Omniquity

America has lost its way. Not completely. Not irrevocably. But there’s no unifying vision any more. Independence from the tyranny of the British monarchy? Check. Unite the territory “from sea to shining sea”? Check. Land of opportunity for anyone willing to work their tail off? Check. Beacon of freedom and civil rights for the world? Check. Liberator of Europe (twice). Check. Scourge of communism and counterbalance to the USSR? Check.

Now what?

We seem to be at a pause in the historical trajectory of the United States. Without that unifying vision, we have a lot of groups scurrying around trying to impose their vision on everyone else. While I happen to think the political right is worst about this, the left is not immune either. It would be overstating it to say that there is a struggle for the soul of the nation, but on a smaller scale that is what I think is happening. America is no longer the melting pot that it once was, as ethnic, religious, and racial groups tend more to retain their own identities rather than relinquish them for some common “American” identity. When white Christian men descended from Europeans held sway over the politics, business, and culture of America, it was relatively easier to propagate a common “American” identity. It didn’t hurt that most immigrants looked up to those perceived paragons of success and virtue and wanted to be like them, and were willing to shed their own identities (to a large degree) to achieve that.

But as immigrants who are not white Christian people descended from Europeans—blacks, hispanics, Asians—began to populate America in serious numbers, they decided they did not want to melt into the prevailing culture, but to keep their own languages, religions, cultures, and ways of thinking. And that’s OK, because the freedom to do that is enshrined in the US Constitution. The problem is that the prevailing culture is now feeling threatened, particularly as its adherents are no longer a majority of the population. So what will the prevailing culture of the USA be in the next 10, 20, 50 years?

One definition of a “nation” is “a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.” [Oxford Dictionaries] One can question whether, by that definition and if you believe what I said above, America is losing its nationhood.

What I think we need as a nation is that common objective, that unifying vision, to knit us together ever more tightly. The malaise of our current politics exemplifies that lack. The right seems to pander ever more slavishly to the fringes of conservatism whose vision of America is rooted in the 1950s (see: hegemony of white Christians descended from Europeans). That is destined to be a losing political strategy, if not in this election then the next one. But the left has not put forth a compelling vision of its own, which is just as sad in its own way.

Another definition of nation is “a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own.” [dictionary.com] Perhaps our political process is in fact the means we must use to give voice or consciousness to the current reality of our unity (or lack thereof), which is somewhat of a depressing thought. Perhaps instead we need something akin to a constitutional convention, where representatives of all interests can gather to debate and hopefully, through compromise, agree on, what the unifying vision of America should be for the next 235 years.

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