Duvniask wrote:The Reformed American Republic wrote:Many nations deify their foundations, and America is no different. With that being said, we shouldn't implement something just because the founders did it.
I could be wrong here, but on a surface level, the way and also the amount Americans seem to invoke their Founding Fathers (not to mention the Constitution, o sacred document!) is different from many other liberal democracies. Other countries also celebrate their mythologized founders and other important historical figures, but the way Americans do it seems more active and involving, as the Founding Fathers and the Constitution are invoked in seemingly every conversation about matters of state.
I don't think I have ever in my life seen someone defer their answer on the desirability of policy to the founders of the Danish nation, who are temporally much further away than the likes of Washington, to be sure. But people also do not defer to other important historical figures that much here. You don't see people going "that's against the wishes of Stauning!" when someone proposes to cut down on the welfare state. It's therefore always struck me as odd how much Americans do it. I also find it notable in the amount of flags I've seen when I visited (my brain is also imagining the stereotypical home with a flag out front).
The American state is fundamentally the same one as it was when the constitution was ratified, over the years it has become ingrained as a part of the American civic religion. As for not revering founders, that can be attributed to 2 things, one is that most modern democracies in Europe don’t have a proper founder, like who would be the founder of the UK? Boudica? William the Conqueror? Queen Anne? However, the countries which do have a widely accepted founder absolutely do revere them, the Dutch anthem is entirely about William of Orange and Turkish politics basically revolves around how similar to Ataturk your views are.