In the early days of this blog, I speculated as to the meaning of Trump’s hat and, specifically, as to when, in his opinion, America had last been great. Today, I ask a broader and more complex question: what makes America great?
There are multiple answers, and they reveal a great deal about the fissures in American politics today.
In Trump’s case, being great is clearly tied to being a winner. He sees the world in zero-sum terms, like a never-ending athletic event. And so, for him, what makes America great is: (a) being rich; (b) having the most powerful military on the planet; and (c) having really great athletes. Wait until you hear from him around the Olympics. He will act as if those American gold medals belong to him.
In the case of a typical red person, being great is tied to American culture. In many cases, there will be a strong religious element to this. Red person greatness is also typically connected with ideas of limited government and personal self-sufficiency.
For a typical blue person, greatness is tied to our open, dynamic, cosmopolitan society. We put up as few barriers as possible to excellence in every field. The trade-off, relative to European countries, is more inequality.
For a red person, American greatness, therefore, is a profoundly conservative concept vulnerable to attack from outsiders, while for a blue person, it is “liberal” within the nineteenth century meaning of the word. Red people value solidarity; blue people prefer progress. How can the two ideas be reconciled? Primarily by creating a welfare state that shares the benefits of progress with everyone and thus promotes national solidarity. A little more overt respect for red culture wouldn’t hurt, either.