Donald Trump rose to power on a dark vision of American life: stagnation, lost greatness, unfairness. But he’ll eventually leave office — really, he will. David Leonhardt, an editorial director in Times Opinion, wants to know what’s next. What should America’s next story be? In the first in the series, he looks back to America’s founding story.
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The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
David Leonhardt: Today, “The Opinions” is starting something new: a series about our national story.
Right now, we’re obviously living through a pretty dark narrative. Americans are polarized and they’re frustrated, sometimes with good reason. But we’re not going to get out of this rut without a different story that can rally people to a new trajectory. That’s what this series will examine.
In the coming episodes, we’ll talk to historians, writers and policymakers to think about what that new story can be.
Audio clip of Jill Lepore: I like the word “determination.”
Audio clip of Elizabeth Warren: We’ve got to make this country work better for working families.
Audio clip of Pete Buttigieg: We need to open the window on big, bold changes. Even if people aren’t prepared for that. Yet.
And before we look to the future, we want to look at the very first story, and where it came from.
Audio clip of David in Washington, D.C.: When you’re far away, it’s the beautiful dome, which is great, but Jefferson himself is hidden until you get right up here.
I’m standing inside the Jefferson Memorial in Washington and just as you walk inside the memorial there is a quote. The letters are huge, each about three feet tall, and they wrap around the inside of the memorial’s famous dome and loom over this massive statue of Thomas Jefferson.
It reads: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
The quotation comes from a letter that Jefferson wrote to his friend Benjamin Rush.
That line reflects the principles of the Enlightenment, which had started in the late 1600s. Enlightenment thinkers believed that reason and science should prevail over brute political force, which was a radical idea when it first began to spread. But during the 1700s, more philosophers and writers began to make the case for reason and for human autonomy. These were the ideas that animated the people — like Jefferson, who started the American Revolution — and became this nation’s founders.
Of course, there were some shameful exceptions to the founders’ Enlightenment thinking, including their treatment of Native people and their support for slavery. In Jefferson’s case, this included his enslavement of other human beings. That will always be a deserved stain on his legacy and the legacy of the other founders.
The founding of this country embodied Enlightenment thinking in ways that no previous event had, even if it didn’t always live up to that thinking. The founders called for religious freedom; they said that a government had no legitimacy if it oppressed its own citizens. Before the American Revolution, no other country had been founded on these ideas. After the revolution, many other countries would be.
When you visit this memorial and you think about this country’s history, you realize something: America was founded on a story. Other nations have their roots as ethnic enclaves or as places for people of a certain religion. Not America. It began as a story that Enlightenment thinkers started telling in the 1600s and the founders then told to themselves and to the world. They risked their lives for it.
That story — with all its beauty and, yes, its terrible contradictions — has remained part of our national fabric. It’s been the foundation for the American stories that have followed. Every important social and political movement has told a story. The abolitionists did. So did the Progressives and the Whigs, the suffragists and the civil rights marchers, the advocates for disability rights and for marriage equality.
Stories have been especially important when the country found itself in a crisis. They have enabled America to emerge from that crisis to find a new path. Just think about the central figures of American history — think of the story that Franklin D. Roosevelt told when the country found itself first in a depression and then in an existential war. He spoke of both security and freedoms. And the voters elected him four times.
Audio clip of F.D.R.: Freedom from want which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants.
Think of Ronald Reagan, who won the presidency during a time of national malaise by telling a story about confidence and strength and his own version of freedom.
Audio clip of Reagan: The American people said, let us look to the future with confidence, both at home and abroad. Let us give freedom a chance.
More recently, think of Barack Obama, who told an exciting story about hope and change.
Audio clip of Obama: That’s what’s happening in America right now. Change is what’s happening in America.
Whatever you think of these presidents’ policies, they were able to enact those policies because of their success at telling a story. And then came Donald Trump, who has now dominated American politics for more than a decade.
Audio clip of Trump: I am with you. I will fight for you. And I will win for you.
You may be alarmed by President Trump’s policies and behavior — I certainly am — but it is vital to recognize that his political success depends on the story that he has told the country: a story about stagnation, unfairness and lost greatness. A story about globalization. And about elites and outsiders whom he blames for our problems.
Audio clip of Trump: We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America great again. God bless you and good night. I love you.
This story first won over Republican primary voters in 2016 with shocking speed. Then it won over a large number of working-class white voters who had previously voted Democratic, including for Barack Obama. In the last few years, Trump has won over growing numbers of Latino, Asian and Black voters.
But here’s something important to remember: America will eventually move on to a new story. We always do. Trump will leave office — really, he will. He is already in his second term, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. It is time to start thinking about what post-Trump politics will be. It is time to start talking about what America’s next story will be.
I understand that many Americans across the political spectrum have become pessimistic about this country. Some go far as to say they’ve lost hope. I want to persuade you that that’s a mistake. America has overcome terrible injustices, gaping societal divisions and dysfunctional political leaders before. But it has also done so by imagining how the future can be different and then forging that future. We’re not guaranteed to do so again. But we can do so again. And if we don’t try, we’re guaranteed to fail.
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Alison Bruzek and Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Pat McCusker. Original music by Carole Sabouraud and Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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David Leonhardt is an editorial director for the Times Opinion section, overseeing the editing and writing of editorials. @DLeonhardt • Facebook
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