How Americans Lost Their National Identity

But if the American nation is not a race, what is it? It’s now often
said that the American nation is actually an “idea” — the idea that all
men are created equal, for example, or that the powers of government
derive from consent, as suggested in the Declaration of Independence.
But that isn’t any more plausible than the racism of the alt-right.
After all, if America is a handful of abstract principles drawn from
18th century Enlightenment philosophy, what are we to make of Americans
who dissent from this philosophy — on biblical or Aristotelian, Burkean
or Humean grounds? Does philosophical disagreement mean you’re not an
American? Of course not. Similarly, if a people in a foreign land
pledges allegiance to the ideals of the Declaration, does that make them
Americans? No, it doesn’t. 

It was not until after World War II
that these core institutions at the heart of classical American
nationalism — Biblical religion, the Anglo-American legal inheritance,
and the English language — began to fade. The disintegration of
classical American nationalism, and the consequent loosening of the
bonds of mutual loyalty that had held Americans together, has created a
vacuum at the heart of American national identity. It is this vacuum
that revolutionary new theories such as “white nationalism” hope to
fill.

from time, who have thought

How Americans Lost Their National Identity

The Sad, Sad Culture of Progressivism

cultml:

There,
one finds all sorts of new and interesting topics to feel bad about.
One can educate one’s sense of moral outrage, refining the palate to the
subtler nuances of the same eternal whine. The vibrant Red whine: How bad western civilization is in general. The anti-American White whine: How bad America is in particular.
All such reading fuels the same peculiarly self-destructive end. The
progressive is taught to believe that an entirely unproductive and
pathologically disheartened outlook is the mark of a superior being.
Life is to be lamented from start to finish. Ordinary happiness is for
the stupid. Such an ongoing narrative is as sticky and as lethal as a
Venus fly trap. Try reading a little of the public intellectual Noam
Chomsky. See how wonderfully acerbic and languid he is? Read a bit of
the revisionist historian Howard Zinn. Such a blistering indictment of
the West by a man who hasn’t troubled himself to examine any
inconvenient historical data. Even a cursory study of leftist literature
will make it plain to any conservative how leftists have developed an
unspoken longing for cultural suicide. They have few or no children.
They have no reason to be bothered if America is eventually transformed
into just another Latin American failed state. They have been told their
whole lives that it would serve us right.

The Sad, Sad Culture of Progressivism

Is Democracy Doomed?

cultml:

Although
many argue that the national government has usurped states’ rights, the
states have many mechanisms to restore their diminished power. For
instance, the Supreme Court has recently made decisions in favor of a
limited national government and increased state power. Following the
Kavanaugh confirmation, this trend will likely continue into the
foreseeable future. Additionally, Article V grants states the power to
propose a constitutional amendment, such as the Balanced Budget
Amendment, which is gaining momentum, or congressional term limits.

There
are an infinite number of possibilities for what the United States will
become, but hopefully the exceptional model of American democracy will
survive well beyond the historic 200-year lifespan.

the rational system will trump the emotional religion. the system is large progressive in function and form. Not even starting on culture, the church, edu., news, the rest of the world. i wish it where true. i like a comforting fantasy as much as the next guy. doesn’t make it true

even if that works it doesn’t stop progressives from ripping it apart again

Is Democracy Doomed?

A Vital American Value Is Tolerance. We Are Losing It

cultml:

Tolerance is ultimately an expression of humility. We must be humble
before he who sees all things because we never will see all things
ourselves. Anybody in the United States capable of uttering the phrase
“Maybe I’m wrong,” is doing more benefit to the body politic than those
who eschew such modesty.

Like
all virtues, tolerance comes with dangers that must be considered, lest
it turn into relativism. At its worst, tolerance robs us of the ability
to make judgments regarding right and wrong. Without an overarching
moral framework and, more importantly, laws, tolerance can create chaos.
Decent people should not tolerate a good many things. But for the most
part political, religious, moral, and philosophical differences do not
fall in this category.

It may well be reasonable for those on the left to say they will not
tolerate Trump and his supporters’ rhetoric, or for those on the right
to say they will not tolerate the chilling of free speech. But what we
must remember is that ultimately what is being tolerated is not the
idea, but the person espousing it. So long as that person is speaking in
a respectful and nonviolent manner, he or she should almost always be
extended tolerance.

A Vital American Value Is Tolerance. We Are Losing It