There’s No Alternative To America

American right-wingers seek a replacement to their nation in vain

It’s hard to be a proud American these days. We can still admire our great history, our high standard of living, and our incredible landscapes, but none of that changes the grim state of the nation. Walking around in an airport or a mall can make any conservative feel like a stranger in a strange land.

Some think the right needs to abandon America and envision a new, better order to emerge from its ruins. The smart Twitter account “contrary pancake” made this argument last month. “If you're a nationalist, why bother associating yourself with an existing government or symbolic order that doesn't want anything to do with you anyways? Why not invent a new nation out of whole cloth?,” the Japanese anon tweeted.

I hear constantly about right-wing students at elite universities and law schools who think America is over and want something new. They want to tear things down and start again. Out with the old, in with the new. 

That may have some appeal in theory, but in practice, it’s cheap compensation for alienated conservatives. There is no material out of which to build a new, rightist America. No matter how unrecognizable, America as it currently exists is all we have. Anything that comes after it will probably be worse. 

Many conservatives say the time is ripe for a “national divorce.” Despite the dissatisfaction felt by committed right-wingers, that alienation is not shared by a mass constituency. Secession/civil war would require millions of Americans to give up their homes, 401ks, and everything they’ve built up just so they can have Aunt Jemima on maple syrup bottles again. Conservatives can’t even be relied on to boycott the woke NFL, much less start their own nation. The majority of Americans are content with what they have and there is no separate identity for them to rally around.

Unlike anti-communists in the Soviet Union, Americans do not identify with any nation outside the nation-state. Lithuanians could say they’re Lithuanian, not Soviet, as could Georgians, Kazakhs, and even Russians. How would white Americans identity, if not as American? Some say they should simply identify as "whites," but few whites place importance on their race. Majorities of Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics all say their race is very important to them, while only 15 percent of whites say the same. The failure of the alt right testifies to how few Americans would ditch American patriotism for explicit white identitarianism.

Some on the right think religion could replace Americanism. This hope in part motivates Catholic integralism, which would submit the state to the Bishop of Rome. Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule, integralism’s most prominent exponent, constantly poses as a great enemy of liberalism, he boasts of his desire to erect the “Empire of Our Lady of Guadalupe.” Though Vermeule’s vision has many right-wing fans, he wants little more than liberal technocracy in a mantilla. He has advocated for open borders, hate speech laws, gun control, and the vax mandate, all of which right-wingers vehemently oppose. What’s the point of adopting a baptized but more aggressive version of the Globalist American Empire to replace the Globalist American Empire?

Like white separatism, integralism has little appeal to the masses. America is not a majority Catholic country—far from it. While integralists may hope immigration changes that demographic reality, newly-arrived Catholics often convert to evangelicalism. Those who remain Catholic have very different religious practices from the traditional styles integralists favor. Don’t expect Hispanics to line up for the Latin Mass when they would rather go to Mariachi Mass instead.

Integralists may have a loud voice on the right, but most American Catholics aren’t that conservative. A majority of Catholics support gay marriage and legal abortion, while only eight percent think birth control is wrong–all practices the Catholic Church has vociferously condemned. Conservative Catholics may write their coreligionists off as phonies, but they account for a large and influential part of the congregation.

No alternative identity on the Right can win a mass following. American conservatives are still deeply patriotic despite the cringe state of the country. Eighty-four percent of Republicans say they are very or extremely proud to be an American, while only two percent say they’re not proud at all. The number of Republicans who are extremely proud is at a historic low, but it’s still the majority of party voters. 

Expressing shame or disappointment at America is typical of leftists, not right-wingers. Conservatives fly Stars and Stripes outside their homes and put patriotic bumper stickers on their cars. Leftists trample and burn the flag and teach their kids the country is a racist hellhole. The Left celebrates anti-American agitators as heroes despite exerting more influence over our institutions than ever before. Outside of some corners of the internet, the Right doesn’t share anything remotely resembling that view. That’s unlikely to change any time soon.

Middle America is not in a revolutionary mood. White people are more interested in pro sports and video games than politics. More people watched the NFL this year than ever before. Protests and riots no longer rack the country with unrest. Abroad, America’s global power is dominant. Europe is more dependent on us by the day, while the war in Ukraine saps the strength of a geopolitical rival. Middle America will greet anyone who promises to overthrow the current order with deaf ears. The only audience who will listen with rapt attention is law enforcement.

America will not collapse without something to replace it. As I argued in a recent column, an American Hugo Chavez is a more likely alternative than anything the Right has to offer. Whether a Chavist dictatorship, a Chinese satrapy, or even a Mad Max-style wasteland, the new order will leave the historic American nation poorer and more oppressed. 

The Right has no ready symbols to replace Old Glory, no vision to replace the normal political process, no identity to replace “American,” and no means to galvanize a complacent public. Adopting anti-Americanism will only alienate the right from the masses–especially from ordinary conservatives–and makes it easier for the system to persecute us. 

Sticking with America is the only serious option. Our Americanism will certainly be different from what’s articulated by liberals and mainstream conservatives, but it will be American all the same. Politics is the art of the possible, not a video game where players invent nations out of thin air. You have to work with the cards you're dealt. 

We should make our country something to be proud of again–not delude ourselves into thinking we can tweet a new nation into existence.