I hate this "Great America" stuff.
I have never believed in "American Exceptionalism" or the messianic role of the USA, or that this is the "greatest country on the earth." That last phrase, more frequently in the mouth of conservatives, makes me winch with shame.
Our country is immensely blessed: natural resources, immigrant energies, Christian legacy, political culture of human freedoms and the rule of law. But in the deepest things that matter most...love of God and others, gratitude, humility, virtue...Haiti may be far superior...even though only God can measure this. It is nevertheless offensive, arrogant and ignorant to boast of our "greatness."
I love this country...realistically. The reality is, in many ways, dark.
Our founders were wealthy, Enlightenment freemasons, Calvinists, Anglicans and others who despised our Church.
Our founders and their legacy allowed the decimation of native Americans, enslavement of Africans, WASP persecution of ethnic Catholics, and the current genocide of the unborn.
I was blessed to be raised by what I consider a "great generation." But they would never have considered themselves "great." Their goodness consisted precisely in their humility, gratitude, realism. Their faith helped them survive deprivation in the 30s, a horrendous war in the 40, and the apocalyptic war with Soviet Communism. As I came of age, we rebuilt Europe, founded the UN and NATO, assisted the poor overseas in things like the Peace Corps and USAID, renounced systemic racism in the Civil Rights movement, and launched a War on Poverty to help the poorest among us. They did this while raising large families. The adults in my world were grateful and humble: they went to Mass, confessed regularly, prayed the rosary, practiced Lenten disciplines. They considered God as "Great"...not themselves. This was a good, but not perfect or great, America!
In my college years, 1965-9, I accepted much of the New Left critique of America as materialistic, imperialistic, and arrogant. I learned from Ivan Illich about the toxicity of the technocratic bureaucracy, from Dorothy Day the beauty of the poor, from Oscar Lewis the devastating culture of poverty, from the hippies the primacy of being and joy over having and achievement.
By the mid-1970s I recognized the new Evil Empire, primarily expanding from our country, of the sterilization/liberation of sexuality, genocide of the unborn, and deconstruction of the bipolar human person. I joined the Culture War on the side of the Resistance, the underclass.
By the 1980s I was instructed in a profound analysis of post-Calvinist American Culture by the Communio School of David L Schindler and others under the influence of John Paul, Ratzinger and Balthasar. This deepened and intensified my critical Catholic view of our country.
I voted for Trump in 2024 with serene clarity and certainty, although with a bad taste in my mouth, as a renunciation of a deeper, greater Evil, the so-called "arc of history." In the weeks since he took office, that bad taste has become nauseating.
A Catholic in the USA in the 2020s is like a German Catholic in the 1920s: fighting at once Nazism, Communism, and Sexual Libertarianism. We need to fight several wars at the same time.
Trump is our best friend in the primary conflict. But he is in many ways himself a moral perversity. He is the stereotypical "Ugly American" of the late 60s, now inflated into a camp, cartoon caricature: overweight, red faced, jingoistic, xenophobic, greedy, grandiose, impulsive, vindictive. He is shamelessly contemptuous of those who resist him. He is dismissive of constitutional order, the protocols of international diplomacy, and the suffering of the poorest around the world and in our country. He lacks simple, common sense decency and dignity. His personal life shows the worst excesses of his...our...generation: lust, greed, pride.
Within weeks of his victory, I find myself on the side of the New Resistance, against MAGA. This is a pivot like that of our nation in 1945: suddenly, our ally, the USSR, had become our antagonist.
I retain hope in the underlying goodness and resiliency of our nation. The Trump victory was in part the rage of the under class against the affluent elite and in part the religious rejection of a decadent secular progressivism. That was a move toward the Good. Now we need a countervailing movement to correct the pathologies of Trumpism. I am hopeful. The primary restrain on this dictator-wannabe will be the Supreme Court, especially Barrett and Roberts. Perhaps prominent figures like Rubio and Vance will lean more strongly into their Catholic values. The economic uncertainty of the tariff lunacy will trouble the stock market which Trump, with his class, worships. The DOGE recklessness and increased inflation will diminish his popularity, which he idolizes. The Democratic Party is pathetic, decadent and without moral anchoring. Yet a prudent "Christian Strategy" (as articulated by Adrian Vermeule) might have us align with them in correcting Trumpian extremism.
Yes, I love my country. But we are a train wreck. We are now two, not one, dysfunctional families: the Left and the Right. No, we are not great. Let's take small steps towards Good. Let's pray for our country, our world, and our leaders.
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