Contrary
to what we frequently read and hear, the great American divide is not a
clash between conservatives who advocate liberty versus progressives
who oppose liberty. Rather, the two sides each affirm a certain type of
liberty.
One side, for example, cherishes economic liberty while the other
champions liberty in the sexual and social domain. Nor is it a clash
between patriots and anti-patriots. Both sides love America, but they
love a different type of America. One sides loves the America of
Columbus and the Fourth of July, of innovation and work and the “animal
spirit” of capitalism, of the Boy Scouts and parochial schools, of
traditional families and flag-saluting veterans. The other side loves
the America of tolerance and social entitlements, of income and wealth
redistribution, of slave-revolts and the civil rights movement, of
Indian rights and women’s rights, of sexual liberation and abortion, of
gay rights and gay marriage.
I recently debated Bill Ayers – 1960s radical and Obama mentor – at
Dartmouth College. Our topic was “What’s So Great About America?” Ayers
began by celebrating what he considered to be great about America. He
did not, in this context, make any reference to the Founding Fathers.
He didn’t mention Abraham Lincoln. Rather, he invoked a protest
tradition in America, going back to the 19th-century socialists and
continuing through the 20th-century progressives right up to, well,
himself.
“While
Americans cherish their freedom, Tocqueville emphasizes that they do
not consider themselves immune from moral obligation or moral law. “It
was never assumed in the United States that the citizen of a free
country has a right to do whatever he pleases.” Americans, however,
derive their obligations not from government mandate but from religious
morality and social pressure. There are innumerable religious sects in
America, but “all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God.”
Dinesh D’Souza’s bestselling books are available at the WND
SuperstoreSimilarly in a recent book, Howard Zinn calls for America’s
existing pantheon of heroes – such as the Founding Fathers – to be
replaced by such figures as the Seminole leader Osceola, who fought a
guerrilla campaign against the U.S. government, anarchist and social
activist Emma Goldman, and the Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan. This
is their America; this is the America progressives celebrate on the
Fourth of July.
If patriotism isn’t the dividing line, neither is American
exceptionalism. Again, both sides believe America is exceptional, but
one side believes America is exceptionally good while the other
believes that America is exceptionally evil. Even here, the former
group hates certain aspects of contemporary America while the latter
affirms those same aspects, such as government-administered national
health care or heterosexual and homosexual promiscuity advanced under
the banner of “moral freedom.”
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