Renaissance humanism, American revolution, French Revolution and modern political movements. At each stage, conservatism has always meant the conservation of the supposed rights of those holding power: the king over the nobles, the nobles over the peasants, the aristocrats over the people, the capitalists over the workers, the wealthy over the poor. The recognition of the rights of the sub-groups has always been involuntary and grudging. Conservatives yearn for a time in which they were dominant and resent the attainment of economic, social or cultural equality of others because they fear the loss of standing. And noting provokes their opposition, if not anger, if that person is a foreigner or someone they deem to be their inferior. In a larger sense, this has always been the essence of social and political struggle.
37
Good insight. I’d say that this applies to the backlash against “identity politics.”
We have Supreme Court justices that were handpicked to be compliant. Long after Donald Trump leaves the White House, his influence will remain in the Supreme Court. Not a happy thought.
102
@Monica C
The solution to this is to stop treating Supreme Court pronouncements like Holy Writ. If the rulings seem based in ideology rather than sound legal reasoning, ignore them. As Jefferson once said of the court: "They have made the law, now let them enforce it".
4
This is an articulate and illuminating critique of a particular strain of ahistorical and reactionary nationalism, nowadays on parade in the daylight of Trump and Trumpist bigotry and
whining. When yoked to its twin fantasy of American exceptionalism, and expressed with appreciable levels of state power, the results are quite often disastrous. And anything but conservative in any sane and constructive sense. On the flip side, the article (as a couple of other commenters have noticed) skirts the equally terrible truth that the nation founded on the newly emerging, 18th century values of pluralism and democracy was also actively engineering genocide, chattel slavery and privilege based on capital. All have sinned--and still do, yes--and only a serious, self-critical deep dive into those values will see us through. Come to think of it, that could be job #1 for our new President Warren!
48
@BB
Very true especially “All have sinned—and still do...”. But the America I was taught and grew up in, like the sinner, recognized its faults and continuously attempted to overcome them.
By the vary nature of Conservatism, nothing is disliked more than change, including changing ones lesser self.
1
Wilkinson is mostly right, but I don't find that very useful outside of situations that really require black & white framing. These could be a vote, picking a side on clear right-&-wrong calls, when one really must fight. But I don't find this type of thinking very helpful if the goals are to try to restore a vibrant democracy, and truly try to understand why the other side thinks the way they do (in either direction). Instead, it's going to take making uncomfortable, difficult, and easy-to-misunderstand efforts to get in the others' shoes. I can readily understand that taking a position like Wilkinson's, which I frequently see in the posts of my FB friends, offers large emotional comfort. But it also doesn't bring out the best in us, and is inconsistent with calls for a more civil society, sometimes by the same people. As an academic, it is at least a yellow flag when I too readily like an argument because I already agree with it or like its source. Wilkinson's position basically means I must disagree with 100% of: what I hear on Fox News (which I'm stuck with at the gym in my conservative area), all the time, on all issues. As someone who hasn't given up on the philosophical idea of "pursuing the truth," that's unfathomable. On the other hand, I like the excerpt from Levin's thinking. Here's more from me on where I think we should go, https://medium.com/@innovator3/the-speaking-to-the-trump-voter-series-uncertainties-recommendations-conclusions-final-thoughts-12e717023084.
8
@Matt Polsky: I would have said that Wilkinson is looking at the nationalist aspect of today's conservatism and exactly getting in their shoes and thinking like they do: and it comes out just as he says, what's going on in their heads is a loathing for today's progressive, diverse America. Nobody promised that when we get in other people's shoes that we are going to find out that they are really nice after all. Sometimes it turns out that they are even worse than we had imagined. And if we see people with a different interpretation of the world than ours, it may be worth following the process of their thinking, but we shouldn't expect that they will turn out to be right, or even that in some sense we will both turn out to be right. Maybe we can learn about where anti-vaxxers and white supremacists go wrong, but they are still wrong and we are still right. And if that gives us any emotional satisfaction, we might have to just grin and bear it.
