Democratic autopsy: The party needs a sense of history, humility and humor | National Catholic Reporter

I don't know where I come down on Winters' analysis.  Read the full essay, and his other recent, linked pieces.

I do think that the culture wars have driven us apart.  But I am unsympathetic to much "conservative" attitudes - because I find the history of the U.S. political system to have been driven by slavery and racism.  Rather than admit that the convention has been to treat the drafters of 17877 as apostles of freedom.

- GWC

Democratic autopsy: The party needs a sense of history, humility and humor | National Catholic Reporter

By Michael Sean Winters

Democrats must acquire a more balanced sense of history, humility about their public policy goals, and a sense of humor about human life if they are serious about winning elections again. That is just as important as abandoning their alienating traits, such as heresy-hunting and scientism, as we discussed recently.

History gives a culture its bearings. If you want to know why things are the way they are, you need to know how we got here. Sadly, a generation or more of college graduates, especially at elite colleges, were schooled in deconstructionism.

Deconstructionism is a method of analysis. It highlights inconsistencies or contradictions in received historical accounts, and recasts history with special emphasis on power dynamics, and a deemphasis of any ideals historical actors gave as their motivation for particular decisions. Associated with the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, its most familiar expression would be Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present.

A wise friend observed, "Deconstructionism robs meaning." It also imports a new and different meaning. As the late Cardinal Francis George wrote in his theology dissertation, "If the United States is not to be a beacon, the universally inclusive 'city on hill,' then it must be a sinkhole, the evil source of global exploitation."