I’ve been critical of the view that Americans constitute an ethnic group, taking instead the view that what defines America is our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. That is to say, a “creed” involving the commitment to equality, individual rights, freedom, and democracy.
I’ve come across, though, the reason why some conservatives are turning against those elements of “liberal democracy” and a “creedal” definition of America. Those principles, they say, do not protect us from the baleful effects of modernity. They have been weaponized by the left. Our nation’s commitment to “freedom,” for example, has given us sexual license and other kinds of moral anarchy. “Equality” has given us feminism and identity politics. “Individual rights” have destroyed our responsibility for the common good and our sense of community.
How could you answer this?
If we jettison a “creedal” understanding of American identity in favor of some kind of ethnic understanding of the “American people,” doesn’t that mean we are adopting a version of the left’s “identity politics”?
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In