The recent attack against a Jewish temple in California six months after another murderous act of violence befell a synagogue in Pittsburgh gives a measure of the crisis we are going through in this country. Before and in between these terrorist attacks, we have witnessed other lethal paroxysms of racial or religious hatred and intolerance. Many people are asking: How all this hateful mayhem can be happening at a time the US is experiencing peace and economic expansion, notwithstanding the sense of economic inequity and insecurity among its less fortunate citizens.
Until the 2016 presidential election, the established political and intellectual forces had succeeded in tamping down the feelings of discontent and unease that developed among an amalgam of the citizenry that included less educated Americans, rural and working class people, and a white slice of the population that represents what we call Old America. The discontent is powered by a mix of grievances and fears. The new knowledge economy is accumulating financial, political and intellectual power in the hands of Americans residing in the eastern and western coasts of the US. The influx of immigrants along with the declining birth rate of whites is causing a shift of political and cultural influence away from white, mostly of European-descent, Americans. American global economic power is slipping as China keeps rising and taking jobs away from American workers. Ceding sovereign power to international agreements, especially on climate, challenges the nationalist spirit of a going-it-alone America.
Different segments of American citizens seem to defend different views about these developments, thus leading to tribalism. But manifestation of tribalism within a country is a sign of a national identity crisis. This should not surprise us. The US has come finally to the point that its multi-ethnic, multi-creed, and multi-racial society has to ponder with the challenge of forging a national identity that can accommodate its diversity. The American Republic was the product of a ruling class, which like the majority of the population, was made up of white men bred in the Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture. It was inevitable then that when slavery was finally abolished and immigration waves brought Catholics, Jews, and other ethnic and religious peoples there would be resistance and tension. Despite the encroaching diversity, the cultural, political and economic power remained in the hands of white Protestants all the way through and in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Things started to change though after the 1960s as non-Protestant Americans climbed to positions of power and the Civil Rights laws empowered African-Americans.
Although, as said above, conservative and liberal politics had managed to marginalize nationalist anxieties, the seeds of apprehension and of the eventual “rebellion” had been already sown. Since the early 1990s, Pat Buchanan had started to preach his fear of white “suicide” coming in the hands of immigrants from the less developed non-European world. “This is the great issue of our time. And the real question is whether . . . America has the capacity to halt the invasion of the countries until they change the character – political, social, racial, ethnic – character of the country entirely.” That’s how Buchanan saw immigrants thirty years ago. Thus, when Donald Trump decided to play the nationalist card, the stage had been set. “These courageous patriots did not shed their blood, sweat and tears so that we could sit at home while others tried to erase their legacy and destroy our proud American heritage” is what President Trump (speaking of the European settlers of the Midwest) told his white fans in an Iowa rally before the mid-term 2018 election. No wonder Politico Magazine described Trump “Pat Buchanan with better timing.”
It seems to me that the schism between Middle America and Coastal America or Old America and New America boils down to a difference of minds as to how loyalty and patriotism are understood by each side. Old Americans foremost appreciate loyalty to the old American values that they inherited from earlier generations of Americans; values that are unalloyed by the influence of immigrants insufficiently steeped in the American tradition as this is understood by Old Americans. Old Americans build their loyalty to their group around these shared values. These values are also part of the national narrative of Old America, which is one of individual freedom unrestrained from government infringement, of limitless opportunities, of an America self-sufficient and unbound by international treaties and institutions, of a going-it-alone America. If this narrative romanticizes the past or ignores contemporary realities does not seem to matter. Coastal and New Americans, on the other hand, have a more expansive and universal scope of values. They are more receptive to the values of others and because of osmosis with other people – whether they are fresh immigrants or live in foreign countries – New Americans have become comfortable living in multicultural environments. Old Americans are suspicious that the values of New Americans can undermine the traditional American values and that their heed to international norms and relationships makes New Americans less patriotic. New Americans are resented for being too willing to extend and share the privileges of this country with new comers, sometimes at the expense of law and order. On their part, New Americans are eager to take advantage of new opportunities that emerge within a globalized world and their greater understanding of other peoples’ cultures. They also feel that just as America absorbed and successfully assimilated old waves of immigrants, legal or illegal, so can it do this again.
How the different definitions of loyalty and nationalism will play out in the future is uncertain. If “white extinction anxiety” (a term coined by Charles Blow of the NYT) persists, the tensions and frictions will continue with their ugly consequences of violence. By 2050, the US non-white minorities of Latinos, Blacks, and Asians will have reached a majority-minority status, meaning that together they will outnumber white Americans. So, we inevitably are walking into a new phase as a nation. America is heading to becoming a truly multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-creed and multi-cultural democracy, a feat never attained before. Maintaining a functional liberal democracy stitched together out of such diverse groups of citizens is a great challenge without a guaranteed successful outcome.
To achieve this, both sides need to acknowledge the other side’s concerns and the root of their mistrust. New Americans must convince Old Americans that their embrace of more universal values and cultures does not make them less of Americans or patriotic. Old Americans must convince New Americans that their clinging to old values will not come at the expense of the dignity and rights of others because of their creed, culture, gender or sexual orientation. Regrettably, the fact that the present occupant of the White House has no interest in helping to bridge the gap makes this project all too more difficult and distant.
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