What is an American?  What does it mean to be an American?  The Fourteenth Amendment states that all person born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, but that is merely the legal/constitutional definition of a citizen.  It doesn’t help answer the question of what it means to be an American.  We will often hear politicians across the spectrum pay lip service to the idea that there is “more that unites us, than divides us.”  That is a lovely idea, but is it anything more than mere sentiment? In 2024 it is difficult to believe that statement to be anything more than political pandering. After all, the definition of an American- the meaning beneath the title - differs dramatically depending upon who you ask or when you asked.

From the perspective of when, there can be little doubt that the meaning of American has changed dramatically. It is taught that the Revolutionary War began with the idea that the people of the colonies could not and should not be ruled and governed by a foreign power. Our schools teach that the belief/right of self-determination was the motivation for the war. But even as those crates of tea were tossed into the water and an army of citizen soldiers prepared to fight for “freedom” it was in the context of a people that had arrived to find a populated “new world” and drove those native population from their ancestral homes. 

Perhaps, the founding fathers believed that an American was one who had fled their country of origin to find a better life and greater freedoms. They may have believed, that to be an American meant a willingness to fight against the yoke of tyranny. There was some truth to that belief, but it was accompanied, unironically, by a legal system that granted full rights of citizenship to only white land-owning men. Thus, while the founding fathers strove for an inclusive and broad-based form of self-governance it was in the context of the irreconcilable contradiction that women, people of color, Native Americans and the poor were not fully included in the definition of an American.  But even then those white, landowning men placed limitations onto their own power. 

Over time, the exclusivity of the legal definition of an American was transformed to include all those who had been excluded.  That process took centuries, but, perhaps, the slow march of progress hints toward a greater idea of what it means to be an “American.” Wwhat did the former slave share in common with his former master?  It is hard to imagine a value or belief that could unite people of such disparate experience.  When the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, how much was there truly shared between the women who struggled to achieve the beginning of legal equality with the men who opposed them? 

Today, we all fall along a spectrum of political, and moral belief.  Some people that identify as conservative or Republican will espouse a very specific definitions of what a real American is.  To them, if you do not share in their values and their beliefs you are not truly American.  Of course, the opposite can also be true.  If your are of a liberal persuasion you may feel that America is defined by the values you hold and anything else is un-American. 

Both sides are wrong, both sides are right.

Our differences are great and vast.  I do not believe that there is more that “unites us that divides us.”  That statement is nothing more than a patronizing bumper sticker slogan which delegitimizes the great ethical and moral questions of our time.    Nonetheless, I do  believe that there are some, near universal values which do give shape to what it means to be an American.  First among them was our willingness to live with the great contradiction of American democracy.

 If you are a traditional small-government conservative you probably believe in deregulation, free access to firearms, lower taxes and a full free market economy.  I suspect you also believe that those goals are best pursued at the ballot box.  If given the choice, would you choose a dictator that would impose your believes over a democratically elected President and Congress?   If you are a religious conservative you are probably pro-life, anti-trans rights, and in favor of the right and ability to fully practice your own religion.  Those beliefs might be so deeply-held that the define who you are. Yet, do you not also believe that you must promote values through debate, protest, and the election of candidates that match your values?   

Perhaps you find yourself on the left side of the political spectrum.  As a traditional-liberal you might believe that the government should provide education to all, a safety-net to the most vulnerable, and protect the environment.  Liberals will generally believe that LGBTQ rights should be protected and that race and gender inequities must be found and cured.   But, just like your conservative counterparts, you believe that the pursuit or your values must occur in the context of the democratic process.  If given the choice between the democracy with all its struggle and uncertainty and an autocrat with the power and willingness to impose your agenda, wouldn’t you still choose democracy?

It is this contradiction that provides a shared meaning to being an American.  We all hold strong personal beliefs, that define both who we are as individuals and communities we live in.  Sometimes, those beliefs are held so strongly that we see only in black and white and miss the shades of gray.  And yet, most of the time, there is (or was) a limit to how far we will go to pursue those beliefs.  That limit is, or used to be, the constraints of the democratic system.  For the better part of the last century (or longer), we have lived within the contradiction of unshakeable conviction and self-imposed restraint.

What does it mean to be an American?  It means living with the contradiction that we can be certain of our own righteousness but accepting that the pursuit of our beliefs must be done through the democratic process.  Maybe the simpler way of saying this is we believe in the limitation of power.  We believe in debate and voting.  We do not  believe that any one man or woman can or should ever hold absolute power.  In other words, we believe in democracy.  Or… at least we did.

Democracies rise and fall.  The 20th century saw an explosion of the democratic form of government across the world.  The 20th century was, arguably, the spring for the worldwide democratic movement.  In the summer of the democratic movement, we saw democracy flourish in unexpected places (the former soviet republics, the Arab spring).  But the season turned to fall and now we look toward winter as those promising experiments in democracy have failed. 

In the United States, we weathered the change of seasons, but fall has arrived.  Our 250 year-old democracy is under siege.  The shared beliefs that the Executive, the President must be checked and balanced, that power must have limits, and that no single man or woman can or should ever wield absolute power is being challenged. 

I am asking you to vote for democracy.  To be fair, I think it unlikely that any conservatives will find their way to this blog, but if you are here, you are who I want to talk to.   So, if you are reading this – I know what I am asking of you.  I am asking you to set aside your deep and personal beliefs when you vote tomorrow.  I am asking that you take not just your religion into the ballot box, but also that you carry with you that contradiction that I once believed, and still hope, that we share – the contradiction of a self-imposed limits on our pursuit of our values.  I am asking you to oppose the candidate whose words and actions have demonstrated a contempt for democracy and a disdain for limitations on his own power.

There is only a very small set of ideas that unite us and give shared meaning to the definition of an American – the belief in the limitation of power, the abhorrence to tyranny, and the contradiction of democracy.  If we don’t share in that, then we share in nothing.  I truly hope that tomorrow enough of us can remember what it means to be an American.

again- apologies, no grammar check. No time for proper editing.