Tuesday, 06.10.08
A Report McCain Should Read
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Mr. Conservative
May 2008
Jonathan Rauch asserts that John McCain hasn't betrayed conservatism; his party has.
The Politics of Illegal Immigration
20 June 2006
William Schneider reports on how illegal immigration became a national issue in the 2006 election.
McCain's Immigration Albatross
08 June 2007
The Bradley report, which draws on public opinion data and conversations with dozens of academics, scholars and journalists (full disclosure: I attended one such meeting), argues that Americans' sense of national identity is weakening, and that the American leadership class ought to do something about it. Citing declining civic and historical literacy, an education system that emphasizes ethnic identities over a shared Americanism, and a rising emphasis on "global citizenship" rather than national loyalty among the nation's political and business elites, the report offers a list of recommendations ranging from the broad ("a renewed focus on the teaching of American history" in America's schools, say, or a new "initiative to ensure immigrants learn English, understand democratic institutions, and participate fully in the American way of life") to the highly specific (the return of ROTC to elite universities; the creation of an annual Presidential medal to reward "commitment to American ideals and institutions").
Some of this is gimmicky, and some of it is overbroad -- but there's grist in the report for the McCain camp, if they care to use it. It's clear from McCain's ads and speeches that he intends to go heavy on patriotic themes in his campaign. It's just as clear how liberals will respond -- by accusing McCain of playing right-wing identity politics, using the "patriotism card" as a last-ditch defense against the public's dramatic disillusionment with the GOP brand. And they'll have a point -- unless McCain's appeals to patriotic sentiment can be tied (as they ought to be) to substance as well as symbolism.
Adopting some of the Bradley Report's recommendations wouldn't be a bad place to start. In the wake of 9/11, John O’Sullivan reported last year, a group of conservative think-tankers wrote a series of memos to the Bush Administration, arguing that the attacks provided an opportunity to mount a new initiative to promote “patriotic assimilation,” whether for adult immigrants applying to be citizens, or public-school students learning civics and American history. The Bush Administration didn’t listen. The McCain campaign should. A “One America” initiative of this sort would harness McCain’s biography and record to champion the “melting-pot” vision of America against the multicultural vision that dominates the Democratic Party -- and it would provide what John Fonte has termed a "civic conservative" common ground for Republicans divided over immigration rates.
What it couldn't do, unfortunately, is include a frontal assault on programs that promote ethnic balkanization, from bilingual education to race-based affirmative action -- since McCain's record on those issues runs in precisely the opposite direction. For the GOP, this is an opportunity lost: In a campaign in which Barack Obama has already mused about the limits of racial preferences, the Republican standard-bearer ought to be bold enough to suggest that we abandon them.
Real AmericansMark Schmitt argues that the GOP's last hope is to recast itself as the party of national identity. |
Endangering American sovereigntyIn the National Review, Mark Krikorian denounces John McCain as a multiculturalist. |
TancredoismThe New Yorker's Ryan Lizza describes the GOP's return to nativism and how it has forced John McCain to adapt his own stance on immigration. |
Long-term damageThe New York Times reports that the GOP's harsh stance on immigration is alienating Latino voters. |
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The defect arises from a glaring omission in the common requirements for high school graduation.
American students aren't required to memorize and prove understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those are the documents that define America, distinguishing it from other systems.
This deficiency is why we can have a President who runs roughshod over the Constitution, and a Congress fearful of confronting him over it via impeachment. They don't believe the Public would regard it as other than a political stunt.
Sadly, they may be right. (Of course, this is hardly the first Administration nor the first Congress to be derelict, only the worst.)
Quis custodiet custodos?
Lester Ness
The conclusions of the Bradley report are most welcome. The United States would do better to begin viewing itself as a member of the international community rather than a singular "beacon on a hill," as we've traditionally fashioned ourselves. As developing nations grow toward economic/political equality and other major powers rise relative to the U.S. as well, I would think that hubris concerning American "exceptionalism" would only lead to trouble. It's high time that Americans stopped buying into blind patriotism and started supporting actions and policies that can really make them proud of their country. I'm a "global citizen," are you?
Wow! The first four comments are quite telling.
Taylor, I am emphatically NOT a "global citizen" nor do I want to be. I am an American and damn proud of it. I like having our country be a beacon on a hill because, God knows, the "world" could sure use a beacon.
