Welcome to American Ideologue

"American Ideologue?"

Yes, I know how it sounds. The term has almost always been used as a pejorative—the rhetorical equivalent of a four-letter word deployed in a political argument. (When was the last time you complimented a friend or colleague for being an “ideologue”?) You’re probably picturing someone who is:

• Dogmatic in the extreme, such that every position on every issue is impervious to argument and reason, leading one to conclude that I am also…

• Intellectually lazy and incurious, possessing neither the intelligence nor temperament to engage in good-faith dialogue that might challenge my beliefs—beliefs that are…

• Extreme. To be an American ideologue conjures the image of a cult or militia leader holed up in a compound in Idaho or, perhaps, a neo-Marxist revolutionary in full Che Guevara uniform blocking traffic on the Teterboro Bridge.

Hopefully, you’ll come to see that I am none of these things. However, the other reaction you might have to the term American Ideologue is the one that will be more difficult (and more important) to dissuade you of. The very notion of an American ideology is something most people today—on both the left and the right—believe is either a myth or a toxic conceit of national superiority, often confused with “American exceptionalism” (itself misunderstood).

But I chose the name American Ideologue deliberately. It’s meant to provoke a conversation about something that’s been lost: the very notion that there is an American ideology at all. It is not only real, I believe we need it now more than ever.

Consider the current state of our nation. Recent polls reveal a startling reality: a significant portion of Americans now perceive their fellow citizens as the greatest threat to their way of life. In a CBS News/YouGov poll, 54% of respondents identified "other people in America, and domestic enemies" as the biggest threat to American society, surpassing concerns about foreign adversaries.

This sentiment is further underscored by findings from the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service Battleground Civility Poll, where an alarming 81% of voters believe that democracy is under threat.

Such perceptions have tangible consequences. The AP-NORC poll indicates that voters are increasingly worried about post-election violence, reflecting deep-seated fears about the stability of our democratic processes.

This failure isn’t just political; it’s ideological.

For decades, we’ve been told that ideology itself is dangerous—something for radicals, idealists, or the hopelessly naïve. The elites who govern us believe in outcomes, not ideas, and they present “pragmatism” as the highest virtue. But where has this pragmatism led? The public’s trust in institutions has collapsed. The political parties have lost their moorings. And instead of leaders who articulate a unifying vision, we’re left with warring factions whose only coherent message is that the other side must be stopped.

But what if the real problem isn’t just polarization, or bad leaders, or even the parties themselves? What if it’s something deeper—a fundamental dealignment from an ideology that, for generations, provided a framework for American political life?

That’s the case I want to make in these pages. I believe that:

• Ideology has a bad rap. (Most things we call an “ideology” today are no such thing.)

• The American ideology is real, even if we rarely call it that (or even notice it).

• It can be defined—and in doing so, it can reveal a great deal about who we are.

• It is not (only) classical liberalism.

• We are a nation defined by ideas.

• But the ideology is as much about culture as it is about government.

• It is dying—not because our politics and government are failing us, but because the culture is broken.

• It offers a solution—if we can acknowledge it and treat it like a real ideology.

  
  

I’m not here to dress up partisan talking points with the American flag or tell you the real defenders of the American ideology come from red or blue states. However, I’m also not going to claim the ideology is all about unity or finding some mythical centrist consensus. That’s not the point. Americans have always disagreed—often bitterly—but our system was built to channel that disagreement productively, not to turn us into two warring tribes locked in an existential death match.

What’s missing today isn’t just some “moderate center” waiting to be captured or anodyne platitudes about liberty and justice for all, E Pluribus Unum, and so on. It’s the recognition that America has an ideology—a serious and concrete set of values, beliefs, expectations, and prescriptions that have guided us, whether we realized it or not, and that offers a way forward even now.

So, welcome to American Ideologue. If you’re up for a serious conversation about what it means to be American, you’re in the right place. And, who knows? By the end of this, maybe we’ll all be ideologues.