I think the political thinker Robert Kagan, who wrote the book Rebellion, got it right when he pointed out that the American Revolution ushered in two powerful forces. The first was a system of government that purported to treat all people equally, even though it really ignored much more than half of American adults. This Kagan referred to as a liberal system of government. But at the same time, it also ushered in at the same time powerful forces of illiberal rebellion against that liberal system of government. Those rebellious forces were the dark forces of backlash that wanted to maintain the privileges of those at the top of the hierarchical American society—mainly rich white heterosexual men.

The recent American election showed us awesome powers of liberalism that again, at least purport to speak for the Americans who are short on privileges.  In particular the two speeches from James Talarico, my kind of Christian, from Texas and Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, my kind of Muslim from Michigan.  Both spoke about making the US a great country again that welcomed others besides only the majority white population. I listened to both of their acceptance speeches and they filled me with hope again.

I recommend you go on line and listen to both speeches.  They are just speeches, but boy are they speeches. Hope for the nation of America which seemed to have irredeemably lost its soul.

Abdul El-Sayed, the surprising Senator-elect From Michigan, who won his seat against the hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign financing of his opponents,

“…they hate the idea of an America big enough for anyone who looks a little different, or prays a little different, or whose family comes from a different part of the world. That includes me, but it also includes anyone and everyone who doesn’t look like them, pray like them, love like them, or isn’t rich like them. So they turned this race into a simple choice. They want an America that is too small for some of us. We know that America is big enough for all of us. Big enough. We’re big enough to take on the crises that we face.”

I call this pluralism. A country where everyone has human rights because they are humans. Not just rich white heterosexual men. Abdul had been accused of being an American hating Muslim. That was a lie.  As he said, “I love America, but I love America enough to ask her to be America for all her kids.”

That’s the kind of country I want too here in Canada. I think we are a bit closer to being that then our neighbours to the south.