2011 could easily be characterized as a year of American identity crisis. On the left, streets were overtaken in Occupy protests that made one of the boldest demands for economic equality our country has ever seen. The right continued to be a fascinating study, with a GOP divided and confused about who it is and who should represent it. A painful debt-ceiling crisis revealed deep seeded tensions about American spending and national priorities going forward.
It’s an interesting time to wonder if Americans are united by a shared set of values anymore. We are making conflicting demands of government, demands so incompatible that it’s difficult to believe there is an ideological common ground. Have the rosy days of shared values passed with an America from a bygone era?
I think the answer is no. Despite the changes and challenges of a new millennium, Americans have retained one powerful value which continues to unify in spite of what divides us. It is the deeply held conviction that democracy is the best form of government.
The role and size of government will always be hotly contested, but the idea that America is great because it makes decisions by the will of its people is still held in common. Our pride in democracy is so strong that many Americans consider its superiority to be essentially indisputable. Undergraduates read John Locke’s ideas about majority rule in the Second Treatise of Civil Government like a Biology textbook. His once revolutionary ideas seem now an unnecessary reprise of “truths” we already know.
It’s because of democracy that Occupiers spend sleepless nights in Central Park and it’s why many are galvanized by Rick Santorum’s appeal to the moral compass of “Real America.” You couldn’t assemble more disparate samples of the national public, yet both these groups share in the base assumption that the people’s collective voice matters—that making demands of government is the means of real political change. It’s not surprising that candidates who promise to represent the majority well win elections. Democracy makes such a compelling campaign strategy precisely because it’s our common value.
2012 promises to bring new debates and disagreements about how to meet the challenges ahead. But despite our differences, Americans are still united by a shared value for democracy, believing it is the best way to chart a path for the future.
