"I love my country."
That is what you get to hear, right before the speaker rips into it. And that is what I propose to do – rip into and talk a bit about how flawed and imperfect is the United States of America. I mentioned, elsewhere, that I am not a big fan of jingoism, or even nationalism, but I am a big fan of patriotism. I am a patriotic man, because when I think of the United States of America I think of our ideals, our struggle, and our goal to be a better country, a better people.
One thing that not many people think of these days is how audacious the United States were, when they were wielded into a single country. For the first time a new nation was born, riding the wave of the Enlightenment. John Locke, David Hume, these were our progenitors just as surely as were Madison, Jefferson and Washington. For the first time a group of men (and, yes, they were all men) gathered together and thought: how best might a people govern themselves?
It is important to note the time. The Thirteen Colonies already had thrown off Britain’s yoke. And they had been operating for some years under the original Articles of Confederation, which had proved inadequate for the task. A new union was needed, a stronger union was needed, and yet no State (and they were States – no longer Colonies – by then) wanted to give up too much sovereignty. So a congress was called to debate and to hammer out during that debate a new Constitution for a new nation.
I love that, that audacity. For maybe the first time in the history of Western Civilization a whole bunch of people got together to try and find a way to live together as easily, as equitably, and as justly as possible without resort to any “revealed truth” of a religious text, and without thinking of a “divine right” of kings. We were the product of the Enlightenment, and we believed in Reason. We believed – with no historical tradition whatsoever to back us up – that we were capable of this monumental task.
And we fucked it up.
