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com/2017/02/09/american-nationalism-civic-not-ethnic/
M any critics of Trump and his supporters argue that the president’s
immigration policies are pushing America toward an ethnic identity
nationalism that is wholly at odds with what it means to be an American.
These critics are confused, in part, by a failure to distinguish between
ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism. But it is also the case that many of
Trump’s defenders have helped to encourage this confusion by neglecting
to make this distinction clear in their own speech. However unintentional
these omissions may be, they lead many liberals and conservatives to react
with horror and disbelief—unwilling, it seems, to give Trump or his
supporters any benefit of the doubt.
For most of the 19th century, the term “nationalism” was taken to refer to
the ethnic nation rather than to the civic nation. But if we look at the
Founders and much of American political culture up until the rise of the
Progressives, the form of our identity was our common constitutional
culture and citizenship under the Union. This difference between two
political trajectories—the American one and the European one—needs to
be taken into account if we are not to confuse or conflate what is going on
in America with what is happening across Europe. Although there are
some similarities (a revolt against an out of touch bureaucracy and a
popular disdain for ineffective immigration policies) Europeans and
Americans mean vastly different things when they talk about their nations
or “nationalism.”
Because a political community is not merely a once off coming together for
a limited time or purpose, it must be centered around something more than
a utilitarian contract between strangers. It requires that those who form it
see themselves as sharing a common life together as they live together. It
requires them to see their fellow citizens as one would view a sibling or, at
least, as a potential friend—where one has some presumption of affection.
And while friendship could emerge out of the relationship of shared utility,
what makes the friendship of citizens is confidence in the feeling of philia,
the love and care for your brother or friend. It is only natural then—and
even good—for citizens to concern themselves with the content of the
character of those with whom they are going to share their lives.
Thus a civic nation is formed politically and not ethnically. Its origins are
found in an act of volition by the people who formed it to live together as
a common people, to share a way of life together and not as a loose set of
isolated individuals who only bother to associate for exchange of goods
and services. And in forming the political community they give it laws and
customs that will continue to shape the political culture of its citizens. In
other words, they create a “civics” for that nation.