The US has been a country in the sense of a geographical area with a single government, but it has never been a nation in the sense of a cohesive society with a common ethnic and ideological outlook.
Even at the founding, the southern planters, mid-Atlantic merchants, and New England farmers and traders that were represented in Philadelphia each had their own social outlooks and priorities, not to mentions the slaves, indentured servants, frontiersmen and other underclass immigrant not represented.
Further waves of immigration in the 19th Century created additional religious, linguistic, and ideological communities ruled by a thin layer of WASPs.
The only “nation” was the fake one created by intense propaganda efforts during WW I & II which fell apart in the 1960s. Since then, racial, religious, linguistic, ethnic and ideological conflits between “nations” have resumed.
Excellent comment.
Interesting take.
Of course now we have a ruling class that no longer even sees the need to pretend we are a nation - it views and is turning the U.S.A. basically into a global community chest.
Very astute analysis.
L
United States
Each state should be thought of as Nation State. Each state has it’s own constitution and three branches of government. Fedgov was never supposed to become the monstrosity that it has. States shouldn’t be as financially supported by fedgov they are.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Very well spoken, sir.
America isnt quite as fake as all that A great many of the immigrants to America believed fully in her unique constitution and its individual liberty. That tied them/us together.
America isnt quite as fake as all that A great many of the immigrants to America believed fully in her unique constitution and its individual liberty. That tied them/us together.
“Even at the founding, the southern planters, mid-Atlantic merchants, and New England farmers and traders that were represented in Philadelphia each had their own social outlooks and priorities, not to mentions the slaves, indentured servants, frontiersmen and other underclass immigrant not represented”
That’s the case everywhere. A country’s politics is nothing more than a tug of war among various interest groups. It’s true here and every other country - and it’s always the case.
And this country has been remarkably stable compared to others. Look how the political maps of the world have changed over the last couple hundred years. In comparison the US has been a paradigm of stability.
What has held the country together has been a strong sense of patriotism and belief in the shared values enshrined in the constitution.
Sadly that is being purposefully eroded today. Striving for the melting pot of shared values today is considered racist. It’s “diversity” and multiculturalism , ie differences, that are being promoted, celebrated, and shoved down everybody’s throat.
A country cannot survive as one when you have large groups of people with diametrically opposed values.
Sadly that’s where we are today, but it wasn’t so for most of the country’s history.
We may be too diverse, different, and divided to stay together now, but I’d say that in the past we were one nation. Like other countries, we did have a recognizable national core with outlying minority groups. The big split was between North and South, but there was more agreement and unity in the (non-Southern White Protestant or Christian or Judeo-Christian) core than there is in today’s America.