Two Nations: Irrevocable, Undaunted
People of our persuasion are all reeling from the outcome of last week’s presidential election. I was traveling immediately after the election on family and professional business and thus, not well-situated to add my two cents to the tidal wave of criticisms from both the left and center on the reasons for defeat of Kamala Harris and the stunning return of Donald Trump to apex of political power.
Between my obligations I have begun to absorb a range of opinions regarding what happened to all that optimism that emerged from the withdrawal of Biden from the race and the anointing of Harris to replace him. I may not have anything terribly new to say, but I do have my own prism through which I view American politics; and for the handful of you who follow me I think I must join the debate.
I have been advancing my “two nations thesis” of American politics for many years now. I argue that after a long and tortured history America is two nations, not one, and that at the heart of these divergent ideas about national identity is the issue of race and how each side handles it.
The traditionalist right recognizes only individual rights and wants people of color to assimilate individually into the way that White people run political, economic and cultural institutions. In contrast, the progressive left acknowledges the way that persistent systemic racism required POC groups to engage in racially based collective action to challenge that racism. In the process POC groups also developed an opposing narrative about American history that emphasized their group-based contributions to Americanness. Their stories lift up a pluralistic multiracialism as the cornerstone of national identity.
I argued that since the Great Recession of 2008 forces of populism have pulled mainstream traditionalism and progressivism away from the political center on both the right and left. By 2016 Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders had become the icons for right- and left-wing populism respectively. Trumpism has been more successful (but only slightly) at seizing the high ground than Sandersism.
This is not the place to trot out my entire analysis.[1] But in light of the recent election outcomes I want to focus on two themes in upcoming posts. One is the possible irrevocability of the two American nations and the end of “E Pluribus Unum.” The second is a discussion of how progressives (liberals and social democrats) can fight the “war of position” at multiple institutional sites to defend the right to live under progressive values in the future.
The possibility that American has become two entrenched nations is not good news. But although MAGA Trumpism has apparently seized control of national political institutions, they still don’t control state and local political institutions in many places, including most places with the strongest economies and most highly educated and skilled people. And as the right has long known, they don’t control the culture, neither popular nor highbrow. Therefore, there are many ways to fight back. Stay tuned as we survey some of these areas for the impending struggle.
[1] If you’re reading this, you can find my ongoing analysis in one of these three places.
Substack: drvernondamanijohnson.substack.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drdamanijohnson
Blog: damanipolitics.blogspot.com
