Saving The Idea Of America
By: Adam Kinzinger
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Will we abandon our constitutional order in silence?
Adam Kinzinger and Michael WoodSep 03, 202573313Share
(Note from Adam: I don't often do guest articles, but this is different. Michael Wood is a friend, but more importantly a real American fighter. He bled on the battlefield, fought the good fight in the political arena, and still fights to this day. I found this quite compelling and hope you do as well. He is a veteran, small business owner, and resides in Fort Worth with his family.)
Let us begin not with the United States, but with our sister republic and oldest friend—France— and one of her greatest heroes, Charles de Gaulle. In the opening lines of his memoirs, de Gaulle famously wrote:
"Toute ma vie, je me suis fait une certaine idee de la France."
"All my life, I have had a certain idea of France."
What a simple and yet powerful sentence, one that any patriot would recognize as his own—not only about France, but about the place he calls home.
That line has rattled around in my head for years, because I too have always had a certain idea of America. It's the land of the free and the home of the brave. The City on a Hill. A light to the nations. The last, best hope of mankind, and a million other cliches that were never cliches to me.
Most of human history is darkness—tyranny, slavery, brutality, indifference to the weak. For me, America represented something different. Liberty. Freedom. A liberal republic where individual rights were respected and leaders held accountable by the only true sovereign of a free country: The People.
I bled from all four limbs while deployed with the Marines and it was the greatest honor of my life, not merely because I love our land and its people—though I do—b
ut because I love that idea of America we inherited from Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and all our forefathers.
And I still love my country. My patriotism is bone-deep—you'd have to end my life to separate it from me.
But over the last decade, that love has been tested. Donald Trump has spent years chipping away at what Lincoln called our "inestimable jewel"—the constitutional system that made the idea of America more than just words. Maybe there's not much I can do about that, but I won't let him destroy my childlike love of country.
Still, I look at that de Gaulle quote differently now and with more cynicism. De Gaulle is a national hero not only because of his courage and rhetoric, but because he stood nearly alone. The truth is, most of France went along with their occupiers. When push came to shove, most people couldn't be bothered to defend the rule of law, or basic public decency, or even the idea that the truth matters.
Maybe our current reality-show would-be caudillo can't organize a military parade, let alone a dictatorship, but the next guy might. Now that so many Americans have assented to the hollowing out of the very institutions that made the idea of America a rough, imperfect reality—can we really believe we'll withstand the next, more competent Caesar?
Are we an ordinary country now? Have we given up the pretense of exceptionalism—and with it, the responsibility? Do we really believe a narrow Democratic House majority in 2027 will be enough to stop a slide into an elected (for now) kingship?
An American patriot shouldn't be having these thoughts, let alone writing them for all the world to see. I've opened a vein and bled all over this page, so here it is: Trump didn't take the idea of America from me. He took the belief that many of my fellow Americans still care about the idea.
And yet. I still hear the voice of Thomas Paine, warning me not to be a sunshine patriot or a summer soldier, not to shrink from service to my country just because it's hard or bitter or lonely now.
Maybe—just maybe—we're on the verge of a quiet republican renaissance. Maybe there are still patriots across this land, waiting for the storm to pass, still believing in the idea. Maybe this ugly chapter will one day look like a blip in the long story of the American experiment. Maybe The People will rise again and send representatives to Congress who actually believe in Congress and the Constitution; who "more than self their country love," as the old song goes.
Maybe. It's a nice thought. A beautiful idea. But that stuff doesn't happen by accident, or inertia. It happens because real people stand up, speak out, and actually call out the regime's destructive policies. Right now, just not enough people are choosing to do that. And plenty are actively enabling these excesses—especially the so-called elite institutions that once could have been expected to serve as democracy's greatest bulwarks.
The daily violence that Trump and company do to our constitutional order requires a vigorous, concerted response. Instead, so far during his second term, we've seen media companies, law firms, tech billionaires, and others silence themselves, rush to pay him off, acquiesce to ludicrous agreements, and willingly trade away their power and leverage in hopes that the strongman will simply leave them alone and turn his gaze to the next unlucky victim.
