Giuliani on American national identity

I’ve been looking through Rudolph Giuliani’s book Leadership. It brings out what I’ve always thought about him, that he is intelligent and driven and an admirable man in many ways. But it also brings out things about him that are unacceptable. Here is the closing passage of the book’s preface, which was adapted from his farewell message as mayor:

Abraham Lincoln used to say that the test of one’s Americanism was not one’s family tree; the test of one’s Americanism was how much one believed in America. Because we’re like a religion really. A secular religion. We believe in ideas and ideals. We’re not one race, we’re many; we’re not one ethnic group, we’re everyone; we’re not one language, we’re all of these people. So what ties us together? We’re tied together by our belief in political democracy, in religious freedom, in capitalism, a free economy where people make their own choices about the spending of their money. We’re tied together because we respect human life, and because we respect the rule of law.

Those are the ideas that make us Americans. And those are the ideas that I leaned on when it was time to lead, both after September 11 and long before.

Let’s just look at one phrase: “we’re not one language, we’re all of these people.” So according to Giuliani, American identity has no particular connection with the English language. A person could speak only Farsi or Spanish, and he would be fully a part of this country, as long as he believed in … in what? In the idea that Americans don’t speak one language! The thing that makes you an American is the belief that there’s no such thing as America.

To clarify this point, see how he first lists the things that don’t make us Americans—not race, not ethnicity, not a common language, and not a common culture (because without a common language there obviously is no common culture). Then, having told us the things that don’t make us Americans, he tells us the things that do make us Americans: belief in democracy, freedom, capitalism, and rule of law. But other countries believe in those things too. So how is America different from those other countries? If a person in, say, India believes in democracy, freedom, capitalism, and rule of law, how is he any less an American than you or I or George Washington? And how are we any more American than that Indian? Giuliani has removed everything particular and concrete about America and defined America as a universal belief system, not a country.

Giuliani may not be as extreme in his attack on American particularity as Sen. McCain, who came right out and said that America is superior to other countries because it has no culture. But, given what Giuliani has said, can anyone believe that he will defend American culture from the forces that threaten it?

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Ben W. writes:

Giuliani’s phrases—“Because we’re like a religion really. A secular religion”— are telling. In essence, he moves his vision of the American experience into the realm of transcendence thus investing it with universality.

You’ve mentioned in the past that neither pure transcendence (Christianity) nor pure particularity (American culture and history) are sufficient in and of themselves, but need each other symbiotically.

Giuliani crosses that line and moves the American experience into the realm of transcendence (defining Americanism as “a religion”). Logically speaking this is a fallacious move because as Christ said, “Render to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and to God the things that belong to God.” Giuliani has conflated the two dimensions (and in the process secularizes religion).

In essence Giuliani supports the neo-cons who also have moved democracy into the realm of transcendence thus universalizing it.

LA replies:

Very well said. For Giuliani to declare that America is “like a religion, really,” is a form of madness. It simultaneously makes America much more than a mere nation and much less than one. Its existence becomes entirely transcendent, no longer on this earth. It’s what David Gelernter said in his article in Commentary two years ago, that America is a “Judeo-Christian religion.” Gosh, instead of Giuliani being inspired by Gelernter and the other neocons, maybe Gelernter was inspired by Giuliani.

Alan Roebuck comments:

When people say, apropos immigration,

“We’re tied together by our belief in political democracy, in religious freedom, in capitalism, a free economy where people make their own choices about the spending of their money. We’re tied together because we respect human life, and because we respect the rule of law.”

ask them this:

“Are you then saying that all prospective immigrants must be examined to see whether they actually believe in these things, and must those who fail the test, either upon attempting to immigrate or after they have been here for a while, be kept out of America or deported?”

Of course, the answer will be “No.” People who say this stuff don’t really believe it, and we need aggressively to point this out. Not in order to make them change their mind, in order that onlookers will begin to see how naked the emperor really is.

Swedish conservative writes:

The comments I’d like to write are normally too long and I never find the time to write them nowadays. But here is a short one. Hope you are doing fine!

I believe your questions has already been answered by Giuliani: You wrote: “Then, having told us the things that don’t make us Americans, he tells us the things that do make us Americans: belief in democracy, freedom, capitalism, and rule of law. But other countries believe in those things too. So how is America different from those other countries?”

By making democratism etc. into a religion.

“If a person in, say, India believes in democracy, freedom, capitalism, and rule of law, how is he any less an American than you or I or George Washington?”

He’s not, if he just moves to America and makes these thing into his secular religion.

“And how are we any more American than that Indian?”

Once he’s overstayed his tourist visa, you are not.

Giuliani has grasped it well. For all practical reasons this is also how Europeans ought to see America under the current political paradigm.

Bruce B. writes:

“We’re tied together because we respect human life”

You gotta be kidding.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 09, 2007 10:32 AM | Send