The Great American Experiment

Blog overview

In his first inaugural address, George Washington said that the “preservation of the sacred fire of liberty was staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” But as we remember the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 and look ahead to a second Trump administration, this ‘Great American Experiment’, is perceived by many to be in jeopardy. Based on a lecture given at the Sociëteit de Witte on October 30th, 2024, this blog series explores the state of American democracy by looking at the promises and paradoxes inherent in the Great American Experiment and the consequences of the recent election.

Part 3. The Paradox of Trust in Self-Governance

By Kenneth Manusama

January 13, 2025

On my recent road trip that took me from Alabama to Nashville and Lexington, I also reached one of my primary goals of the trip: a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. While standing in line for three hours, I spoke to other attendees. Behind me stood a mother with her daughter, a first-year college student and …...

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Part 2. The Promise of Equality

By Kenneth Manusama

January 9, 2025

Thomas Jefferson’s Promise of Equality in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 created false expectations for most poor and white colonial Americans, enslaved black people, indigenous people, new immigrants and women. Many founding fathers and framers of the Constitution were slaveowners, but only a minority of those slaveowners professed to abhor slavery. In a draft …...

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Part 1. A Shining City Upon a Hill

By Kenneth Manusama

January 6, 2025

Famously, when asked after the Constitutional Convention in 1787 what kind of government had been decided upon, Benjamin Franklin responded: “A Republic, if you can keep it.” With those words, Franklin recognized that a republic, a representative democracy, was a perilous undertaking and that its survival was not guaranteed. Abraham Lincoln said it even more …...

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