The “United Nation-State” of America?

The DisUnited States of America. https://www.pixilart.com/photo/the-disunited-states-of-america-d435ecd9b474c70

Yesterday, I wrote about the general concepts of state, nation, and nation-state in international politics.  Today, I want to extend that analysis to the United States. 

The most stable situation for any country is for its “state” – the governing structure for a specific group of people in a specific geographic setting – to align with its “nation” – the cultural “glue” that holds its people together.  In the United States – the first “new nation” of the modern era – this alignment has been difficult to achieve and maintain.

Traditionally, national identity is defined by a people’s common history, language, religion, tradition, and culture.  The United States, by contrast, is an amalgam of the cultures of immigrants who came from everywhere to settle in the United States.  The traditional image is of a ‘melting pot,’ although the ‘salad bowl’ image has recently become more popular. The US has defined itself as an entity removed from these traditional ties, intent on creating a new identity that takes their place.

The very term that proud Americans use to refer to their attachment to their country – American Exceptionalism – provides a key to this identity.  This term, invented in the 1830s, was intended to explain what makes the United States different from other countries of the world.  The US, the idea goes, is an exception to the general trend of nations to rise and fall.  This process would not necessarily occur, according to the theory, because the US is a truly new nation, without a feudal past or a history of religious or other conflict, geographically isolated from the rest of the world, and thus not subject to this pattern. 

• “American Exceptionalism” does not mean that America is somehow “the best.”  It just means that the rules of the rise and fall of empires do not necessarily predict the future of the United States.

Only a few decades after the invention of the term “American Exceptionalism,” the US experienced a shattering Civil War that tested this theory.  The nation survived – contrary to a lot of expectations – “proving” that the country could withstand even serious challenges.

Today, the United States is perhaps as divided as it has been in any era since the Civil War.  Indeed, many of the political right are claiming not only that the country is headed to a second Civil War but that they would welcome it. 

• My response to this is that they are batshit crazy, but  I digress.

So.  How does the United States maintain a sense of nationhood within its “state” governing structure?  One way we have traditionally accomplished this is by a commitment to what some have called our “civic religion.”  This is not a deity-based belief system, but rather a belief system based on our common acceptance of the country’s founding principles of liberty and equality.  A very popular country song captures this idea.  “I’m proud to be an American – at least I know I’m free.”  Now, I don’t like this song, for any number of reasons, but the primary one is that the message is a mixed one that the crowds that routinely bellow the lyrics don’t seem to grasp.  It is impossible, to me at least, to hear these words and then not add the silent code: “At least I know I’m free – even though we don’t have good health care and our political system is going seriously awry and our popular culture is becoming increasingly nasty and demeaning.” And so on.

I read something a long time ago that kind of summarized the dilemma the US is facing:  “When we cast off King George, we also lost King Arthur.”  Americans lost the set of shared historical myths that bind people together.  We had to create new ones.  The trend in modern historical research and writing – to re-examine these founding myths in the light of a troublesome reality – reveals that without these shared myths, it’s hard to define an American national identity.

Confronting the realities of our national history requires a willingness to separate the core of our national identity – liberty and justice and freedom and equality and all of that – from a particular preferred (but skewed) historical narrative.  Doing this takes thoughtful work from everyone – work that Americans have not had to do before.

I fear we are not up to the task.