The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

by Philip S. Gorski

In 1776, a more inclusive and egalitarian society once again appeared possible, if only briefly. Some whites—and many non-whites—took the founding ideals of liberty and equality to their obvious and logical conclusion: abolition.5 But the price of manumission was deemed too high, and national unity was bought at the expense of racial equality. That same pattern would repeat itself for a third time with the end of Reconstruction and a fourth time after the civil rights movement. Four times the dream of racial equality was sacrificed on the altar of (white) national unity. The question is whether history will repeat itself a fifth time in our own era. This much should be clear by now: realizing the dream of a multiracial democracy means abandoning the spirit of 1690 and the story—the “deep story”—that has sustained it for over three centuries. Instead we must find a new story—a better story—about what America can and should be.