1
@Matt Polsky Are you really an academic? Doesn't sound like it. What is your basis for saying that his position means that you must disagree all the time on every issue with 100% of what Fox says. That is a straw man argument that simply does not follow from this article. Why the need to misrepresent what the article says?
Denial seems to be the operative principle in the reactionary movement that is Nationalism. Those who embrace the self-serving cause of racial conformity, longing for a mythical, mom-pop-apple pie America, are likely to be among those who reject the reality of climate change.
Sandbags of denial may seem to hold back the rising waters of change, but denial is useless against the rip tides of war, pestilence and prosperity that have alternatively inundated or transported the human race during its tenuous and often
tumultuous tenure on earth.
33
@Chris M. The movement to tear down public memorials to Confederates is NOT meant to "change history." it's meant not to honor those who fought for slavery.
The Confederate memorials were designed, planned, and intended to glorify and enforce white supremacy. There is no other reason for their existence - look up their dedication speeches, long after the Civil War, in the Jim Crow era.
By contrast, we don't honor Washington and Jefferson for being slaveholders - we honor them in spite of that, not because of it. Because they did *ofher things" that contributed to America as a free nation.
However, that legitimately may not be enough. If black Americans judge that the men who enslaved and tortured their ancestors, stole their lives, sold their children, and left toxic social legacies are not worthy of public honors - regardless of their acknowledged positive contributions - then who am I, as a white American, to object? Until I and other white Americans can acknowledge this, can recognize the pain of black Americans, then until that time their America is not mine, mine not theirs. The only way forward is to agree that those who were harmed by history are the ones who get to decide whether those who perpetrated that harm made adequate other contributions to be worthy of public honor. This is in no way forgetting history. Quite the opposite. It is only rejecting the mythological, exclusivist accretions of white supremacist history, while looking clear-eyed to a better future.
243
@Jesse Larner - "The Confederate memorials...."
What other country puts up memorials to those who tried to defeat it? Those who raised and praised them still hope to defeat America and replace it with their concept of America.
20
This is not about politics, but it's about basic morality. That's why Williamson is right and the debates so far are so far off base.
9
Fantastic article. You say what many writers seem to be afraid to mention. I love the phrases "furious denial of multiculturalism" and "recipe for civil war." We are more polarized than ever, and race is the reason. Once again, the polarization is geographical, not North and South, but coastal v. interior. I have predicted that in the near future a President can be elected through the electoral college process even though he or she loses the national election by 20 million votes. If that happens, civil revolt (not war) is possible. Large states (the most wealthy) that are overwhelmingly Democratic, will seriously consider secession. Members of the Conservative White Trump core will move to red states, while non-racist Americans move to blue states. Blue states will organize into a new Republic. The new nations will be entirely different with regard to racial make-up, abortion rights, gun ownership, LGBTQ freedoms, environmental controls, immigration policies, religious beliefs and practices, etc. It will be very difficult to address defense and trade issues, as well as all other foreign contact concerns, but if the minority continue to control the majority something will have to give.
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@Disillusioned
While I am favorable to this outcome, it would be extremely difficult, not impossible just difficult.
One factor to consider as advantageous to a “coastal” union would be cooperation and alliances with those bordering Washington and California. Think of it, deep alliances with Canada and Mexico - Coastal-USA, Canada, and Mexico. Each with vastly different cultures, resources and languages. What an amazing embrace of differences that would be.
11
@Disillusioned
The same thing happened to churches. They fractured and split around the ordination of women and LGBTQ members. Now all the new splintered denominations are dying in their own way at their own pace. What may or may not survive isn't visible yet.
3
And pedi filial too. Exactly the point you cannot stop the inevitable demise without people doing the right thing to care for one another. The great commandment .
