Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
American: The Identity Group for the Rest of Us
There’s prattle in the news about the President’s claim that he’s a nationalist, as if that word means to Donald Trump what it means to the hand-wringing academics and left-wing pundits who wait breathlessly for evidence that he’s the fascist monster they need him to be. I’m pretty sure that, for President Trump, “nationalist” and “America first” and “make America great again” are all much the same, merely anodyne — in a sane world — calls for a sense of national identity, enthusiasm, and patriotism. Further, I suspect that the President uses them because he has an intuitive sense that they appeal to a large number of Americans whom the Democratic Party ignores.
The Democrats are obsessed with identity, so much so that creating and politicizing identity groups has essentially subsumed the party’s platform and become its most coherent political strategy. Creating group identity is a prerequisite to asserting group victimhood, the latter necessary if you’re going to use resentment and outrage as the key to your get out the vote strategy.
But everyone can’t be a victim; someone has to be the privileged oppressor. I suppose we’re fortunate that the Democratic left has chosen a large, relatively secure demographic — white people and, most specifically, white men — to play the role of universal villain. In other times and places, less robust scapegoats have been used: Jews, for example.
One might expect that those Americans forced by popular culture to wear the arm band of the oppressor, of the unconscious micro-aggressor, of the bigot-whether-we-know-it-or-not, of the privileged, would eventually sanction the identity label thrust upon us by our accusers if only as an act of self-defense. We see a little bit of that kind of ugliness in the misanthropic fringes of the right, in the handful of unstable outliers and losers who welcome any excuse to rally proudly around their lack of pigmentation. But the vast majority of us, who lack any plausible victim status and who must, in the righteous illogic of the left, therefore be oppressors, have not become white supremacists or anything of the sort.
What I think many of us have done is assert an identity that we actually do share, a real and meaningful identity that wasn’t invented in a hyperactive humanities department or leftist salon. We’ve embraced our identity as Americans.
I have always been proud to be an American, but I nonetheless am aware of an increasing desire, in recent years, to assert my American identity. At the same time and, I think, not coincidentally, we’ve all witnessed an increasing tendency on the left to condemn America and anything that might be considered uniquely or especially American. I think the idea that there might be a single identity group that could contain us all is offensive to the left. It is certainly not useful to them, in that it discourages the kind of internecine strife that justifies the left’s outrage and fuels its turnout machine.
If we choose to see, as I do, the 2016 election as, at least in part, a push-back by the innocent and frustrated accused against their glib and self-righteous accusers, then we should take comfort from the fact that the right did not call into being the very thing the left pretends it is, a mob of angry white men bent on securing their mystical privilege.
Rather, the right chose to embrace an inclusive label, one that every one of us can claim equally. If you want evidence that racism and sexism and all the rest are the peculiar obsession of the left, consider that the left makes its groups ever smaller, more numerous, and more exclusive, while the right clings — and is criticized for that — to the most inclusive yet meaningful label available to us all: American.
Published in Culture
Bingo.
I regret that I only have one “like,” etc. etc.
I used to be an American and all was good. Under Obama, America’s ruling class let it be known how much they hated me and mine. So now I am what they have named me, Deplorable. Soon I will hate them and their America as much as they hate me and mine. I am given no choice but to do so.
Indeed. This is not an “either/or” situation. That is a meme manufactured by the Left.
Embrace the power of “And”.
National sovereignty and the Shining City On The Hill for the sincere people of the world.
‘Nationalist’ and ‘nationalism’ also offends the likes of Jonah Goldberg. But then it is one of the reasons – just one – I pay no attention to Jonah Goldberg and consider him a fool.
And may I also suggest Yoram Hozany’s The Virtue of Nationalism.
I was just thinking that I’ve never been more proud to be an American than I am right now. It’s so sad that those on the Left who continue to look for perfection don’t realize what an amazing country we live in. It’s their loss.
Then the label they’ve pinned on you stuck and worked. Here’s some advice: Just take it off.
Hate is bad. Don’t do it. Seriously. And it’s always your choice; don’t try to hand control of your soul over to someone else. And there is nothing the left — or anyone — could do that would prompt me to stop calling myself an American, nor to hate America.
Exactly.
He’s not a “white nationalist” at all — he’s an American Nationalist!
(Queue heart palpitations in the NYTimes newsroom…oh, wait, they cannibalized the newsroom to expand the
propagandaeditorial room).Just before I read this post, Mrs. Tabby described to me a magazine article about a Dutch-themed winter festival in Holland, Michigan illustrated with a photo of a craft brewery with an Asian looking woman behind the counter (perhaps the owner?). America! We join and meld, not divide.
Thank you for this, Henry, a very nice piece reminding us of what we really are at heart. A few times in recent years, when asked whether is was “non-Hispanic” or “non-White” or one of those endless divisions the PC people keep inventing, I have started writing in the answer: “American-American”!
