The American identity, impressed by our ethnic, racial, class, and gender differences, has delineated from moral to political influences. As liberal and progressive views have become popularized, and evidently radicalized, the purpose and duties of citizens have been distorted to represent divided interests. In a society focused on acceptance and self-enrichment, public attitude towards liberal values has cultivated a corrupt and formative sub-culture. While liberalism has transformed the American identity, other significant factors such as diversity and equality, have determined new standards of civic responsibility and democracy. The shift in the American identity is represented by modern political theories and movements resisting the American system. Regardless, the quality of American identity and its disfiguration should be understood and resolved.
The American identity is a loosely-defined social construct. “[We] been hindered by measures that focus on only two components of American identity: liberalism (America as a land of freedom and opportunity) and ethnoculturalism (America as a nation of white Protestants)” (Schildkraut). Although “Americanism” is a multi-dimensional culture, consisting of both positive and negative influences, it is becoming highly destructive. With an influx of immigrants entering the United States since the early nineteenth century, we coined another term: incorporationism. Paired with the extension of liberal views, diversity has renewed the American identity by introducing both morality and resentment. Throughout the years, every culture has injected elements of its own to formulate the American identity. Although liberalism overlaps with the principles of diversity, a common belief is that diversification is not necessarily considered by liberals:
“…Liberals and progressives narcissistically unaware of conditions outside their self-defined groups, and indifferent to the task of reaching out to Americans in every walk of life,’ and ruling elites whose ‘obsession with diversity has encouraged white, rural, religious Americans to think of themselves as a disadvantaged group whose identity is being threatened or ignored” (Sewell).
The argument is that liberal and/or progressive Americans are indifferent of others, increasing the belief that equality does not exist, or is at least not practiced. By these standards, liberalism has mutilated the truest form of American identity.
In a similar sense of reasoning, both diversity and liberalism have played a strong role in our political systems and social structures by revealing hidden flaws, prejudices, and setbacks:
“But how should this diversity shape our politics? The standard liberal answer for nearly a generation now has been that we should become aware of and “celebrate” our differences… A splendid principle of moral pedagogy— but disastrous as a foundation for democratic politics in our ideological age. In recent years American liberalism has slipped into a kind of moral panic about racial, gender and sexual identity that has distorted liberalism’s message and prevented it from becoming a unifying force capable of governing” (Lilla).
The previously stated overlap between diversity and liberalism is not only apparent, but used as a compass for social change. Liberalism paired with diversity, has positively readjusted traditions by emphasizing equality and acceptance within the new generations. Yet, in a society governed by democratic-like principles, equality is difficult to comprehend, much less popularize. By doing so, we have unintentionally drawn attention to sensitive issues that have enlarged the current division between Americans and altered the identity.
Although some attribute liberalism as a political term, or concept for social change; others describe it as a “cultural phenomenon,” transforming society in accordance to preconceived notions and structuring it around a political framework:
“Liberalism must be seen as all of a piece, not just as a set of doctrines about the opposition of power and wealth, but as a metaphysical conception of the mind and society… Liberalism as a cultural phenomenon. By this I do not mean culture in the sense of popular culture, but in that broader sense in which our law, our political rhetoric” (Kahn).
Post-identity liberalism also conveys a civic duty/responsibility to Americans; however, liberalists have not considered educating themselves about ignored sects of the country and matters there, especially in relation to religion and other elements of American identity (Lilla). To describe the effect of liberalism on a changing society; likewise, its imprint on the American identity, it is best to use modern literature. In the autobiographical Black Boy, Richard Wright explains prejudices against African Americans in his own community and outside of it. Wright addresses how diversity does not truly exist, and can not be forced, instead it must be drawn from those willing to accept racial differences. Wright addresses the lack of diversity and the mistreatment of those who are considered “different.”
Liberalism represents the idea of equality in a society overridden by differences in class, race, gender, etc. As in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a solid representation of society in the 1920s, the class differences and a divided society is seen through West Egg and East Egg: “I [Nick Carraway] lived at West Egg, the— well, the less fashionable of the two… My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked… Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” (Fitzgerald 5). Fitzgerald criticizes the concept of equality (a liberal value) and how it has been misunderstood. Fitzgerald shows his cynicism by separating the elite from society and discussing how money is a determining factor for social status.
In The Awakening, author Kate Chopin describes the degradation of females by a male-dominated society through Edna Pontellier. Edna abandons her family for self-expression and individuality, eventually resorting to suicide in an attempt to achieve this freedom. Edna simultaneously abandons her domestic role (as a mother and wife) and steers away from traditional gender roles and southern social attitudes, forging her own identity after much inner conflict.
The large divisions in society by class, race, gender, constitute a larger claim that liberalism and/or a liberal approach to politics has failed in our society: “The new progressivism divides Americans… Renews the specter of race conflict by rejecting the goal of civil rights, in which individuals achieve equality under the law; instead, the goal is political racial solidarity against what is viewed as an inherently racist American system” (Slack).
By the aforementioned evidence, liberalism is a flawed construct— one that has arguably failed to represent the American identity in its entirety. “This absence of self-awareness and chagrin among identity liberals proves the power of faith over reason” (Sewall). The inattentiveness and inability of liberals to evoke change in society and establish some form of equality, rather than neglect the corruption of society speaks for itself.
The clash between the positive and negative influences of liberalism, as reflected on standards of diversity, equality, etc., is especially intriguing. Today, diversity is measured by the variation in race, ethnic background, and cultural differences. Equality is measured by similar treatment towards anyone of obviously unequal status. These are the profound effects of liberalism on a few elements of American identity. The overall impact of liberalism on the American identity, or what is generally accepted as the purest form of American identity, demonstrates that it has fostered growth. Ironically, liberal views have been catastrophic to the tenets of independency too. Liberalism and its focus on freedom, democracy, secularity, etc., has divided the interests of many and has called attention to previously unnoticed matters, now extremely prevalent issues. In our modern society, where corruption, inequality, and judgement exist, liberalism has undoubtedly played a role in disfiguring the American identity even further than already so.