1
Well said, Mr. Wilkinson! The essay is the best description of our current political situation that I have read.
One hopes that the various Democrats with presidential aspirations would keep a folded up copy of this column in their back pocket, and see to it that their speech writers do likewise.
63
Reading this, Trump is merely a backlash by a certain group hellbent on retarding America's progress on the road to reaching the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence. Bush II really did steal that election. And Reagan was a long nightmare. We surge forward, and we are beaten back. But we are resilient. But demographics are on our side, the "arc of the moral universe" is on our side. To believe this is to have hope that we are "becoming" and will soon arrive.
Unite and throw off the stench of Trump in 2020.
124
@Reddway the country is "doing well" by what measure? Race relations? Social justice? Health care? Infrastructure? Bipartisan legislation?
Trump is not a middle of the road leader - he is an extremist in the worst way.
14
@Reddway
Pointing out the wrongs and dangers of the President is not "hating a person". If you believe your house is burning it is not hate to warn others.
Trump is not middle of the road - unless you are beyond the right shoulder.
You don't want to get into a game of finger pointing as nothing is perfect there are no shortage of terrible places to live run by Republicans (at the top of many "worst" lists for education, health care, income, etc...) and many fine and beautiful places run by Democrats - like my beloved Boston.
8
The view of today's America from north of the border is of irreconcilable differences. People come in all shades, religions and with various predilections. We live in a world not uniformly white, but Americans' increasingly hardened positions are driving you apart. It is not a pretty sight.
Underlying all of the "non-traditional" differences are basic and common goals; financial security, good health, opportunity and freedom to pursue an individual's dreams. The approach trump and Republicans have taken isolates and diminishes the traditional ideals of the US. They are attempting to put a genie back in the bottle. A dangerous place to be when a large portion of the population is unable to pursue freedom recently gained.
It is also counterintuitive, how do you achieve this goal? Intimidation and fear has recently raised its ugliness in America. It is time for you to send firm against the tyranny that is emerging.
13
Love your message but love your writer’s talent more. America is destined to be a multi-cultural landscape with its basic values intact so long as those of the “fruited plain” don’t react as counter culture villains. Hopefully their apex is Trump who will soon see an end to his perilous tenure.
21
What Will Wilkinson writes about, of course, is just petty tribalism writ large.
But even our national iconography bows in that direction--after all, people have long spoke of the melting pot and E Pluribus Unum, which implies in the end that everyone eventually becomes the same.
Will we ever reach the maturity to perhaps replace the melting pot image with that of the "tossed salad", and think of this nation as E Pluribus Pluribus?
History is not optimistic on this score; nations with too much heterogeneity seems to eventually fragment (the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Sudan, Czechoslovakia are only the most modern examples). Will the US become two or three or more separate nations down the line, with considerably more homogeneous populations?
16
@Glenn Ribotsky
Poor analogy; Except for Czechoslovakia, your list is/was comprised of dictatorships which drove their respective changes.
1
We must be careful to remember the pitfalls of pluralism as we embrace the benefits...(consider reading the "Disuniting of America" be Arthur Schlesinger)
Pluralism is the backbone of this nation. Pluralism is essential to do all the the heavy work this nation has required be done to get where it is...but also is susceptible to aches and pains of such hard work...
Best be mindful of our spinal health in self and in concert.
1
Bravo! I would note, though, that when the founding fathers wrote "all men are created equal," their mindset was closer to trumpian rigamarole than what we understand and want this sentence to mean. They were specifically thinking of white men with property, no on else mattered, further indicated by their unconscionable failure to abolish slavery and later efforts to eradicate the indigenous population in the country. Also consider what John Adams had to say on the notion of participation in our grand democracy: "Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters;
there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It
tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level." All men are created equal indeed.
17
@K. Norris, all cultures have their myths. We hope we have enlightened ourselves enough where myth becomes reality, where equality thrives.
22
@K. Norris The Founding Fathers may have been a little circumspect in phrases like "...justice and equality for all ...", but over generations as a society most of us have embraced the concept of "... for all" much to the chagrin of those that believe it should apply only to WASPs.
@DavidJ But we haven't.
"American national identity cannot be restored, because it never existed.."
Just excellent Mr. Wilkinson, best article I've read about who we are as a nation. It has been a struggle for centuries for our country to understand that this is not a land for Western White Europeans, and it won't end with this President. The group you mention that calls themselves "national conservatives" will see to it that the flag waving white only, are the people that really belong here.
And your last paragraph sums up our mission. "We know how the American story goes: We fight; we take it back."
Our Democratic Presidential Candidates and our Democratic House Members, and the millions of Democratic Voters are doing that right now. Fighting for the right and freedom of all our citizens.
Thank you again Mr. Wilkinson.
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@cherrylog754
"And your last paragraph sums up our mission. "We know how the American story goes: We fight; we take it back."
I was an airline pilot who started wearing an American flag lapel pin on my uniform back in the late 70s. Fellow pilots would ask why and I replied there were groups that thought they and they alone "owned" the flag (conservatives) and my wearing it was my way of "taking it back" from them.
106
The question of what makes people conservative is important. I think it is accurate that they want to feel "at home," but the fact of changes that are beyond our control makes that challenging. Unfortunately, politicians have capitalized on the discomfort, if not fear, associated with change because it helps win elections.
The rural-urban contrasts, or conflicts, aren't confined to the USA. As our world economy becomes more centered in urban areas and the populations of metropolitan regions grow, the clash will continue.
The US was founded on the principle of liberty and justice for all. I'd like to hear our politicians talk more about what that means. The conservative emphasis on individuality and free markets has been pretty well articulated at the expense of more liberal views. Perhaps that is the first step.
20
In a strange way I've never felt more patriotic. An American flag was attached to my protest sign at the NYC climate march in 2014. I have purchased a flag the size of the ones appropriately flown over schools and government buildings. It's folded as it should be, not something worn on a tee shirt or flapping away on the back of a truck.
I feel knee jerk sadness (and increasing disgust) when I see flags everywhere on some Mainers' lawns, fraying with the passing days, seasons, years--flags the size of tennis courts appearing over used car lots . Don't people know that the flag is special enough to be displayed sparingly? That girl and boy scout campers (my generation) were honored when chosen to raise the flag in the morning and lower it at sunset?
There used to be proscribed ways to handle the American flag. To me that kept it more special, despite our checkered often tragic history. Meanwhile I believe in Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies, for Amber Waves of Grain. Count me in as a patriot. I dare anyone to prove I'm not.
65
They still are prescribed ways to take care of the flag but everybody ignores them.
12
@Beverly
In my neighborhood there is a household that flies the flag every day. Frequently this flag is wind tossed into a wrap around the pole display where only about half the flag is displayed.
I fly the flag on Memorial Day, Flag day (June 14th), Independence Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day. This involves taking it down of course. My flag is in good shape with bright not faded colors.
7
@Beverly
Abby Hoffman was arrested in 1968 for wearing pants made from a flag. Now I could sell those pants at a Trump rally and make a fortune. My WW2 veteran father and the Boy Scouts taught me to treat the flag as a living embodiment of our nation. Now all I see are people who claim to love the flag treating it like so much disposable trash. Attached to overpasses? Emblazoned with Trumps image? Time for liberal's to teach these so called conservatives to read and respect the flag code of the US
7
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton would all agree with this op-Ed.
We're a republic founded on enlightenment principles, not blood and soil ethno-nationalism.
I wish the supposedly educated conservative thought leadership would go back and read the federalist papers, they are quite instructive about individual liberty and collective governance.
George Washington's letter the the Newport Synagogue is perhaps the best summation of the capacious scope of the American creed.
