The Nationhood Lab director and New America scholar appeared on the statewide, long-format “Maine Calling” program to talk about the project’s new work on a rebooted U.S. civic national narrative
Nationhood Lab Director Colin Woodard recently joined New America fellow Ted Johnson on Maine Public radio’s statewide public affairs interview and call-in show, Maine Calling, to discuss the implications of the Pell Center project’s new report on a shared U.S. national story.
“Is there still a common American story, an uber identity that, despite our other divisions, most of us still subscribe to and, if so, what is it and how do we talk about it today?” Woodard asked. “It turns out that Americans are already primed, without perfecting messaging, around a shared set of values, the ones in the Declaration of Independence. That we as Americans are defined by our pursuit of a society where peoplke can be universally and sustainably free.”
Ted Johnson, head of New America’s US@250 project and author of When the Stars Begin to Fall, said he wasn’t surprised that when Americans are asked about their core identity, they quickly reach for the Declaration.
“That’s where I consider the promise of America to be is in that paragraph,” said Johnson, who is on Nationhood Lab’s advisory council. .”That we’re created equal, that we have inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that government derives its just power from the consent of the goberned.”
“Americans believe in equality, they believe in rights and they believe in democracy, but that doesn’t necessarily govern their political behaviors aor their electoral choices,” he added. “We’re a values-driven country that doesn’t always vote its values, but sometimes votes its socioeconomic interests over these evergreen core values.”
The segment aired live across Maine on the morning of April 23 and was rebroadcast multiple times subsequently. You can hear it – or download a podcast – here.
Nationhood Lab released its findings Mar. 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The full report, “The Story of America: A rebooted civic national narrative for the United States,” includes core narrative scripts outlining the broadly shared vision of the United States. It is the result of a year-long research project at Nationhood Lab, a privately funded initiative of Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy.