What Is an American?

Commentary

A European reporter interviewing me yesterday asked a question I’ve heard many times in the past. How is it that Americans are so passionate about holding the powerful to account for their actions? Why is America so far ahead in understanding the depredations of the ruling class? Why do they believe that their beliefs and actions can make a difference in changing things?

As he explained, people in Europe are more likely to just accept things as they are and have largely given up on the idea of fundamental change. What’s more, they are more likely to accept orthodoxies as dished out by elites and are extremely slow to develop, much less express incredulity toward them.

Americans, on the other hand, seem deeply suspicious of power and seem to take every assertion from above with a grain of salt. They look for dark motives in the statements of all big shots, whether from government or large corporations. Also, America seems to breed activist movements that are determined to make change happen.

Why is this?

Thinking about this, I do think there is a simple answer to this question. Americans believe that freedom is their birthright. Anyone who is plotting to take it away is regarded as a thief or an enemy. It’s been this way since Colonial times. It remains this way today. It’s not always well applied or expressed, and the impulse can be manipulated, to be sure. It also ebbs and flows. But it is the philosophical infrastructure of everything that goes on in public life.

This is not an illusion or some vain expression of patriotic hubris. It is a true statement of who we are and the deep history of how the United States went from an implausible experiment in self-government to become the world leader in innovation, prosperity, and intellectual achievement by the end of 19th century.

A hundred years earlier, most of the world saw the U.S. idea of freedom and democracy for all as a silly effort destined to fail. By the 1890s, everything had changed. The world looked to the United States as the model of the future. It had proven itself, like an enterprise that had gone from a garage startup to become a multinational behemoth.

The trauma of the Civil War of 1861 was a struggle to preserve the Union and end the blight of slavery that had always contradicted its founding principles. That war was a national trauma of the worst sort, wrecking families, communities, and confidence. But as the years passed after the peace, a cultural consensus emerged that its purpose was ultimately to perfect the American idea of freedom. The later struggles of civil rights partook of the same spirit.

Freedom is the lifeblood of the whole of the American idea. You can spend an afternoon listening to important lectures about the hypocrisies and exceptions: the treatment of the Native population, the role of slavery, the brutal experiments in eugenics and Prohibition, the financial rackets and corruptions of industry, the grim wars and foreign exploitations. All of that is true. Somehow the single idea of freedom as the dominant theme emerges from all this muck and survives in the American imagination.

Consider that we celebrate our 250th birthday on July 4, 2026. It is a specific day, the day on which the Founders issued the Declaration of Independence. It states that all men are created equal, with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The statement is the most important in the history of politics. It inspires people the world over today.

Note that the document was purely aspirational. America was not yet an independent country. Getting that required a war, not one the Americans welcomed but one they were willing to fight. Nor is the birthday marked as the day of ratification of the U.S. Constitution. That is a less foundational document than the Declaration.

The new government born with the Constitution was not designed to be perfect. It was designed to be self-correcting. The method? Checks and balances, strict legal limits on what government can do, and power to the people. The legislature was bicameral to give maximum representation to the people in their states. Plus, power was ultimately devolved to the states to become laboratories of democracy.

Most governments around the world thought the whole scheme was unworkable. The American experience proved otherwise. It permitted freedom to the people to work out their own lives—to pursue happiness on their own. This trust in the people to make good on the promise of freedom worked out beautifully. It became the model for the world, not one of perfection but one that was correctable because the people were ultimately in charge.

There are certain principles on which Americans have never compromised. They believe strongly in freedom of religion. It is the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. It was the first country ever to make this idea central to the governing regimes. When the churches were closed in 2020 by government edict, I knew for sure that we would experience a revolution of sorts. You simply cannot do that. Period.

Another central principle is freedom of speech. When the presidential administration began working with third parties and social media companies to throttle and cancel accounts, I knew it was only a matter of time before people figured it out. They would say absolutely not.

No presidential administration in America can get away with closing churches and violating free speech rights. It’s not only because this is contrary to the law. It’s because Americans as people will not put up with it. It runs contrary to our national DNA. Freedom, especially in these two spheres, is part of our birthright. No one can take them away long-term and expect to get away with it.

The freedom at the core of the American idea bore other virtues, such as independence, religious passion, love of family and community, and vibrant enterprise. In the old days, we could add other traits like hard work, thrift, loyalty, and respect for tradition. Those are less in evidence these days (for a variety of reasons, mostly tracing to public schooling, government expansion, and loose credit), but they can be rebuilt and will be, provided we have the freedom to do so. That’s the part Americans will never surrender.

It’s usually a mistake to imagine that one’s own country is exceptional, but in this case, the United States is, in fact, that. The United States is leading the world again in a populist revolt against the managerial class that has seized control of the machinery of government in most countries. How this struggle turns out here will determine the outcome of many similar struggles around the world. This is because America is deeply blessed with a unique history and understanding. We forget that at our peril.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.