News sometimes tells us things we already know. A recent example of this phenomenon occurred when Phil Robertson—star and patriarch of the Robertson family made famous by the A&E reality show Duck Dynasty—received a brief suspension after giving an interview in GQ magazine where he was a little more candid than usual about how his Christian faith and conservative beliefs have influenced his views on politics and history.
The most widely publicized part of Robertson’s interview was his opinion on one of the foremost “evils” facing society today—not crime or poverty, but homosexuality.
Robertson also said that according to the Bible, “the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God,” and how “eternal healthcare” that comes from believing in Jesus and God trumps any real healthcare plan enacted by laws and government.
Despite the nationwide outrage and debate that ensued, Robertson is now back on the show, and the upcoming fifth season of Duck Dynasty will not address the controversy. While Robertson delivered a few non-apologies, he did not display any consideration that perhaps his comments revealed bigotry or anything seriously wrong that ought to be changed. Instead, Robertson’s words are just one manifestation of a growing strain of worldview that is dominating American conservatism and the Republican party. It can be summed up as the “Nothing’s wrong with America” school of historical thought.
The “Nothing’s wrong with America” concept asserts that America is the best nation that has ever had the good
fortune to appear on Earth, and that despite what any form of research, statistics or witnesses claim, there has never been any immense evil or injustice committed by Americans or in America. Even actual atrocities were in some way justified or necessary, and anyone who insists on talking about or studying such atrocities in depth is, deep down, unpatriotic or conspiring to instill self-hate in Americans so that America will be too weak to stand up to its enemies.
Prominent purveyors of “Nothing’s wrong with America,”—including David Barton, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Michele Bachmann—have mushroomed in influence and popularity in the past decade, and politicians are extolling the idea that even confirmed injustices in the past were never really as awful as most people think.
Were slavery and Jim Crow segregation really the monstrous institutions historians say they were? According to Bachmann, Thomas Lorenzo and their allies, slavery and racism helped keep families united, taught Christianity and hard work to the African American community, and discouraged black people from committing crimes. Was Japanese-American internment seriously an invasion of civil liberties?
Malkin argues that plenty of Japanese Americans were plotting to carry out attacks against the U.S. and join imperial Japan in its quest to conquer the world with Nazi Germany. What was the goal of McCarthyism? For Coulter, Joseph McCarthy was an honorable man who never lied and never ruined the lives of other people in the pursuit of imaginary threats, but actually made America safer and stronger through his fearmongering tactics.
Such fanatical faith in America’s inability to do wrong is also on display in Robertson’s comments. According to
Robertson, he personally never witnessed any racism or violence as a young man in the South. “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once…they’re singing and happy…pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
For Robertson and other believers of “Nothing’s wrong with America,” racism in America was never as catastrophic as some claim it was, and merely talking about racism is, in a way, practicing racism. Thus, we now have puerile statements such as “I don’t see race,” or “I view people in a colorblind way.” If Robertson and company never witnessed any racism, then it is therefore a certain fact that most black people lived happy and fulfilled lives, and changes since the civil rights movement have transformed black people from hardy farmers to welfare cases.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates has noted, there were obviously no black people foolhardy enough to complain to Robertson about racism and violence, as black people who argued with, contradicted, insulted or talked back to white people could expect to be lynched or murdered.
“Governance in Phil Robertson’s Louisiana was premised on terrorism…the black people who Phil Robertson knew were warred upon,” writes Coates, and Robertson’s belief that “black people were at their best when they were being hunted down like dogs…is a persistent strain of thought in this country.”
In the days that followed release of his interview, Robertson first declared that he was a “lover of humanity, not a hater,” but never came close to implying that he had come to any conclusion that he was being bigoted. His ideology is unfortunately not confined to his own family or community, but is gaining ground in America. Robertson frequently extols the virtues of being a wise elder ruling over immature young folks on his program, but he emerges from this controversy as a child who has never learned much of value or changed his ways of thinking since his younger days.
After two weeks of politicians pontificating, viewers demanding further apologies and a petition to reinstate
Robertson that garnered thousands of signatures, Robertson has returned to his old role with little damage to his reputation and hardly any lessons learned. A&E failed to come up with a genuine punishment that could cause Robertson to change his ideas, since Robertson and his ilk are completely opposed to learning anything from their blunders.
Robertson, for his part, is looking forward to being off the air in several years. “Let’s face it: three, four, five years, we’re out of here. You know what I’m saying? It’s a TV show. This thing ain’t gonna last forever. No way.”
That, at least, is a small measure of comfort.
