Is there such a thing as a Mission of America? Journalists, politicians, historians, public spokesmen of all sorts have usually proclaimed that there is whenever they have delivered themselves of their latest wisdom about the Genius of America, the Great American Experiment, or just the American Way of Life. Wrapping oneself in the American flag and marching off to do battle with heresy is a popular pastime for men of all parties and persuasions. If one were to listen uncritically to the priests of the Liberal Establishment, he might suppose that the assorted “rightwing” groups have a monopoly of this practice. Yet Liberal historians and their journalistic fellow travelers of the past fifty years are second to none in the diligence with which they have pursued the task of turning the history of the United States into a story of Triumphant American Democracy—peeking under the stones of the past to find seeds of democracy, brushing aside the weeds of unpleasant facts miraculously to bring forth democratic blossoms, and finally discovering that the general welfare clause of the Constitution enshrines the Super Welfare State as the true objective of the American Mission.
THOMAS JEFFERSON: . . . embodies in his theories and action the two principal and antagonistic traditions in the United States.
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