Timothy Nerozzi is the foreign affairs reporter for the Washington Examiner.
From Tokyo to Cairo, from Moscow to London, it seems like everyone is dressed as Americans. Once-distinctive sartorial hallmarks of the United States — the baseball cap, the denim jacket, the sneaker — have become unremarkable almost anywhere in the world. T-shirts and blue jeans are now the global uniform.
It’s a remarkable testament to America’s cultural power and influence, but counterintuitively, it can leave Yankees, at least this one, feeling a bit left out. When everyone dresses just like you, proudly expressing your national identity is a challenge.
But there is an exception — the one item of clothing that still acts as a visual bullhorn to all within eyesight that a red-blooded American is among them.
It has been donned by Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Bob Dylan. Donald Trump has worn one. Barack Obama wore one. It is as visually striking as it is practical. And the American West was settled under the shade of its wide brim.
I speak of the cowboy hat — and would like to propose that the United States officially recognize this uniquely American piece of headgear as the national dress.
Despite being a proud Pennsylvanian who didn’t learn to ride a horse until my mid-20s, I always travel with my Stetson. At first, I did so because of its utility. The cowboy hat is a welcome protection against everything from desert heat to heavy rain. It’s convenient to tip over your eyes for a nap on a long train ride, or to use as a basket to hold small items on an empty seat beside you.
But it is the warm reception I receive when wearing the hat — whether from government officials in Taiwan or religious pilgrims in Rome — that has kept me bringing the Stetson abroad.
Though we from the States might think of the cowboy hat as geographically tethered to the Western frontier, foreigners carry no such distinction. To them, America is the West — the New World of rugged individualism and opportunity.
The days of Manifest Destiny taming the wilderness, the California gold rush and pioneers willing to risk it all on a journey toward a better life are long gone. But that spirit lives on as the American Dream, and nothing — other than the Stars and Stripes waving in the wind — better symbolizes it to the world than the cowboy hat.
When Ukrainians wish to convey their patriotism, they can don the unmistakable embroidered shirt called the vyshyvanka. When the Japanese go to their national festivals, they can pull out their kimono. The Scottish have their kilts, and Jordanians have their distinct red-and-white keffiyeh.
In an era when concerns grow that America is losing its shared culture, even as aspects of it wash across the globe, a small gesture like officially designating the national dress could pay dividends by encouraging citizens, no matter their background, to adopt a shared expression of Americanness.
Declaring the cowboy hat the national dress wouldn’t be about forcing the headwear onto the American people but, instead, giving them license to confidently embrace it. I cannot count the people I’ve met in Washington alone who, seeing me in a cowboy hat, approach and confide that they, too, own one. But they invariably say it’s gathering dust in a closet. They wish they had the courage to wear it.
It’s as if they’re awaiting permission — so let’s give it to them.
Maybe in the coming years, once the cowboy hat has been symbolically planted on the national noggin, other garb evoking the nation’s history could receive official recognition. The moccasin, perhaps? The seersucker suit?
I’m not calling on the president to designate an entire, eclectic national wardrobe. But the cowboy hat would be a good start. Then let the conversation begin about what else should be so honored. Even if people want to argue over it, the debate itself could ultimately have a healthy, binding effect on a nation too often inclined toward irreconcilable disputation over more serious matters.
For now, it’s within Congress’s realm to legislate, or the president’s power to designate, Americans’ ability to officially honor their heritage with a flick of the brim and an unashamed “yeehaw.”
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