Well, it is time to begin fleshing out what it means to be an American.
Now remember, our point is that for America to be its best, we need people from across the political spectrum contending and those with the best solutions on a given issue, prevailing.
So, let’s consider one of the most challenging and long-standing issues in American history: What to do with the indigenous people in North America” “the Indians”?
Going back to John Smith in 1607, there were a total of 100 wars (not battles) between the European settlers and the Indians. The 100th war was “The Ghost Dance War” against the Lakota Sioux which ended in with the Wounded Knee Massacre in Dec of 1890. So, Americans, almost exclusively White, wrestled with the Indian problem for nearly three centuries.
There were basically two approaches to take. One was the moral Christian approach: they were here first and we are neighbors, yet we are much more advanced than them. We need to bring them up to our standards and assimilate them. In other words, implement diversity, equity and inclusion: DEI. A noted political leader of this persuasion was our 6th President, John Quincy Adams.
The alternative approach was that we need to conquer them, take their land, and if necessary, eradicate them. Two of the most famous proponents of this policy were our 1st and 7th presidents, George Washington and Andrew Jackson. A little-known historical fact regarding George Washington that I recently learned is that at age 22, in 1754, more than anyone else, he started “The French and Indian War”. During the Revolutionary War, GW was such a terror to the Seneca Indians that they gave him the title: “Conotocaurius” which translates as “Destroyer of Villages”.
A half century later, Andrew Jackson became America’s premier Indian Fighter – snatching 23 million acres from the Creek Indians following the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. As our 7th POTUS, AJ forced Indians in the Southeast off tens of millions of additional acres sending them packing on the infamous “Trail of Tears”.
Looking back on this, we could say that the people who felt compassion for the Indians and wanted to find ways to peacefully co-exist with them, who wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus, were liberal do-gooders, who today we would say are on the Left.
And the people like Washington and Jackson were clear-eyed realists who were focused on the self-interest of themselves and their constituents – the white Americans. Today, we would place GW, AJ, and subsequently the Cowboys who “won the West” on the Right.
And as we all know, it was that side, the one driven by self-interest, those on the Right, that prevailed.
What if the Left had gotten their way instead? What if America had opted for coexistence and DEI with the Indians rather than conquest?
It is hard to imagine that America would have become the transcontinental superpower that it is today had the Indians not been totally conquered and displaced. Sad and wrong as it may seem to many today, America nevertheless prospered because the Right came out on top when it came to dealing with the Indians.
There will be other issues in the American experiment where our nation was best served when those Americans who were strongly motivated by compassion and a desire for the common good, people “on the Left”, won out over conservative self-interest.
For America to be its best, we need people on the Left and people on the Right contending with each other, finding common ground where possible, and together, making progress toward a more perfect union.
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