Trump's policies are making a mockery of our republican tradition and immiserating people's lives right now. Are we really the worthy inheritors of Paine's legacy if we're too timid to even offer a word of protest? To speak the truth in the face of near-constant lies? To simply be brave?
After watching millions of my fellow citizens embrace the lies, I can't help but wonder:
Will America remain only an idea?
--
Michael Wood
A guest post by
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He doesnt sound like a lily livered leftist to me.
Not a lily livered leftist but perhaps an idealist or a gas-lighter. The two political parties have too much power and money to sit idly by and let the common folk ruin their plans.
We the people are stuck with whoever wins the primary of the two parties as third party candidates seldom win an election. As long as the two parties rule the elections, we the people will have little choice and the same type of candidates will continue to be sent to Washington.
Trump destroyed the idea of America from the minute he was elected. His rise culminated in an insurrection on the United States Capitol. He alone pardoned all the violent rioters carrying Trump flags and attacking Capitol police officers.
Yet insanely his supporters are all in on the destruction of America and there are no more patriotic adults or guard rails to stop it from happening this second term.
The right wing fails to be proud of American cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The cherry picking of crime statistics by right wing zealots trying their best to tear down American cities just because their "daddy" hates any state or city that voted for Democrats is self defeating.
The right wing claim that they aren't against immigration if people follow the rules and do it the right way. That's a crock. The vast majority of the people detained, imprisoned or deported to jails have done nothing wrong. They were not all criminals.
America and the American ideal as a melting pot only exists if we allow legal immigration. Trump and crew are destroying that too ignoring laws and ignoring LAWFUL court orders to allow things to proceed in a lawful fashion.
Trump is breaking the law on immigration repeatedly.
The ICE masked terror force is showing up to LEGAL proceedings and grabbing many innocent immigrants trying their level best to follow the law and stay.
America is many people, many cultures, and yes we have flaws.
But to allow Trump to avoid all laws as his "pet" judges have given a green light to, then we are not an America of laws and until we all stand up and demand better then the idea of America is truly lost.
I guess we can put up posters of J6 as the end of it all.
Not a single truthful sentence in the entire comment.
This is not truthful: "America is many people, many cultures, and yes we have flaws." ?
You found one. Good job.
Not if the idea of America is to do whatever it takes to climb to the top while only looking out for yourself.
True, but wasn't that what the rightwing conservative Southerners had been wanting to do since 1862?
Why would an authoritarian punish his own people for doing what he wanted them to?
There haven't been any patriotic adults among rightwing conservatives for quite some time now, not American patriots anyway. There are many MAGA patriots who have pledged their allegiance to Donald trump and all the vile disgusting things he stands for, but I wouldn't call them American patriots, or even American for that matter.
Of course they are. That's because they are desperate to try and prove themselves superior, it's what they've been claiming for decades if not far longer. They want to pick apart any Democrats and Democrat run cities so that they can invent a reason to step in and inject their brand of political retardation on anyone who would dare to try and oppose their dear Leader. This isn't because they care about Chicagoans, they just want an excuse to come in guns blazing.
Very few are actual criminals if you don't consider the misdemeanor of being in the US without documentation makes one a "criminal". If it does, then anyone who has ever received a speeding ticket is a fucking criminal.
Rightwing conservative Christian's vision of an American melting pot that they approved of is where they sit on their antebellum porches sipping their mint julips while the immigrants polish their shoes. It was never meant to be a place of equality in their minds, they believe they got here first, they cleared the land (of indigenous people) and tilled the land (using slave labor) and went to war (to keep those slaves) so they believe this is their land, they stole it fair and square!
Another good one.
Most of the right wing people this site have shown through their various postings that they do not believe that everyone has rights. They feel that only the people who voted for the winning team get to play now, all others opinions are null and void, and they are on the course to make "fuck your feelings" replace "e pluribus unum" as the nation's motto. They wish to deny people on American soil the rights granted to all people on American soil.
So how do we stop this corruption from within? We organize. What does that mean? It means that if we don't want America to be rapidly flushed down the toilet, get off of our couches and join in with one of the many organizations that support the type of America that we are proud to be a part of.