I love American exceptionalism, and I have tried to install that in my children.
Our country has a number of ills, but I can think of no other country that has taken such steps to correct its faults as we have. Believing in these concepts is not blind patriotism but full love of country and what it stands for. It does stand for something, does it not?
I have seen the "global citizen" play itself out in Europe where people have forgotten what their history and culture is about and are merging into blandness. England might be the worst of all.
Call it what you will, but I will continue to think of America as the best place on earth where people can be who they want to be. The sky is the limit here. The American Dream is as real as you want it to be.
I love American exceptionalism, and I have tried to install that in my children.
Sorry, that should have read "I love American exceptionalism, and I have tried to install that same sense of our country's history and destiny in my children."
A little clumsy the first time.
Ross Douthat:
Ethnic Balkanization? Indeed, that is why everyone is voting for and getting inspired by the black guy.
Do conservatives want to lose the election? Are conservatives the new liberal? Affirmative Action once again? Especially when a black candidate is running for office? That is what conservatives have to offer, now that the liberal wing of the Democratic Party helped nominate the first black presidential candidate of a major party?
And with all the things on the plate: Iraq, the economy, the attack upon free trade, climate change. A wedge issue such as Affirmative Action?
From William F. Buckley, to Goldwater, Thatcher and Reagan to Douthat. When did the conservative movement get infected with morons?
Duh-hat if you are really interested in ending affirmative action why don't you set the example and quit The Atlantic Monthly. For after having read your incessant sophistry and banal points for a year now I have come to the conclusion that you are the Atlantic's token "conservative" voice. You are the Alan Colmes of The Atlantic Monthly.
Oh I forgot you are a conservative thus, you are for the Iraq war, as long as you don't fight in it. Never Mind.
PS I am a libertarian who is against affirmative action. I also have common sense.
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McCain read? That would be a first. Like most of the dopes the Repukelickins have run for President, McBush is functionally illiterate.
As to the Bradley Project on America's National Identity, like everything else the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation does, it's extreme right-wing political hooey, and an attack on the real America.
Go out and talk to a real American, you crypto-Nazi's. We're opposed to everything you've tried to do to this country for the last forty years. And now we're sweeping it all away, and getting the country back on track again.
Studies? Why not just say it? You're white, and you don't like people who aren't white.
Tough.
This country has never been "mono-cultural," or whatever you nutjobs imagine in your kloset klan dreams. Your whole sick worldview has been exposed -by you- as completely pathological. Now you have to hide behind your asinine code-words and make-believe political positions. Just say it: "We hate sp-cs and ch-nks and k-kes and r-gheads and n-ggers! And everybody else, too!"
Tough.
America has never been homogenous. Northeast, Southwest, Plains, Delta, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, African, Asian, European, Native American, rich, poor, middle class, working class, educated, illiterate, conservative, liberal, Democratic, Republican: Everybody is different, not the same. Get it? That's our strength. That's what gives us our leadership position going forward in a world where one culture is no longer permitted to dominate another. It's called civilization, and it is uniting the whole world. People like you feel threatened by that because you're ignorant and small-minded.
Tough.
You'll just have to learn to live with people who aren't just like you. It's easier and more sensible for you to adapt to reality than it is to warp reality to suit you. Why would anybody want to be like you? Why should everybody be forced to be like you? Why should the whole country be forced to conform to your ridiculous, narrow-minded notions? You don't like a multicultural, diverse, inclusive America?
Tough.
Go back to wherever you ancestors came from. But you probably won't be welcome. Especially if you can't get along with people who are different from you. Because buddy, you're the one who's weird, out of it, sick. And un-American. So go ahead. Go. You're the ones who are not welcome here. Outraged?
Tough.
Your time is over. Your Party, your hairbrained conservative "philosophy", your standing in the world are finished, gone, done, over. You had your chance and you blew it. Once you got power, all you could do was indulge your own greed and prejudice, hatred and fear. Enough. Get lost. And take your racist, sexist, homophobic, sectarian diseases with you. Good riddance.
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Why limit peerusal of this report to the McCain campaign? It sounds liek required reading for everyone. Of course, the McCain campaign uses patriotism only in the sense that Dr. Johnson categorized it, and thus would have no interest in any substance.
Posted by Miande | June 10, 2008 5:28 PM