The Auron MacIntyre Show - Against the Propositional Nation ｜ 2⧸13⧸25

00:00:00.000 We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.

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00:00:30.000 Donald Trump was elected because Americans are tired of being hated by their leaders.

00:00:35.420 The real estate billionaire has his flaws, but in a moment when politicians on both the left and right 0.75

00:00:40.620 were calling the country sexist, racist, lazy, and entitled,

00:00:45.040 Donald Trump was calling to make America great again.

00:00:49.020 The president's second term is off to an impressive start,

00:00:52.980 and most of his supporters are simply relieved to have a man who loves the country back in office.

00:00:59.000 But with Trump's initial success comes larger questions.

00:01:03.000 Greatness must be measured in context.

00:01:05.520 It's related to what the philosopher Aristotle called telos, or the ultimate objective or end.

00:01:11.660 To make America great, we must first understand its purpose, its nature, its context.

00:01:18.040 We must first answer the question of our age.

00:01:21.480 Who are we?

00:01:22.680 With the election of Donald Trump, a number of ideas about national identity have been completely rejected.

00:01:30.740 Americans don't want to be global citizens.

00:01:33.420 They want to be a distinct and sovereign country.

00:01:36.640 Citizens of the United States don't want to live in a multicultural patchwork with segmented communities 1.00

00:01:42.320 speaking different languages and celebrating different identities.

00:01:46.140 The American people don't want to act as world police,

00:01:50.120 sacrificing the blood of their sons and the treasure of their nation

00:01:53.580 to impose a global order that puts their home country last.

00:01:58.300 Americans don't want the United States to operate as an office park or an economic zone.

00:02:03.560 They want their government to put the well-being of Americans first instead of the maximization

00:02:08.700 of arbitrary economic measures like the gross domestic product.

00:02:13.480 The people of this nation are tired of leaders who belittle and insult them

00:02:18.200 for wanting to be a real country.

00:02:21.500 We know which progressive identities Americans have rejected,

00:02:25.400 but is there one that they can collectively embrace?

00:02:28.580 It's not enough to reject multiculturalism, globalism, and economic essentialism.

00:02:35.620 To make America great, conservatives and right-wingers must offer an alternative identity

00:02:41.340 which binds our nation together and gives it a telos.

00:02:45.480 This realization scares many conservatives who have been taught to flee discussions of identity

00:02:51.620 for fear of being called ugly names.

00:02:54.580 This fear is understandable.

00:02:55.920 Identity is a powerful thing capable of moving men's passions towards both great and terrible deeds.

00:03:03.040 It's not to be taken lightly, but for this reason,

00:03:06.080 conservatives can't afford to abandon the topic to the Democrats and the political left.

00:03:11.700 The question of who are we will be answered,

00:03:15.240 and will be answered by those who are willing to engage with it.

00:03:18.980 If the right abandons the question to progressives out of cowardice,

00:03:22.880 then they will live in a world defined by their enemies.

00:03:27.840 Is America essentially a dream?

00:03:31.140 An unattainable goal towards which the nation is always progressing?

00:03:35.460 A set of ideas that anyone and everyone from around the world can adopt and join?

00:03:40.940 The propositional nation, one built on an adherence to a series of assertions,

00:03:46.040 is the alternative that conservatives have offered my entire life,

00:03:50.200 and the default identity that they are now attempting to return to

00:03:54.080 with the defeat of the multicultural globalist vision.

00:03:57.700 The problem with this definition is that it can't hold up to basic scrutiny.

00:04:02.600 So you've always been picky about your produce,

00:04:05.760 but now you find yourself checking every label to make sure it's Canadian.

00:04:10.160 So be it.

00:04:11.240 At Sobeys, we always pick guaranteed fresh Canadian produce first.

00:04:15.500 Restrictions apply.

00:04:16.460 See in-store or online for details.

00:04:20.500 If America is an idea, 0.88

00:04:22.840 a set of propositions to which anyone can adhere,

00:04:26.080 then any set of people should be able to copy those ideas and achieve similar results.

00:04:31.280 There's no need for immigrants to travel to America 1.00

00:04:34.360 or spend time among its people because the people and place aren't special.

00:04:39.340 Only the ideas matter, right?

00:04:41.960 Let's take as an example Liberia,

00:04:44.500 which is an African republic that was founded to give freed slaves

00:04:48.140 and free-born American blacks a country of their own,

00:04:51.640 absent of the discrimination that existed in the United States at the time.

00:04:55.520 The Liberian Constitution was founded on the principles of the American Republic

00:05:00.380 and contains most of the key features including separation of powers,

00:05:04.900 checks and balances, and its very own copy of the Bill of Rights.

00:05:09.000 Despite photocopying the principles and structure of the United States,

00:05:13.580 Liberia has a very different outcome

00:05:15.960 and is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the entire world.

00:05:21.160 This is a result that seems to challenge the core assertion of the propositional nation.

00:05:25.960 The propositional nation also reveals its incoherence

00:05:30.120 when observing domestic politics in the United States.

