In a recent piece in the New York Times, New York University historian Steven Hahn contextualizes Donald Trump’s illiberal tendencies. Trump’s illiberalism, argues Hahn, is not so un-American after all: “That Mr. Trump continues to lead in polls should make plain that he and his MAGA movement are more than noxious weeds in otherwise liberal democratic soil.” Hahn proceeds to document a host of illiberal episodes and strains of thought from American history, from racism to anti-Catholic bigotry. He concludes: “Illiberalism’s history is America’s history.”
Hahn fails to mention that illiberalism’s history is also human history. The tendency to form prejudices, to conceive of “us” and “them,” to govern based on power rather than reason, is not an American invention. Those impulses are baked into human nature; Herodotus was documenting them long before Hahn. And yes, in light of our humanity, Americans are not immune to illiberalism. Time and time again, we fall prey to group-based thinking, unmoor ourselves from reason, and neglect the primacy of the individual.