America Is An Idea

     America is indeed an idea. But it is not a proscriptive—or propositional—idea. It is a descriptive one. Classical Liberalism was but an attempt to distill its core elements; conservatism was an attempt to distill, and protect, the causal factors that led to such a unique and, ‘twould seem these days, fragile miracle. It has become more than any blut und boden mentality could possible fathom.

     To what your humble author has been saying for years, if not decades now, let this small missive from as James Lindsay add thereto, which is quoted in full below due to the limitations of Twitter/X embeds.

I take some pleasure in explaining to everyone here what the “Dissident Right” culture warriors eagerly mislead people about: America is, in fact, based upon an idea.

That idea is simple: free people are capable of governing themselves such that prosperity follows.

Americans, in the nationalist-spiritual sense, are people who are citizens of this country who believe in this and uphold the covenant it implies: if you take care of your own, the state will stay out of your affairs except to secure your ability to take care of your own without the unjust interference of others.

Thinking this idea would work is often called “the American Experiment,” which is a grand social experiment to see if it works. It mostly has.

Having faith in this idea is called “the American Dream.” The American Dream is the confidence in the return on investment hoped for as a result of taking responsibility and engaging in self-governance in such a way that we each are mutually productive members of society.

This idea didn’t come out of the ground with the American founders, but they clarified and codified it. It was their tradition, which they inherited from the broader tradition of English liberalism, and which they tweaked and clarified specifically to undo the ravages of the various theories of elitism that dominate European and other politics. They didn’t so much depart from this tradition as refine and clarify it.

In framing the United States, through over a decade of debates, they codified this great experiment in self-government, including provisions for new citizens to share in its covenantal promise: come be productive, govern yourself, be American, and you can have a shot at American prosperity. Nothing is guaranteed except that you get a shot, but a shot is more than you’ll get in most other systems.

The codification of this idea in the American Constitution represents the boldest experiment in politics in human history, and the return on investment, for all the trouble it has caused, has been enormous. More prosperity, responsibility, and sense of generous duty has arisen from the American ethos than from any other ethos in history, including every other form of narrow nationalism. They got something very right.

The Woke “Dissident Right” wants people to believe with thinly veiling intellectualism that this experiment and this dream only work for certain people who are part of the American “heritage” or of European (or English?) descent, but this is visibly proved false everywhere one looks. For every failure of diversity and multiculturalism one can point to, there are abundant stories of success, some modest and some great, from people of all walks of life who embraced the American Experiment and stepped into the American Dream.

What sets them apart from others? Is it some in-born characteristic? Is it being of the right background? Not necessarily. It is willingness to put faith in the American idea of self-governance and to walk that faith by governing oneself and becoming productive in the service to others, as free to profit from this spirit as they are to take it up or abandon it. Faith without works is dead, but it’s darkest blasphemy to blame faith, or God, when you claim to believe it but aren’t walking in it.

So, in fact, America is based on an idea, and that idea is open to all people who are willing to embrace self-governance. Citizenship is rightly an ordeal because it requires imbibing of this covenant and adopting it. America is not a spectator sport.

The “Dissident Right” isn’t popular right now because it’s evil, though. It’s popular because it’s speaking into a collapsed faith with dark temptations. As Jesus was tempted in the desert by Satan, so shall we all be tempted. The struggle, though, is real, and not just the struggle of temptation.

It is the American duty to uphold our covenant, and we haven’t been. We must.

It is the American duty to protect our covenant, and we haven’t been. We must.

It is the American duty to proclaim our covenant, and we haven’t been. We must.

As we have fallen away from our own faith in the American idea, in Liberty First, we have reaped the rewards of lost faith and a broken covenant. Just as with Israel of old, as we step back into our faith and uphold our covenant, we have every right to expect we’ll receive its rewards as well.

Put your faith in America and its founding idea. Do your duty to this country to hold that faith and to walk in it, first in your own lives and then around you. Resist the poisonous words of false shepherds and the temptations of evil. Faith doesn’t merely drive out fear; it is the absence of fear. America can and is being made great again, and it begins and ends with each one of us remembering who we are and what it means.

     And that idea be the one that animates the future, lest it be tossed into the ash heap of history.