00:05:34.100 The argument is that anyone who believes in the idea of America

00:05:37.840 should be welcomed into the United States

00:05:40.120 because this is what defines our identity as citizens.

00:05:43.960 But that assertion is never followed to its logical conclusion.

00:05:48.320 Ilhan Omar is a Somalian immigrant who serves in the United States Congress

00:05:52.880 while very obviously hating the country. 0.98

00:05:56.540 Omar regularly goes on ridiculous tirades 0.97

00:05:59.280 about the racist and oppressive nature of the people who took her into their home. 0.84

00:06:04.260 Several media outlets have reported that Omar's second husband

00:06:07.660 was in fact her brother who she married in order to commit immigration fraud.

00:06:13.020 The representative of Minnesota's 5th District

00:06:15.560 regularly addresses her supporters in Somali

00:06:18.500 and promises to prioritize the interests of Somalian immigrants

00:06:22.020 and, depending on which translation you trust,

00:06:24.660 the interests of the country of Somalia itself.

00:06:28.300 It's incredibly obvious to any honest actor

00:06:31.900 that Omar is not loyal to the idea of America or its principles,

00:06:36.820 and yet no one is calling to have her removed from office.

00:06:40.540 Anyone who proposed that she should be denaturalized

00:06:43.280 for her alleged acts of immigration fraud,

00:06:45.740 much less her rejection of the American proposition

00:06:49.040 would be labeled a racist or fascist,

00:06:51.680 even by many conservatives.

00:06:53.840 The propositional nation is just a sloppy feint from conservatives

00:06:57.580 meant to dodge the larger and thornier issue of American identity.

00:07:02.400 None of its proponents have any intention of doing

00:07:05.640 what it would take to enforce their own definition of identity.

00:07:10.580 A propositional nation is frankly impossible,

00:07:13.780 in no small part because free speech

00:07:16.460 sits at the heart of the American proposition.

00:07:19.960 If there is one principle that is held as sacred in the United States,

00:07:24.420 it is the ability to publicly reject the American proposition itself

00:07:28.980 and remain a member in good standing.

00:07:32.120 No one pushing the idea of a propositional nation

00:07:35.300 is serious about enforcing that identity,

00:07:38.780 because if they did,

00:07:40.040 it would create a truly totalitarian state.

00:07:43.120 A nation which is defining its membership

00:07:46.100 by constant conformity to the ideological dictates of the state

00:07:50.920 would be far closer to actual fascism

00:07:54.580 than any boogeyman that progressives have conjured up.

00:07:58.060 So, if America is not a proposition,

00:08:01.180 then what is it?

00:08:02.440 What defines it as a nation?

00:08:04.700 The same thing that has defined nations for most of human history.

00:08:08.400 It's a mixture of shared language,

00:08:11.160 history,

00:08:12.020 heritage,

00:08:12.860 tradition,

00:08:13.780 religion,

00:08:14.600 and culture.

00:08:15.740 In his book,

00:08:16.640 Who Are We?,

00:08:17.620 the center-left Harvard professor Samuel Huntington,

00:08:20.800 not exactly a far-right radical,

00:08:23.220 concluded that the Anglo-Protestant tradition

00:08:25.880 was the core of American identity.

00:08:28.920 Being a man of the left,

00:08:30.700 Huntington didn't want to limit Americans 0.81

00:08:32.600 to being just people of English ancestry

00:08:35.840 or being Protestant Christians,

00:08:37.880 but he recognized the importance

00:08:39.880 of having a definitive core culture

00:08:42.280 to which new members must assimilate.

00:08:45.660 Without a clearly identifiable cultural heritage

00:08:49.540 to which new arrivals must conform,

00:08:52.520 a country is just begging to degrade

00:08:54.760 into a multicultural morass. 1.00

00:08:57.400 Principles are important,

00:08:58.740 ideas are important,

00:09:00.900 but those ideas aren't Gnostic and disembodied.

00:09:04.180 The American proposition arises from a specific people,

00:09:08.060 the American nation,

00:09:09.300 and can't simply be separated from them

00:09:11.760 and applied to another nation

00:09:13.320 with exactly the same results.

00:09:15.420 If America is to become great again,

00:09:17.920 it must do so in the context

00:09:19.880 of our Anglo-Protestant heritage

00:09:22.280 and ensure that those who are lucky enough

00:09:24.580 to join our great nation

00:09:25.960 seek to assimilate to that tradition.

00:09:28.740 The question of who are we will be answered,

00:09:32.680 and it's critical that conservatives

00:09:34.500 are ready to offer a shared identity

00:09:36.880 that acknowledges and honors our past

00:09:39.320 while looking forward to the amazing things

00:09:41.980 that our shared nation can achieve.

00:09:44.260 Thanks for watching, guys.

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00:10:43.360 Thanks, everybody, for watching,

00:10:44.880 and as always,

00:10:46.300 I'll talk to you next time.

The Auron MacIntyre Show - February 13, 2025

Against the Propositional Nation ｜ 2⧸13⧸25

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