Almost 250 years after the nation’s founding, there is broad agreement that American liberal democracy is in deep trouble. The leading Republican candidate for president has tried to thwart the peaceful transfer of power and speaks of suspending the Constitution, while activists on the left shout down speakers with whom they disagree and create a climate where large majorities feel they can’t speak their minds. Illiberal tendencies are worse on the political right than the left because they invoke the power of the state, while the left invokes the power of culture, but both are profoundly troubling and feed off of one another.
It has long been observed that authoritarian tendencies are greatest among those with less education and income, but today illiberalism on the left actually rises with increased education, the opposite of what one would hope. Disturbingly, the willingness to give up on democracy is much greater among young people than those who are older.
Why now? After a long period in which the Civil Rights movement helped make the country more democratic, why is America now backsliding? Central to the problem is the loss of a common American identity. White identity politics on the right, and racial identity politics on the left, make fights seem existential, which justifies cutting corners on democratic norms. Voters on the right are more likely to excuse authoritarian actions when they feel as though they are losing control of the country. Meanwhile, the left promotes critical race theory and antiracism policies that say racial oppression is a permanent feature of American life that can only be countered by discrimination in favor of oppressed groups.
These theories about the centrality of racial identity lead to an eerie convergence on the left and the right that questions a series of fundamental liberal democratic principles. For different reasons, both sides have become skeptical about treating Americans as individuals rather than members of racial groups. They both question concepts like advancement based on merit and the possibility of discerning objective truth. The hard right and the hard left agree that school integration makes little sense; and they both, in their own ways, are skeptical about free speech, press freedom, and the freedom to read controversial books. For different reasons, they both question academic freedom, and are both willing to embrace antisemitic beliefs.
What is the path out? Historically, public schools in America accomplished two pretty miraculous objectives. By placing a priority on teaching students the importance of liberal democratic principles, they helped keep a democratic republic going for over two centuries; and by instilling a common American identity, they provided the glue that held together people whose ancestors came from all corners of the world. In recent years, K-12 schools and colleges have moved away from this vision. They’ve placed more focus on economic competitiveness than democratic citizenship. And many focus on a vision of American and world history that divides the racial and ethnic groups neatly into categories of oppressed and oppressors, and undercut a shared American identity through poorly implemented ethnic studies programs. This new emphasis within public schools, in turn, promotes calls on the right for privatization of public education, which will only Balkanize the country further.
This report is the first in a series that will offer nine ways to once again teach students what it means to be an American.
The stakes of teaching American identity are enormous. Human beings have a natural yearning for identity and a larger purpose and if educators don’t provide young people with a love of country, authoritarians will offer false alternatives, often centered around race or ethnicity. The good news is that the public supports a better path. Instilling a renewed sense of American identity could inspire a “patriotism dividend” that could put the country on a better path for the next 250 years. Among the towering issues of our time, few are as important as this one.
