What Does It Mean To Be an American?

A reader notes: Donald Trump just endorsed Viktor Orban. Orban is an anti-Semitic, racist, authoritarian despot who has crushed democratic institutions in Hungary, attacked the free press, and politicized rule of law. No wonder Trump likes him.

All our lives we’ve heard the word “unAmerican.” It’s normally used to say that something is unfair or unjust, that it violates our core sensibilities with respect to what is right or wrong.

We find ourselves at a crossroads.  We need to decide if the concept of being an “American” in this sense is something we value, or do we want to cross a line and become an authoritarian nation like Turkey.

Before we make up our minds, we need to consider that such steps are very hard to retake. Once things like a free press and free speech are taken away, they almost never return.

If, in 2015, you had wanted to bet me that I would be writing these words in 2022, exhorting this formerly great nation to pull itself back from the abyss of fascism, I would have given you odds of $1000 against a dime that you would be wrong.

Yet here we are.