What is Greatness?
A lesson for liberals from a Christian ad campaign and the Trump administration
For the past three years, He Gets Us, a campaign whose stated aim is to “to reintroduce people to the Jesus of the Bible and his confounding love and forgiveness,” has aired ads during the Super Bowl. This year’s ad was titled “What is Greatness?” and featured the two unexpected images below.
On the same day the ad aired, on Airforce One on his ways to the Super Bowl, President Donald Trump declared that the Gulf of Mexico would be officially named the Gulf of America.
As ridiculous as that executive order is, seeing how liberals have dunked on it clarified something I’ve always seen as a gap on the left in the U.S. While changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America solved exactly zero problems for everyday Americans, it accomplished a very important goal: It gave conservative Americans yet another rallying point to solidify their identity.
At a time when organizations that used to offer a sense of belonging - religious institutions, social clubs, unions - are in decline, the GOP and Trump have created an online and offline community that people want to belong to. Sure, it's based on hatred, exclusion, and an “us vs. them” narrative that pits mostly white, Christian, conservative American men against everyone else, but it provides a sense of identity in a world where that is sorely lacking.
Liberals and The Democratic Party have failed miserably at providing an alternative. While we claim to be the "big tent," we've focused on identifying people by characteristics that mostly set them apart rather than what can bring them together. Plurality and diversity is the point, but it needs to be harnessed into an "e pluribus unum" mentality that brings people together behind a shared sense of belonging and purpose. To create community.
Which brings me back to the He Gets Us campaign.
I believe the Democrats need a goal, a message, and a campaign to reclaim American greatness the same way He Gets Us appears to be trying to reclaim Christianity from its rightwing fringe.
Since Trump started using the Make America Great Again slogan, the kneejerk reaction from many liberals has been that America was never great. That oft-repeated assertion has led to the perception that liberals “hate America,” making it far too easy for the right to lob that accusation at every message, messenger, or action by the left.
It’s time for the left to fix that own goal by asking the same question that the latest He Gets Us ad does: What is greatness?
If conservatives’ conception of America’s greatest moments are the ones when it was catering to the needs of cisgender white Christian men at the expense of everyone else, what are the moments of American greatness that liberals and progressives can own?
America may not be exceptional, but it has been great, and can be great again.
America was great when it fought off monarchic rule and created an imperfect republic with the goal of becoming a more perfect union. America was great when it went to war to end slavery. America was great when Black people and women got the right to vote. America was great when unions helped establish minimum wage, the eight-hour workday, and Social Security. America was great when it opened its doors to refugees from around the world. America was great when a government agency sent a man to the moon. America was great when same-sex marriage became the law of the land.
Are any of these moments unadulterated moments of greatness? No. All of them were the result of struggle, sometimes even war, but they are moments to be proud of. It would not be honest to say that all Christians agree that a hug during Pride or washing off anti-immigrant “Go Back” graffiti are moments of greatness, but they showcase the greatness of Christianity as viewed by He Gets Us.
The Democrats need to find and own our moments of American greatness and Make America truly Great. Again.