@columbo, your comment brought to mind a thought I have had quite often lately, especially during the wretched excesses and disgraces of the final day of the Justice Kavanaugh hearings, in which the Democrats shed all pretense of being a serious political organization, and that was this” what would one of the great icons of my life, and perhaps many here at Ricochet as well, President Ronald W. Reagan, think of such grotesque behavior?
Henry, thanks for that wise answer but I must add this much, not to wholly adopt the statement you responded to, but to note that I have had times in the recent past when I almost did that what I was taught for a lifetime not to do– hate– and that was during the Kavanaugh hearings, through much of the time of the Democrats’ inane questioning in the three days of “substantive” (what a misuse of that word) examination of the Judge, but during the entirety of the final day.
@Full Size Tabby, your comment brought to mind one of the most beautiful songs ever written– about our beautiful America–part of which gives me goosebumps every time I hear it (actually it all does, for that matter):
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
There is so little spirit of brotherhood and so much of hatred of all that so many of us love about America, I just pray that it, somehow, will be nurtured back by those of us who love it so.
Thanks for a great discussion.
Sincerely, Jim
This is further evidence that the Right is more and more adopting the tactics of the Left. Remember, many on the Left identify socialism as anything that is good; anything that is bad is definitionally not socialism. Now, we get to join the fun! Nationalism = good; anything that is not good = Not Nationalism.
I’m not sure what post you’re responding to, Tommy. My post didn’t say those things.
As President Trump says, at nearly other rally, “we are one people, we bleed Red, White, and Blue.”
I hadn’t realized I’ve been feeling the same things until you mentioned it, HR. My American identity didn’t need “asserting” when I was kid, because I saw affection for America in the hearts of people all around me. But in recent years, those basic American priorities I grew up with, and which everyone seemingly valued–due process, free speech, giving the other guy his say, agreeing to disagree, live and let live–seem to be disappearing. The number of us who hold affection and appreciation for those uniquely American priorities feels like it’s shrinking.
And here’s the funny side effect: As I sense our numbers shrinking, I’m more grateful for being raised American now, and feel more duty bound to keep the American light burning.
Outstanding post.
Now we need one on this: What do we think are the characteristics, or signs and symptoms, of this American identity.
I typed comment 15 before I read comment 14.
They’ve done a spectacular job of creating group victimhood – and micro-group victimhood – that today with their encouragement, 280% of all Americans are now classified as victims. So who’s left as the privileged oppressor? Nancy Pelosi.
An interesting piece at American Thinker by a man who was at the NYC Republican Club, which was attacked by Antifa in an attempt to intimidate the club members.
The NY Media seem determined to confirm that they are indeed the enemy of the people. I advocate speech (not violence) against these oppressors.
I would like to see the RNC do an ad picturing various diverse Americans, including Americans with foreign accents saying, “I am an American.” Then finish with something like, “The Republican Party is working for all Americans. Working for jobs for all. Working for a great economy. Working for a safe country for all. Working for a just society. Help us keep America great. Vote Republican.”
E pluribus unum.
Nah, the Proud Boys are just as noxious as Antifa, and I have no reason to believe that they’re interested in conservative governance. That’s not an alliance or association I want anywhere near mainstream conservatism.
Agreed. The Proud Boys are a bit of a mess, a mix of libertarian, conservative, and anarchist philosophy. I’ll stick with conservatism, and with American as my group.
Saw a small group of them, complete with chest protectors, one with a vest cam, troop past the line at the MAGA rally in Mesa. No black-clad Antifa types to square off against, so they left. What a wonderful contract to some cities, Mesa having a city government backing a competent police force!
Contrast with the brawlers’ reign in Portland, OR. Mind you, the taxpayers are still paying for that city’s government, they just don’t get what they pay for.
That is because the proud boys is a male social group and not a political organization. Their own web site says. “The Proud Boys confuse the media because the group is anti-SJW without being alt-right.
http://proudboysusa.com
Clifford, you and I are going to disagree about this. The answer to incompetent policing is not a counter-mob looking for trouble. This is exactly what I routinely (and, I know, tiresomely) advocate against, the adoption of leftist tactics. I think it will hurt us more than help us.
ME: The Proud Boys are a bit of a mess, a mix of libertarian, conservative, and anarchist philosophy. I’ll stick with conservatism, and with American as my group.
No, it’s because they aren’t simply anti-SJW. They also call for drug legalization, the closing of all prisons, the closing (not securing) of our borders, and the shutdown of government.
As I said, they’re a mess. I’d be surprised if they aren’t also, in practice, a few other ugly things as well.
I’m not sure what the connotation is that leads me there, but the name “The Proud Boys” rings with echoes of football hooligan firms and skinhead gangs. I feel like that term has been around for decades, pre-dating the movie Aladdin with unsavory associations.