Would be great if the founder-worshipping originalists actually read our foundational documents; they'd get the central that "e pluribus unum" is a repudiation of nation states' and their model of 'e pluribus homogeneum'
These ethnonationalist fundamentalists aren't just fighting change, they are fighting against our very DNA.
339
@Ben. I suspect that the ‘originalist’ justice, legislators, writers cherry-pick their texts, then apply the ahistorical spectacles to read those documents in the way they would like them to mean.
8
@Ben
But for Hillary Rodham Clinton running such a poor campaign, Trump would have been defeated and Trumpism would have remained neutered.
@Ben only land owning white men could originally vote under the Constitution. But do tell me more about the founders belief in individual liberty and collective governance in a multiethnic society. /RollsEyes
2
There’s a lot to unpack in this editorial but it goes to show that strangely enough, both sides seem to be making a similar argument: that our opponents are hostile to, and want to change, what America is.
Take for example this phrase: “To reject pluralism and liberalizing progress is to reject the United States of America as it is, to heap contempt upon American heroes who shed blood and tears fighting for the liberty and equality of their compatriots.”
Does Mr. Wilkinson not realize how disingenuous this charge sounds?
It is not conservative nationalists but liberal progressives, who heap contempt upon American heroes.
It is liberal progressives, spouting the multiculturalist, multiracialist dogma, who want to paint over George Washington murals; who want to remove Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt monuments; who rename schools and streets named after American heroes; who sneak into the Hall of Great Americans and remove the busts of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in some Orwellian attempt to change history.
12
@Chris M. - "The busts of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson...."
What other country puts up memorials to those who sought to defeat it in war? History does not require honoring those who killed its citizens. Glorifying those who fought against the US is refuge of those who would still see it defeated.
Trampling on the ideals, vision, and work of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt do far more harm to us and our country than do those who would seek to expose their less than ideal sides. Defeating democracy, freedom, and equality for all is more than dishonoring our heroes is defeating the country they helped build.
Wrapping totalitarianism and authoritarianism in the US flag and calling it freedom is the abomination of the modern so-called conservative.
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@Chris M.
It is not Orwellian or changing history to not honor literal traitors to the United States, which is what Lee and Jackson were. Lee had his citizenship revoked for goodness sake. He's lucky he wasn't hanged along with Jeff Davis and Alexander Stephens.
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I am an American and I don't consider Lee and Jackson heroes.
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I miss the old New York. I miss the individuality and character the city had 25 years ago.
A popular website and book called Vanishing New York, which makes note of changes in buildings and businesses, makes it clear I'm not alone. And it happened fast--40% of the cityscape changed under Bloomberg.
Of course, that's only old New York from my perspective. When I moved here, there were plenty of people who remembered New York from the 1920s, 30s, 40s. Former Ziegfeld girls still had a club.
In the movie Dinner at 8, made in the early 30s, a former NY star from the 1890s who currently lives in London says she can't live in New York because it's changed too much.
You can't make people stop missing something by demanding they do. People don't like big, fast changes, especially when they feel they're worse off for it.
Obviously I'm comfortable with diversity. I live in NYC. Those changes don't bother me.
But it seems to me we have to find a way to let people miss something without condemning them. Otherwise, you get Trump.
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@Talbot There's a difference between looking at an avenue and wistfully remembering when it was populated with brownstones and storefronts as opposed to real estate offices and skyscrapers, and looking at America and wistfully remembering when you could deny someone services because you don't like the color of their skin.
The problem is that the parts of America that these people are nostalgic for are the worst parts. Yeah, it must have been really great to be white in a time when you could use that as a weapon to enforce your own social power at the expense of others, and I can absolutely understand how it would be distressing to witness that power fade away.
The issue is that I don't care about people who miss the days when their entitlement allowed them to live at the top of society for no reason other than the color or gender than they were born. When the things that people miss are the things that this country should be most ashamed of in our history, I don't see why we should place any relevance on their nostalgia and preferences.
