Since it is the rage to debate, and really quite handily distracts voters from the economy and the war. At any rate, there have been a LOT of articles in the media pitting respect for history against helpful criticism - and everything in between - as valid forms of expressing one’s love for country. Read effing “Terror & Consent” already. National identity will soon be a thing of the past, as the makeup of the current state is a Market State, which aims not to protect its citizens so much as to provide citizens with as many opportunities as possible. Okay, meaning patriotism is irrelevant. But still an interesting topic for discussion.
Last week, the Bradley Project on America’s National Identity released a report, entitled E Pluribus Unum, warning of “mounting confusion about the meaning of American national identity and a loss of commitment to its promotion.”
The Bradley report, which draws on public opinion data and conversations with dozens of academics, scholars and journalists (full disclosure: I attended one such meeting), argues that Americans’ sense of national identity is weakening, and that the American leadership class ought to do something about it. Citing declining civic and historical literacy, an education system that emphasizes ethnic identities over a shared Americanism, and a rising emphasis on “global citizenship” rather than national loyalty among the nation’s political and business elites, the report offers a list of recommendations ranging from the broad (”a renewed focus on the teaching of American history” in America’s schools, say, or a new “initiative to ensure immigrants learn English, understand democratic institutions, and participate fully in the American way of life”) to the highly specific (the return of ROTC to elite universities; the creation of an annual Presidential medal to reward “commitment to American ideals and institutions”).
Some of this is gimmicky, and some of it is overbroad — but there’s grist in the report for the McCain camp, if they care to use it. It’s clear from McCain’s ads and speeches that he intends to go heavy on patriotic themes in his campaign. It’s just as clear how liberals will respond — by accusing McCain of playing right-wing identity politics, using the “patriotism card” as a last-ditch defense against the public’s dramatic disillusionment with the GOP brand. And they’ll have a point — unless McCain’s appeals to patriotic sentiment can be tied (as they ought to be) to substance as well as symbolism.
Adopting some of the Bradley Report's recommendations wouldn't be a bad place to start. In the wake of 9/11, John O’Sullivan reported last year, a group of conservative think-tankers wrote a series of memos to the Bush Administration, arguing that the attacks provided an opportunity to mount a new initiative to promote “patriotic assimilation,” whether for adult immigrants applying to be citizens, or public-school students learning civics and American history. The Bush Administration didn’t listen. The McCain campaign should. A “One America” initiative of this sort would harness McCain’s biography and record to champion the “melting-pot” vision of America against the multicultural vision that dominates the Democratic Party — and it would provide what John Fonte has termed a “civic conservative” common ground for Republicans divided over immigration rates.
What it couldn’t do, unfortunately, is include a frontal assault on programs that promote ethnic balkanization, from bilingual education to race-based affirmative action — since McCain’s record on those issues runs in precisely the opposite direction. For the GOP, this is an opportunity lost: In a campaign in which Barack Obama has already mused about the limits of racial preferences, the Republican standard-bearer ought to be bold enough to suggest that we abandon them.
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