The Foundations Of America, According To AOC

All that matters to the Left is that America beat Nazis and Confederates

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes America is solely defined by its wars against the South and Nazi Germany. “Two of probably the most foundation-defining things about American history is that we beat the Confederates and we beat the Nazis,” she proclaimed in a video expressing her outrage over Elon Musk’s alleged Roman salute. In AOC’s opinion, Musk’s odd gesture makes him un-American.

Regardless of Musk’s arm movement, AOC’s statement provides a foundational definition of left-wing patriotism. What makes America great is not the Founding Fathers, not the settlers, and not the winning of the West. What defines America is that we defeated the white supremacists of the Confederacy and Nazi Germany. Everything else is secondary. They make us a multicultural liberal state dedicated to stamping out “autocracy” and “whiteness.” This idea supports AOC’s left-wing agenda and makes her wokeness seem American as apple pie. It also excludes Trump and others who would dare resist the tide of multiracial leftism. That’s un-American–if you accept AOC’s framing.

Unfortunately, a lot of Americans agree with AOC on what makes America America. Popular media fixates on World War II and Nazi killing. It’s practically the only historical event Americans know anything about. The only moments in our nation’s history that receive anywhere near that amount of attention are the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. The colonial era, the American Revolution, the Wild West, and many other events are hardly noticed anymore.

World War II stands as the central event. It made America a superpower, so it’s understandable that our nation is obsessed with it. However, it’s not merely a conflict meant to celebrate the nation’s martial prowess and daring strength. It is celebrated as a conflict that enshrined liberal values and defeated everything progressives don’t like. It doesn’t matter that the war was fought by a nearly all-white military (over 96 percent of America’s combat deaths in WWII were white) and that these men held very politically incorrect views on race and other matters. They become “Antifa” in the eyes of the Left, and they fought for the values AOC so deeply reveres. The Axis, in turn, become Trump supporters and other domestic enemies of the Left. Every Republican presidential candidate is the next Hitler and we need another D-Day at the ballot box to stop him.

World War II is an always useful reference. The vast majority of Americans see it as the “Good War” that made the country what it is today. Unlike with other events, the average educated American will recognize the figures and moments of the conflict. Calling someone Hitler carries a lot more weight than dubbing someone King George III or Santa Anna. Liberals know WWII is a powerful myth to millions of Americans and it’s ripe for them to exploit it to push their agenda. Conservatives often try to counter-attack these claims by painting liberals as the real Nazis. It rarely works.

The Civil War was once the most important event to Americans before World War II supplanted it. It still resonates with the people more than other history, which is why AOC and other leftists still allude to it. However, their version of the Civil War is very different from how most Americans perceived it through the years. They viewed it as a great tragedy that pitted American against American. There was bravery and nobility on both sides of the conflict. Its result was not lamented (outside of the South), but the defeated were not demonized. They were remembered as great men who fought for a misguided cause. We built statues and monuments to honor them. Gettysburg, the North and South miniseries, Ken Burns’s Civil War documentary, and countless other media cemented the image of a tragic brothers’ war. Southerners were never seen in the same light as Nazis–until recently.

A lot of people whose ancestors were not even here during the Civil War (such as AOC) have turned it into a battle between good and evil. The Union were scrappy immigrants fighting for equality against the evil racists of the South. The real tragedy of the Civil War is that the North didn’t impose a more punitive peace on the defeated Confederacy. Leftists are prone to fantasize about how the federal government should’ve executed thousands of ex-Confederates to send a message. Like America in World War II mythology, Union soldiers are turned into Antifa and Confederates are turned into Trump supporters. (This is apparently America’s eternal conflict.)

But this myth deviates from reality. Yes, many Union troops were immigrants–but they were Germans and Irish, not Guatemalans and Indians. Many of them held very “racist” attitudes and they share little in common with the modern Left. They simply fought to preserve the Union–the very same Union modern Leftists will condemn for waging war on Amerindians. American soldiers are only the good guys when killing other whites.

It’s a situational patriotism perfectly suited for the Left. AOC and her ilk can still lambast the “racist” founders, cry over “stolen land,” and demand we tear down our heritage while pretending they’re the real patriots. If their America is just about being Antifa–in GI olive drab and Union blue–then they are always patriotic. What’s un-American is to be against them.

It’s why it’s necessary to counter these “foundational” myths. The Left’s myths surrounding the Civil War and World War II must be dismantled. It should always be noted that white men did the vast majority of the fighting and dying in both wars–and these men didn’t fight for AOC’s values. They fought for their country, not for it to be turned into a third world hellhole.

It’s also critical to advance other national myths to counter the Left’s slim pickings. There is so much more to this country than those two wars. There’s the Frontier and the Founding, both of which are more integral to what our country is than World War II. Those two myths, as historian Richard Slotkin and numerous others bemoan, celebrate the people who made the country rather than abstract principles or modern liberal dogmas. One cannot escape the whiteness embedded into America when one venerates the settlers and the Founding Fathers. A great America would make serious films and TV shows upholding these myths rather than allow journalists and academics to undermine them.

We are in a battle for the minds of Americans. Our people only know a little bit of history, and our political enemies exploit that to their advantage. It’s time to counteract that through a truly patriotic education and a culture that honors the true nature of our great country. If the people knew their true foundations, they would see AOC as an idiot and recognize our nation wasn’t invented at Normandy.