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@me
Honestly, what right or preference are you being denied by liberals? Did a liberal refuse to make you a wedding cake? Did a liberal insist you couldn't use the same drinking fountain as them or attend the same school? Did a liberal tell you that they had a right to not hire you for job because of your gender, race or sexual preference? Did a liberal force you to give birth to the child of your rapist? Did a liberal tell you, when criticizin government policies to "love it or leave it"? No, I didn't think so.
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@Talbot It's amazing--and sad, at least to me--that everyone assumes I'm a conservative Republican. I'm not. I'm a moderate Democrat who agrees with the progressives on a number of points.
We're reached the point where saying people are entitled to miss a time makes everyone assume they're conservative. And it people do say they miss a time, they are assumed to be white nationalists.
This is what we need to fear--an assumption of what other people are and what they believe, especially if it's different from our own beliefs.
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Many homes in the suburb I live in fly the American flag. They dangle off porches and are strung up on short flag poles.
These flag waving Americans scare me. I’m leery of them. There’s something wrong with a man or woman who must fly the flag on their front lawn to show me that they love our country. The gesture, seemingly innocuous, is too in your face.
I don’t believe these American flag wavers possess a particular love of America. I don’t believe they’ve a unique and fervent love of the American democratic principle that proclaims, through laws, declarations and a Constitution, that every American has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I believe the opposite to be true. I believe that they love their country but not our country. I believe these flag wavers are displaying an emblem, not of pluralism, freedom and inclusion, but of what Will Wilkinson calls “reactionary nationalism.” Their flags shout, “My way is the right way.”
We’ll know America has survived Trump and nationalism when the American flag is an emblem of liberty and justice for all, and crowds at political rallies won’t have to wave the American flag while chanting “U.S.A.” as if they were in Weimar in the 1930s.
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@Dave Thomas
I have traveled to other countries on every continent and never seen anywhere where people fly their national flags like they do in the US. Usually national flags are reserved for public squares, government offices, and places of historical importance; people don’t fly them from their private residences. Americans are already among the most nationalist people in the world. The fact that some people think we aren’t nationalist enough is frightening.
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@Maureen
Your comment is very appreciated. I have several neighbors who display and fly flags. Not one of them, in my opinion, fly the flags with honor. They are as Dave Thomas has described.
I'm in Cincinnati.
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@Dave Thomas
If we cede the flag to the worst among us we inch closer to doing the same with our country.
The American Flag: It's not just for some, but for all. That includes liberal-voting union members such as me.
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Finally! Somebody else said what I've known to be true for a very long time: The "America" that trumpistas want to return to NEVER EXISTED! And their entire philosophy is anti-American, in that it rejects the very notion that all men are created equal. We must never forget that it is that notion that defines us as "Americans" and not our race, gender, lineage or even whether we were born here.
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@Mike The idea that this America "never existed" is intellectually lazy and far too coarse to be useful, and it hobbles Wilkinson's otherwise stirring essay.
The ideas we hold dear: of multidimensional pluralism, of ethnicity as a facet of our history but not our destiny, of a government whose reason for existence is responsiveness to its people and their well-being, all came from somewhere, and their origins are not recent.
When we look outside of ourselves but not within for the "enemy," what we lose is not some mushy conflict-avoidant tendency but wisdom itself. Specifically: people *change,* people can be changed, all of us, and that change in aggregate is what either increases or decreases our proximity to our national ideals.
The idea that anyone is irredeemable, beyond hope, beyond the pale, is the most powerful blockade there is to the realization of any social ideal.
@biomuse I'm not sure why Biomuse thinks that "the idea that [the nationalists'] America 'never existed' is intellectually lazy." Suspicion of The Other has always existed -- it's just the number and the identification of The Other that has changed. One sees it in the expansion of religious pluralism: in the colonies, having a multiplicity of Protestantisms was pluralist; by the early 20th century, Catholics and Jews were being (albeit hesitantly) included. Biomuse wants to emphasize the change in "people" as individuals, but there has also been change in what constitutes the "people" as a whole. It's a gradual -- and, yes, rocky -- process.
