Former President Donald Trump is closely associated with the phrase in the title of this essay. His fans emblazon caps and signs with the phrase and display it proudly. His opponents scorn it. But . . . shouldn’t America be great? Who are the people who don’t want America to be great?

Let’s parse the phrase word by word and consider what it can and should and actually does mean.

Make America Great Again

Emphasis on the word “make” suggests that effort is needed. It hints that America’s greatness isn’t complete without some deliberate human action. If somebody has to make America great, then the greatness of America’s “purple mountains’ majesty” or its “fruited plain” are not sufficient. Even when “the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home” or “the moon is shining brightly on the Wabash,” America’s greatness is not complete.

That is not wrong. Natural splendor is worthy of appreciation, but other countries have mountains and/or coastlines and/or forests and/or deserts, too. America’s natural diversity is extraordinary, but a population of 330-million people ought to contribute something extra. Two hundred and thirty years of history ought to show some accomplishments.

I can think of no good reason that anyone, whether they are friend or foe of Trump, could object to the first word of the slogan.

Make America Great Again

There is an ideology called Cosmopolitanism that suggests we are all citizens of the world. It holds that national citizenship is limiting and pointless. A cosmopolitan person doesn’t prefer any one country – not even the one they live in – over the general interests of the shared world. For that reason, a cosmopolitan would not single out one country over others for greatness.

Most people are not cosmopolitans. Most people wish for the good of their own country above the rest. I say that with the experience of a world traveler. I have sat at table and drank tea with denizens of some of the puniest, impoverished little nations of the world. And invariably they have touted their home turf as the most special little corner in all the world. Even when they were refugees who literally couldn’t survive there, they waxed poetic about their homeland.

Americans feel guilty about their homerism. But it doesn’t make us worse. It just makes us the same as people everywhere. In fact, American brags are usually closer to the truth than the brags of other local boosters.

The Trumpian patriot says, “Make America great. That’s enough.” The cosmopolitan says, “Belgium! Angola! Equatorial Guinea! Norway! America, too! Make ‘Em All Great!”

Every American ought to wish well for America. And I think they do. Some might wish America’s political, economic and cultural influence curtailed in one way or another, but they wish that because they think it would be better — not because they wish ill to the country.

Make America Great Again

Here’s the most difficult word to parse, because there is no generally accepted definition or measure of greatness. By several measures, America has achieved world prominence. America has the largest Gross Domestic Product in the world. It has been #1 by this measure continuously since 1871. But we’re not #1 in everything.

•  In terms of economic freedom, the Heritage Foundation puts the US in the #12 spot of all countries in 2019.

• US News and World Report in 2019 listed the US as the 8th best country overall, citing “dominant economic and military power.” Likewise, its “cultural imprint.”

• Wikipedia lists 83 different ways America stands out from the rest of the world, including:

• Most roads, railroads and airports

• Largest producer of corn, strawberries, beef, almonds, chicken, cheese, and several other farm products

• largest gold reserves

• highest incarceration rate

• most guns

• most Christians

• most billionnaires

• most world backgammon champions

• world’s biggest producer of nuclear power

• biggest government budget

• biggest budget deficit

• most aircraft carriers, fighter planes, submarines, naval destroyers, cruise ships and largest military budget overall

But when people think of America’s greatness, they aren’t thinking of rankings or measures. They’re thinking of how living in America affects them:

These so-called man-on-the-street interviews are not good for gathering reliable data. The subjects aren’t given time to think, and they often give answers that are trite. We can trust them only as a quick glimpse of thoughts about the topic. The New York Times in 2016 surveyed citizens and asked what year America was at its greatest. The responses nearly all pointed to a very recent time, and the most popular time of all was immediately before 9/11. So even when Americans were given time to think, they showed very little sense of history and great achievements.  

There were partisan patterns in views of America’s greatness. Republicans, over all, recall the late 1950s and the mid-1980s most fondly. Sample explanations: “Reagan.” “Economy was booming.” “No wars!” “Life was simpler.” “Strong family values.”

As a group, Democrats seem to think America’s greatest days were more recent; they were more likely to pick a year in the 1990s, or since 2000. After 2000, their second-most-popular answer was 2016. Sample explanations: “We’re getting better.” “Improving social justice.” “Technology.” Even 2008, a year of financial collapse, was pretty popular, perhaps because President Obama was also elected that year.

 These are pretty dismal indicators. They hardly distinguish America above other nations, or the decade mentioned above previous decades when family values and technology were advancing. More than any genuine insight, these comments exemplify people looking at the world through rose-colored glasses.

I would want to cite specific achievements as evidence of American greatness. Two that come to mind quickest are the post-WWII Marshall Plan (which rebuilt a war-ravaged Europe) or the building of the Trans-Continental Railroad during the 1860s. To my mind, those were greater achievements than landing on the moon.

In a small way, America was great in 1825 when a jury in Indiana convicted and hanged three white men for the murder of nine Indians. The Trail of Tears and the whole desolation of the west came later. On the Indiana frontier, on that occasion at least, Americans lived up to the principle of equal justice under law!

Make America Great Again

“Again” implies that America was great at some time in the past, but is not at the present moment.

From the point of view of science, this is hard to justify. The benefits of science and technology have moved steadily forward. Surely the more recent advances (smartphones) have meant less than those of a century ago (antibiotics and electrification). But they are advances all the same. Economically, America’s long-term trend has been upward, with a recession or two each decade.

Similarly, from a civil rights perspective there was no great America in the past. Women agitated for the right to vote for nearly a century. But they got it in 1920, and they still have it. American Indians weren’t recognized as citizens until 1924. Black Americans still face injustice in many forms, but there was no glorious past when they had more rights than they have today.

Overall, it is hard to find a time in the past when things were clearly better for all citizens, or when America more fully achieved its ideals.

Perhaps the people who wear “Make America Great Again” hats – some of them, at least – are racist bigots. It is possible that the “greatness” they wish to restore is nothing other than getting a black man out of the White House and putting a white man there. I think this is likely true for some, but not all, of them. The slogan is simply the worst kind of dog whistle for hate and bigotry.

But I also think that Trump’s strongest adversaries would be well advised to embrace the slogan. Even now that Trump is gone, the slogan is worthy.

Let’s do make America great. Again.