Don’t Confuse America with Its Politics

From Noah Rothman at Commentary Magazine: "It’s possible that most respondents hear “the political system” and think “politics,” which is a messy and often distasteful part of the human condition. But Gallup didn’t ask about “politics.” It asked respondents about the American system of self-governance, which should be judged not by the fluctuations of the news cycle or the results of elections. The American system of government is predicated upon the world’s oldest functioning constitution. It is a document that has weathered both civil and foreign wars and challenges from competing theories of social organization. It has survived crises of confidence, flawed social experiments, and assaults on basic civil liberties. It is replete with negative and unenumerated rights, which remains a phenomenon that is all but unknown beyond America’s borders.

The American republican system of government was a unique and daring experiment, considering how all prior republics of any appreciable size had failed. And the essential principle of federalism gave rise to an array of political laboratories, all of which are constantly innovating and competing against one another to attract talent and encourage investment.

And in its nearly 244 years, the American political system has yielded a prosperous and free people dedicated to the maximization of opportunity and the fulfillment of individual aspiration. It is a system that privileged civil society over the bonds imposed on people by tribe, manor, and government. It is a system built on compromises, some of which deprived American souls of the full benefits of citizenship. But those compromises also created a system that could one day extend those rights and liberties universally—a mission that will never truly be complete, but it’s also one Americans have never abandoned."