State of constant revolution

Lexington, the editorial section about the US in the Economist, wrote an article last week about the paranoia in American politics (@ AF1: maybe something for grandpa?). They do a decent job of describing the problem phenomena, but they make no attempt to analyze its causes. Let me synthesize what I’ve heard.

When I was a grad student in London (the English one), one of my professors said that America has never really gotten over its revolutionary mentality. Revolutionary governments often (justifiably) fear incursion by foreigners who preferred the ancien regime, and this often makes them paranoid and likely to lash out. Think revolutionary France (pick one, actually), early Bolshevik Russia, Cuba, and in some places, like Iran and North Korea, this revolutionary defensiveness against foreign incursion is practically official ideology.

I never really bought this in America’s case because a) it’s been quite a while since they faced a credible threat of foreign invasion, b) I don’t think many Americans honestly think very much about foreign invasion and c) America has had long periods of relative isolationism. It does make certain amount of sense, though, applied to the States from the inside. Many people do seem terrified that their government has been hijacked somehow by people hell-bent on ruining their ‘more perfect union’ (sic). This isn’t new, either. It seems to be a recurring theme.

So far, this is just reframing the Economist’s description without providing any of my own explanation. My hare-brained theory, though, has to do with a naive image of god and imposing this image where it doesn’t belong. Think about it. Americans speak of their ‘founding fathers’ as if the guys were immaculately conceived. Watch some videos of health care town halls and people ranting about the constitution to get a sense of what I mean. Given that 45% of Americans are young Earth creationists, they must have a very paternalistic and personal view of god. He’s like Geppetto, tinkering away in a workshop for our benefit. They don’t seem to think any less of their founding fathers, ignoring that they were also men of flesh and blood, fallible, political, and vain. Since the first Canadian prime minister once puked in parliament because he was too drunk, we might have a more realistic view of our all too human beginnings as a state.

So I think there might be a swath of Americans worried that their current leaders, whose humanity is obvious by their drinking (GWB), philandering (WJC), smoking (BHO), and admitted drug use (all three) think that the former state of grace and perfection (Eden) has been overtaken by a bunch of frat boys.

I’d love to hear alternative explantions.