Jeff Giesea: How To Defend America?

Jeff Giesea:

“Davidson’s reply doesn’t seem accurate. This is probably because Williams, in defining Americanism, isn’t very clear. One the one hand Williams defines Americanism around the founders’ view of justice—an idea. But then he writes: “America is more than an idea—it is a people and a country.” Well, which is it? Williams seems to want a fusion of “civil nationalism with the popular, cultural, and historical touchstones of American greatness.” Whereas Marcus divorces Americanism from Trumpism, Williams conflates them. Are Williams and Marcus really on the same side?

To wage this campaign, we need a clearer view of what we mean by Americanism, and a more aligned coalition behind the campaign. My sense is that this will call for a deeper exploration of American identity and new fusions of ideas about what it means. Perhaps we will need to embrace that Americanism is both a creed and a people. …

The stakes are high for “Defend America.” It’s an effort worthy of passionate support.”

Unfortunately, Jeff Giesea is a deracinated American and obviously doesn’t have a clear-eyed view of what he means by Americanism, so he is unable to defend either the concept, tradition or the American people from the Left’s critique and strategy. I’m not even sure he knows where to start. He’s right though to diagnose identity politics and political correctness as the problem.

In his 1997 book Power in the Blood, the Canadian writer John Bentley Mays explored his Southern roots and heritage and described the Southern tradition as “noble, failed attempts to raise on Southern ground a culture rooted in the natural order of our seasons, to build a civilization free of cruel utopianism and metropolitan alienation, sustained by loyalties to place.” Is Jeff Giesea able to sum up the meaning of Americanism or Northern conservatism in a single sentence?

If not, then why is that the case? Isn’t it because Southerners are the natural conservatives and traditionalists in this country? We’re also more homogeneous.

Note: Jeff Giesea is well intentioned.