America Together: A Needed Narrative for a Divided Country
In a country that is divided, angry, fearful and even hateful, what’s the antidote? The obvious answer is to bring us together around shared values. The question is, what are the values we share in America today.
Most political surveys look at issues. For example, a January surveyfrom the Pew Charitable Trust showed that the top policy issues, in order of preference, are: economy, health care, education, terrorism, social security and Medicare. Five of these six issues are core middle class issues: the only one missing is housing, which apparently wasn’t on the list, although “poor and need” was number seven and presumably that includes insuring that everyone has a roof overhead.
But policy priorities aren’t exactly values. Values are what underlies policy. They are the things we feel in our hearts — like truth, justice, equality, and freedom. Some of these values became “rights” under our constitution, like free speech and freedom of religion. Others are simply aspirational, i.e., “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The late L. Robert Kohls, who was the executive Director of the International Center in Washington, published an essay in 1984 titled “The Values Americans Live By.”He listed 13 specific American values, including “materialism, individualism and competition,” as well as “equality, honesty and practicality.” He contrasted them with other countries around the globe to suggest that we are special and different.
Absent from Kohl’s list are the ideas of cooperation and community and yet both are central to the American story. The nation was founded by 13 states that agreed to cooperate despite strong regional, cultural and philosophical differences. The dictionary defines a “state” as an “independent country” and the colonies all thought of themselves as separate and unique states. Nevertheless, they recognized the benefits of cooperation.
Contrary to the myth of rugged individualism as the driving force behind America’s success, virtually everything good that has happened in our country came about because we overcame differences and worked together. We built railroads and highways, turned our prairies into the earth’s breadbasket, and saved the world from fascism by honoring our values of cooperation. None of this happened because of individuals acting on their own.
Every important movement in our history, abolition, labor, civil rights, women’s rights, was an act of astonishing and immeasurable cooperation from people who had plenty to disagree about but still united for a common good.
Setting aside the small percentage of people who choose to live in isolation, most of us yearn for community and a sense of belonging, whether that comes from our church, job, corner bar, local coffee shop or Tuesday bowling league. The truth is, even people who live off the grid, often end up congregating. It’s human nature.
For all of our differences in race, income, background, religion, political viewpoint or lifestyle, we share many of the same values and aspirations. And when you integrate values like cooperation and community with our policy preferences, most people in America just want a good, middle class life:
· A good job that pays enough to raise a family.
· A decent home at a price they can afford, whether they rent or own.
· Guaranteed health care that does not put them at risk of bankruptcy.
· Quality education for their kids, including affordable higher education.
· A dignified, secure retirement.
It’s perfectly understandable to want these things for ourselves but Americans also have an admirable history of cooperating to make the good life available for others. That version of ourselves pays taxes so others have a safety net to stave off destitution. We pool risk to provide health care for everyone. We build affordable housing, fund public education and subsidize agriculture and energy production because we believe these things are essential.
Today, however, there’s another version of ourselves that Kohl hinted at that has found favor at various times in our history. This version considers greed a virtue and extreme wealth consolidation an acceptable price to pay in a capitalist society. In this version of America, wealth trickles down from those who have it to those who don’t.
In this version of America, government needs to get out of the way to let business flourish. We don’t need referees to make sure we all play by the same rules. We don’t need to worry about those left behind in a changing economy or collateral damage to our environment. For them, the march of progress is worth any cost and those who are unable to keep up simply lose out.
Most people are somewhere on the spectrum between these two versions of America, but as the contest for President proceeds, one of them will win the hearts and minds of the American people. Let’s hope we get it right.
