During the next 18 months leading up to the election of a U.S. president and members of Congress, we shall frequently hear the phrase “the American people.”
Unexamined, the phrase suggests the existence of a unified voice of authority from like-minded people across the United States. To authenticate the assertion of this collective authority, references will be made to a particular poll or a collection of interviews with the “man (person) on the street.” Sometimes “the American people” becomes embodied in the comments and opinions delivered in a conversation in a diner or the local hardware store.
However, a second look at referencing the American people to legitimize a position is like building a foundation on shifting sand. The image of the American people shifts with the eye of the beholder: white males or people of color, women, 11th generation Americans or first generation, LGBTQ+ people, Southern culture or Northern culture, West Coast or East Coast, city people, country or suburbanites.
Are American people identified as the patriotic or the college educated, the common-sense blue-collar worker or experts on the earth’s climate, U.S. citizens, documented or undocumented immigrants? It would seem we are on very shaky ground if we accept the authority of a nebulous understanding of “American people” allegedly speaking in unison for all of us. No poll, collection of interviews, cultural or regional wisdom can speak for all the people.
Authority is not based on what some mythical American conglomerate believes. Being an American is not defined by agreement with a presumed like-minded leader and the leader’s followers. Being an American is much more complex.
The poet, Carl Sandburg wrote:
“The people is the Grand Canyon of humanity and many many miles across. / The people is a Pandora’s box, humpty dumpty, a clock of doom and an avalanche when it turns loose. / The people rest on land and weather, on time and the changing winds.”
We are people “with flaws and failings, with patience, sacrifice, devotion.”
We, the American people, have settled here from practically every country of the world. We are teachers, students, factory workers, computer nerds, farmers, office workers, homeless, truck drivers, Uber drivers, politicians, military, warehouse laborers, roadbuilders, climate researchers, grocery clerks, food servers, bankers, volunteers, ambulance drivers, medical and nursing home aides, builders of cars, ships, and airplanes, Native Americans.
The American people are the most diverse community of people in the world. It’s that diversity that makes democracy work. There is no one voice or group of voices that speak for the country. Each and every voice has value. Multiple voices combine into a multiplicity of ideas and beliefs, understandings and solutions that could never be generated by a few or an individual. The “American people” is not a source of authority, but a group process whereby people question, listen to one another and seek understanding. They develop individual insights and make individual decisions that collectively elect leaders and guide the country.
It is important for candidates to participate in this process and to communicate their insights, positions and visions for the country. Beware of those who invoke a mythical “the American people” as the authority for their viewpoint rather than saying “here I stand.” We need candidates who trust the mind of each and every person living in the United States to listen to the candidates’ platforms, glean understanding and share insights with one another.
The real meaning of “the American people” is this movement that bestows upon those who are qualified to vote “the element of surprise,” as Sandburg writes, when they cast their ballots 18 months from now. That’s democracy at work.
(The Rev. John Buttrick, United Church of Christ, lives in Concord.)