Throughout history, many governments have fallen at the hands of barbarians. A year ago today, it almost happened in the United States.
Gallows erected by rioters at the U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021. Vice President Pence was saved by Capitol police before he could be captured and hanged by the mob.
On the anniversary of the January 6th insurrection and riot at the U.S. Capitol, we will read many erudite journalists and hear eloquent political speeches expounding upon the terrible events of that day, and why Republicans should turn away from the dangerous conspiracy theories of Donald Trump. We will be reminded of the police officers who were beaten with U.S. flag poles; the calls to “Hang Mike Pence!” as a gallows was readied for the vice president who refused to heed his boss’s demand to overturn a legitimate election; and the shameful failure of influential politicians to condemn the most influential leader of the mob, the sitting President Trump himself, who sat in the Oval Office and watched the riot on TV, taking no action for hours as his most fervent followers stormed the seat of our nation’s government and threatened the lives of members of Congress.
Such reminders are well and good — but we should reflect not only on what happened and what fueled such appalling political violence, but on how to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again.
America is plagued by an epidemic of extremism. On the right, there are dangerous conspiracy theories that led to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. On the left, there is an excessively “woke” attitude about imperfect historical figures and present-day institutions — emphasizing the negative and “canceling” anyone or anything that doesn’t meet their impossibly high standards.
The statue of Thomas Jefferson at New York City Hall is a replica of this one at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
The “defund the police” movement emerged from this mentality, as a reaction to widely publicized incidents of racial profiling and excessive use of force by police officers. On a more symbolic level, there is an attempt to tear down American heroes and make people feel ashamed of our nation’s heritage, rather than appreciating the United States as one of the most forward-thinking countries in history. The flaws of past leaders are simply too offensive, in liberals’ opinion, for even the greatest figures among them to be celebrated rather than scorned.
Yesterday, the New York City government decided to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson which had stood in the council chamber for more than a hundred years. The push for removal began in the summer of 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests. Jefferson will be removed from among the historical statues in the chamber because he was a slave owner.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, declined to criticize the decision, saying he understood why Jefferson’s ownership of slaves “profoundly bothers people and why they find it’s something that can’t be ignored.”
In 2019, I began writing a book about America. At the time, I was a technology entrepreneur who was living in a conservative rural area, serving as a Democratic Party county chairman, taking care of farm animals, and traveling to big cities such as New York and San Francisco for meetings with venture capitalists. In my own life, I saw the tremendous contrasts and political and cultural divide within the so-called “United” States.
Eric Stetson, author of Our Great Nation
During the Trump years, I had become increasingly worried about the unraveling of American society, as economic inequality combined with identity politics to fuel a raging inferno of anger on both sides of the sharply polarized political spectrum. Americans seemed to have too little in common anymore, except their mutual cynicism and hatred of each other.
I’m a big believer in the power of stories to shape the way we perceive the world. Americans no longer had a shared story of our country — its history, present struggles, and deeper meaning and principles — and why, despite our differences, we should try to remain united and work together for the cause of national greatness.
So I decided to write such a story — a grand meta-narrative about America, that I hoped could help to reunite the diverse people of our great nation. I decided also to include relevant stories from my own life and family history to help illustrate some of the key concepts of America’s past and controversies of the present day. Because of my unusual life and background, I had a lot of interesting material to work with.
My original plan was to publish the book in early 2020 and go on a speaking tour across America in an RV during the presidential election campaign season. But my RV broke down and Covid-19 hit, so I had to change my plans. I postponed publication of Our Great Nation and decided to add more to the story after the election and the worst of the pandemic were over.
The past year turned out to be one of the wildest years in American history. My book — already filled with incredible stories about our country — now has even more jaw-dropping material that would have sounded like fiction just a few short years ago.
America is a uniquely crazy and amazing place. That’s the main theme of Our Great Nation. And as the subtitle of the book indicates — The America We’ve Lost and How to Rebuild It Together — it is also a nation in peril. The United States of America today is in deep decline and barely hanging together by a thread. In 10 or 20 years — perhaps even sooner — there’s a real possibility that the country might break apart or plunge into civil war.
My book offers a prescription for saving our country. In part, it’s by embracing a majestic narrative of America’s unique role in human history. But we must also do the hard work of listening to our fellow citizens who are different than ourselves, and unite upon some basic values and principles that are neither of the left nor of the right, but for our common good.
