It is no exaggeration to claim that throughout much of American history the very idea of American collective identity has been a contested notion, contested not only by words but by force as well. It may be, then, that American political identity lies essentially in its contested character, in the practical denial of metaphysical notions of ‘the people’ or of ‘national unity.’ E pluribus unum has been more of an expression of faith, the political equivalent of trinitarianism, than a political fact.
Sheldon Wolin, The Presence of the Past, p. 10.
Feliz Dia de la Indepedencia!
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