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@AHS My point is exactly that the set: "people" changing is a function of individual conviction *first,* and then structural alteration thereafter. From where else would it arise? A statement that an ideal - of all things - "never existed" simply occludes that process. The ideal still doens't "exist" and never truly will. But you can be certain that its close approach will never be hastened by a mistaking its immanence for its existence.
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"Does Trumpist nationalism contain a kernel of coherent ideology that can outlast the Trump presidency?"
Mr. Wilkinson, it was there well before Mr. Trump and will be there well after him.
As for coherent ideologies, you have to be kidding. That is for think tanks like yours. People, right, left and center, do not function within the framework of "coherent ideologies".
Moreover, I fear that what you describe as default US ethos, culture and being, and therefore, acting against it is somehow un-American would hardly be seen that way by those conservatives you are attacking here.
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Perhaps there is no national conservativist, but instead a wide-ranging fearful, fractured, and fragmented group of "me first" types who were served well by an antiquated political system called the electoral college.
And maybe they'll tear themselves apart, since there's little chance of reasoning with them.
We can hope.
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Recognizing that your column digs deeper than outward symbols, the fact that the Trumpian right and the Republican Party “hides behind our flag” is important for those on the left to consider. The right has co-opted the symbol of our nation as a symbol of conservative patriotism for far too long. The right drapes itself in red, white and blue, while the left seems to feel no ownership of or desire for the flag. It’s a powerful symbol and, like it or not, one that established the narrative and definition of patriotism. It’s time for Liberals, Democrats and Progressives to take back the flag and let it fly over the reality of America. Rather than hiding behind the flag, we can stand in front of it and proclaim, with certainty, that we are true Americans.
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@Joel Brown Yes. As other commenters have said, we need to take back the flag. I fly the flag, but sometimes think that it's a camoflage, that Trumpers who pass think that "I'm with them," I know they assume that, because when I see a flag flying at a house, even here in semi-lib NJ, it's almost a given that one assumes that someone who's flying the flag is a Trumper. And it's usually true. Often it's accompanied by some other symbol: Don't Tread on Me flag, blue lives matter flag, flags of branches of the military, and yes Confederate flag. And a "no trespassing" sign. It's a pattern of aggression and paranoia.
The associated cult of the flag pin that began with Reagan and became an absurd, and yes, fascist, obsession with the Bush 2 people needs to end. If you see someone who's not a politician wearing a flag pin in normal society, it's pretty safe to assume that they are a right winger who's ready to "call you out" at a moment's notice. It's happened to me.
At demonstrations over the past few years we have sometimes carried a flag and a sign: "It's our flag too."
That's a pin that I would wear all the time.
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@DaveG I'm looking for the bumper sticker I can put on my truck that says:
"Patriot. Veteran. Liberal." in red, white and blue, under an American flag.
I agree with you entirely about the need to qualify one's position when flying the flag.
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Imagine how their heads would explode if every Democrat running for President came on stage wrapped in an American flag and said, each in turn, "I'm an American."
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The phrase “incoherence of an American nationalism meant to ‘conserve’ an imaginary past” aptly describes the bizarre phenomenon of today’s so-called conservatives who would embrace a Donald Trump. In many respects Trump is the embodiment of incoherence—an intellectually unengaged vessel for the politics of grievance and temper tantrums.
In contrast, many of America’s greatest presidents have served as the vessels for positive American values and virtues. Whether uniting Americans to win its worst conflicts or putting men on the moon, it is unity and not divisiveness that represents what is best about this country. I ardently pray this country will find its moral compass in order to conserve what this country does best and not the moral and intellectual depravity which characterizes a Donald Trump.
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