Multiple Traditions Thesis Analysis

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An Analysis of the Multiple Traditions Thesis Martin Caver Word Count: 1246 Throughout the history of the United States, American culture has done its best to provide equality and fairness to all citizens according to Alexis de Tocqueville. Tocqueville, a French political philosopher, initiated his thesis about American equality in his novels Democracy in America Parts I and II in the years 1835 and 1840, respectively (Cosentino). Tocqueville’s thesis states, “… America has been most shaped by the unusually free and egalitarian ideas and material conditions that prevailed at its founding (Smith 549).” In Tocqueville’s thesis, he believes that any difference in this free and equal ideology has simply been a deviation from the usual path. Though many people agree with Tocqueville’s assessment of American democracy, others do not. One of these people who disagree with Tocqueville is Rogers Smith, currently a professor at the University of Pennsylvania (Political Science Department). Rogers Smith argues for his multiple traditions thesis. In 1993, as a Yale professor, Smith wrote on his thesis (Smith 549). There are four parts that make up the Smith’s multiple traditions thesis. The first part states, “…purely liberal and republican conceptions of civic identity are seen as frequently unsatisfying to many Americans, because they contain elements that threaten, rather than affirm, sincere, reputable beliefs in the propriety of the privileged positions that whites, Christianity, Anglo-Saxon traditions, and patriarchy have had in the United States (Smith 558).” To me, this says that true liberal ideas such as equality to its fullest extent threaten some groups within American culture. For example, many Christian groups in the United States do not support gay marriage rights because this act is contradictory to their beliefs. Rogers Smith would argue
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