Who Are We Americans Now? and Who Will We
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Who Are We Americans Now? And who will we Onlookers on the National Mall observe the second inauguration of Barack Obama, January 21, 2013. 18 WWW.ProsPect.org Winter 2017 Who Are We Americans Now? become under Trump? BY PAUL STARR Winter 2017 the AmericAn ProsPect 19 hat’s not who we are,” Barack Obama often says when this case about our fellow citizens. The victo - appealing to Americans to oppose illiberal policies such ries of Obama and Trump, however, sent two conflicting error messages about who we are. ‘‘ as torturing prisoners, barring immigrants on the basis Obama’s victory seemed to demonstrate of their religion, and denying entry to refugees. But now that, contrary to what we may have thought, that Americans have elected a president who has called for the greatest shame in our history might finally be history. Perhaps the American people were preciselyT those policies, Obama’s confidence about who we are willing to judge a man by the content of his may seem misplaced. Questions about the defining values of our character rather than the color of his skin. To common nationality have haunted us before at critical moments those who rejoiced at that thought, Obama’s election was not just a hopeful sign of racial in American history, and now they do again: In the wake of healing but an act of national redemption. It Donald Trump’s election, what does it mean to be an American? was an event, moreover, of global significance, promising a renewal of America’s reputation for Will Trump and Republican rule change not just tain that the arc of the universe ultimately equality and decency in the eyes of the world, a how the world sees us but our self-understanding? bends toward justice, but we do know that fitting culmination of an era of sweeping world- National elections create a picture of a peo- for long periods it has been bent the other wide change. Hadn’t the Berlin Wall fallen and ple, and they send a signal about changes the way. After Reconstruction in the 19th century South African apartheid ended? Obama’s presi- voters want. The picture and the signal may and the civil-rights struggle a century later, dency was one more sign of the triumph of be distorted and subject to interpretation, but the South—the white South—did rise again. tolerance, pluralism, and democracy. they cannot be ignored. The 2016 election left Nothing is guaranteed politically by changes It would be easier to make sense of Trump’s many people angry at pollsters for failing to in demography, economics, or culture. Every victory if Obama had become unpopular and predict the outcome, but it revealed a more battle for justice and equality must be fought the voters were repudiating his administration. serious misapprehension among Democrats again and again. As of November, however, Obama enjoyed a and on the left about the future. Eight years So Trump’s victory may not be the “last healthy approval rating. Nonetheless, Amer- earlier, Obama’s victory had seemed to dem- gasp” of an old and dwindling white major- icans elected the very man who spread the onstrate the historical inevitability of a more ity. It threatens instead to be a tipping-point birther lie about Obama and came to epito- diverse and progressive America, and his event. Although the outcome hung on only a mize the hard-right view that his presidency reelection seemed to confirm it. Yes, Republi- sliver of the electorate in three states, it may was illegitimate. cans had their base, but it was old and nearly produce a disproportionate swing of power to Perhaps Trump’s election shouldn’t have been entirely white. Misleading but widely influ- the right and a remaking of American society. a surprise. The antecedents can be found in ential demographic forecasts indicated that Only concerted political action—informed by the radicalization of the Republican Party in the United States was destined to become a an accurate understanding of our national sit- recent years, and the parallels can be found majority-minority society. The growing accep- uation—can stop that from happening. in the resurgent combinations of populism, tance of LGBT rights, especially among the xenophobia, and oligarchy in other countries. young, suggested that the cultural backlash THE SHOCK OF TWO IMPOssiBILitiES But Trump’s triumph was shocking because he against the 1960s was receding. Political ana- Before Obama’s election, a black man as presi- acted so often in ways that would have sunk any lysts interpreted demographic and cultural dent had seemed an impossibility, and before other candidate. He didn’t just disregard the changes as ushering in an inexorable social and the 2016 primaries, Trump as a major-par- norms of civility, for example, by bragging about political shift that would favor Democrats and ty nominee, let alone as president, had also the size of his penis and insulting leaders of his that Republicans would have to accommodate. seemed an impossibility. Historians decades own party. He openly appealed to prejudice A historical perspective should have urged from now will be asking how these two impos- when he denounced the Indiana-born judge caution. Progressive changes have been sibilities followed one another in immediate in the Trump University case as a “Mexican” arrested before. Alongside the civic, univer- succession. If elections create a picture of a and called for a ban on Muslim immigrants. salistic conception of American identity—the people and send a signal about the changes vot- As he had with the birther lie, he resorted to idea that people of any race and religion can ers want, Americans could not have created two obvious and outrageous falsehoods such as the come from anywhere in the world and be fully more different pictures of themselves and sent claim that Ted Cruz’s father had been involved American—there has always been an exclusive two more different signals than they have now. in John F. Kennedy’s assassination (or the view of the country’s core identity as white When the improbable happens, we may have more recent lie that millions voted illegally and Christian. When Americans imbued with just gotten the odds wrong. When what we for Hillary Clinton). He violated the norms of that understanding have felt under threat, believed to be impossible happens, it tells us democracy by encouraging violence against pro- they have struck back. We cannot be cer - we were wrong in a more fundamental way, in testers at his rallies and refusing to say before photo previous spread: rypson / istock by getty 20 WWW.ProsPect.org Winter 2017 the election that he would accept the results. in decisions about foreign policy—and that Christian founding, rather than from the civic Trump’s brazenness didn’t just reveal who candidate, of course, was Trump. Moreover, ideals of freedom and equality. The exact lines he is and how he might govern. Of course, we Trump’s business is aimed precisely at cater- of conflicts between the forces of closure and shouldn’t project all Trump’s views onto all ing to wealthy global elites. But by dressing those of openness have shifted, but the logic has those who voted for him. But when Trump’s himself up as the “America First” candidate, he been the same. When older-stock, native-born statements and actions didn’t prove disquali- telegraphed a message about national betrayal whites, typically more small-town and rural, fying, they revealed something first about the directly to people who believe that wealthy see their power slipping away, they try to shut Republican Party and then about the voters in global elites have slighted them. the gates and reclaim control. That was the November who chose him as president. This “Make America Great Again” appeals to the impetus behind the immigration restrictions was the real shock: Trump’s ability to get away same belief that the leaders of the country have of the 1920s, which were designed to limit the with violating norms against incivility, vio- failed it and suggests that Trump, a winner entry of eastern and southern European Catho- lence, prejudice, and lying told us something himself, will bring that winning game to the lics and Jews. The same social and cultural that we didn’t know, or may not have wanted nation. At a time when the president was black forces also typically line up against interna- to believe, about America itself. and a woman was running to succeed him, it tionalism and free trade. hardly needed to be spelled out for Trump’s Yet, as familiar as Trump’s narrative is, it WHICH AMERICAN STORY? followers what was great about the past that was not the story about America that recent Successful political leaders usually offer a nar- needed to be restored. While Obama and Clin- Republican presidents have told. Reagan was rative about their country and the world that as sunny as Trump is dark. Even when using encourages voters to see them in command. coded messages to appeal to whites, Reagan The story about America told by Trump has When Trump’s and the Bushes stayed within the norms of deep historical roots, though it is fundamen- American politics, declining to incite hos- tally different from one that Ronald Reagan, brazenness didn’t tilities, much less violence. The story they the Bushes, the Clintons, and Obama have prove disqualifying, repeated was the exceptionalist, civic story of been telling. Trump’s story is nationalistic, it told us something America as a city upon a hill, a beacon of free- inward-looking, dark, and divisive but well- dom in the world.