Thought leaders, lawmakers and former administration officials from both parties are marking the nation’s semiquincentennial by sounding the alarm about the effects of polarization.
Citing recent statistics, including that only 4 in 10 Gen Zers are more likely to describe the Founding Fathers as “villains” rather than “heroes,” an advisory board convened by the center-left Progressive Policy Institute launched the American Identity Project meant to guide policymakers and educators on the future of civics education.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., an adviser on the project, said he worries the liberal patriotism modeled by figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama is “vanishingly rare.”
“The central emotion of our time is not patriotic hope about America, but rage against America across the political spectrum,” Torres said at the think tank’s June 11 event to unveil the board’s Identity Project “manifesto.”
Linda Chavez, a former Reagan administration official and chair of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, said she sees the problem on “both the left and right.”
“I see kids on the left who find our whole system of government, including democracy, as not important, and you know they seek to transform the country, they want to throw everything out,” Chavez said at the June event.
“And on the right I see young people who are falling under the sway of people like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, who want to divide Americans, and basically they’re going to get to decide what an American is and who gets to count as an American.”
