Our American Story by Joshua A. Claybourn

Author:Joshua A. Claybourn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POL046000 Political Science / Commentary & Opinion, POL032000 Political Science / Essays, POL010000 Political Science / History & Theory
Publisher: Potomac Books

What does this mean in the American context? For starters, it posits that the starting basis of American identity is found in the commitment that Americans make to support democratic political institutions, to embrace legal concepts of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and to practice social and religious tolerance—none of which require any specific ethnic, religious, or linguistic background. In other words, this sense of Americanness is a result not of blood affiliation but of commitment to a set of principles. This is the core of the American Eidgenossenschaft—the oaths we take to each other as Americans.

One could argue that these commitments could extend across the globe and that there is nothing, other than the reference to specific constitutional documents, particularly American about it. However, these commitments take place within the context of the specific set of territories where this experiment in republican governance occurs—North America—amid the social, political, and economic institutions that create the “salad bowl” in which the American nation is contained and defined. As the communitarians have observed, any viable or successful community is exclusive in nature. It must have the ability to define its limits and its memberships; otherwise, it cannot retain its cohesion. This “bowl” has been constructed by the generations of those who have lived within it and augmented by the arrival of newcomers who also join in this common task. As Etzioni himself has noted, “As Americans, we are aware of our different origins but also united by a joint future and fate.”21

The United States, which so consciously patterned many of its institutions on Roman ones, is also in a position to emulate the concept of Romanitas as first expressed by the lawyer Tertullian in the third century. Romanitas (literally, Romanness) could be undertaken by anyone living within the empire by accepting Roman law and political values, by using Latin as their lingua franca, and by taking part in the political life of the Roman state without having to give up local or particular affiliations, including in religion and language.22 By the time that all freeborn males were granted citizenship by the Edict of Caracalla in 211, Romanitas was no longer identified with ethnic descent from the original residents of the city of Rome, yet it remained a cohesive identity that could still distinguish Romans from non-Romans.23 This template is remarkably adaptable to the American experience.

American identity must also rest on a shared set of narratives and heroes. If a country bases its identity in part on idealistic aspirations, then it must confront the reality that flawed human beings often fall short of those standards. Rather than delegitimizing the titans of prior generations, a renewed sense of American nationhood would respect their achievements while acknowledging their failings. This can be done in part by embracing an evolutionary approach to American identity, that it has not emerged full-grown but has evolved from an original germinal state into more complex and richer forms. The Puritans and Pilgrims who wanted to create a city

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