It is not very often that we would say something good came of the Super Bowl, but this year is a little different thanks to the dustup over the response (or lack thereof) to the Black National Anthem:  ‘White Tennessee Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen was incensed that Super Bowl fans did not stand in respect for what he called the “Negro National Anthem” during Sunday night’s big game.’

Those who disagree with Rep. Cohen have generally stuck to some form of the argument that because the United States is one nation, it should and does have only one national anthem.  It is precisely here that the door opens for what Rush Limbaugh used to call a ‘teachable moment’ because it is an opportunity to remind one and all that the United States are not one country, but many countries.  This may be done via two ways.

First, politically.  Fifty States make up the federation called the United States.  Each one is a sovereign, independent country.  This truth has been expressed since the earliest days of their independence from the British Empire.  One important example:  The Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the war between Great Britain and the States, says explicitly that each State is a nation in her own right:  ‘His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States; that he treats with them as such . . . .’

It has generally been the authoritarian centralizers in the US who have tried to spin out a different version of reality – that the 50 States are one country – folks like Alexander Hamilton and Justice Joseph Story.  Abraham Lincoln took their theory and put into practice by force of arms in an illegal, unjust war, but delusions will last only so long before falling apart.  The Soviet Union affirms that:  Fifteen very different countries forcefully united under the rule of Godless communists in Moscow broke apart in 1991.  The European Union is constantly in danger of falling apart because it is similarly trying to amalgamate 27 independent countries into one giant supernation; Charlemagne’s earlier version of a European superstate fell apart for similar reasons.

The United States are not immune from these political dynamics.  Dissatisfaction with an all-powerful government in DC continues to manifest in the States.  Texas’s de facto nullification of the Biden administration’s and the federal Supreme Court’s immigration directives is just the latest example.  It appears that it will be only a matter of time before one or more States leave the present union.

There is a second, and more important, way that the United States are many countries rather than one:  culturally.  The easiest way to illustrate this is the Red State/Blue State dichotomy.  In this regard, there are at least two countries existing within the current boundaries of the US – the conservative-leaning Red States and the liberal-leaning Blue States.

But there is more to it than that.  Because of the immigration patterns that have occurred in North America, there are several distinct cultural regions that have formed within the US.  New England, because of her settlement by the people of southeast England, shares their penchant for cities and industry, and for egalitarianism and radicalism in politics and religion.  Dixie, settled by folks from southwest England, is the opposite, favoring agricultural pursuits, rural lands, and hierarchy and tradition in politics and religion.  On we could go:  The Great Plains are more Scandinavian and German; the Rocky Mountain States are heavily Mormon; the Desert Southwest has a lot of Spanish influence; etc.  All of this is well-attested to by authors such as David Fischer, Joel Garreau, and Colin Woodard.

Religion, bloodlines/heredity, geography, and climate all combine to form unique cultures and countries that deserve as much autonomy as is possible within reasonable limits.  Many in the US deny these very plain and simple truths, however, thinking that allegiance to a political creed is enough to empty people of their historical and cultural memories and roots and create new, blank slate men and women who will inhabit a utopia called America.  That didn’t work with the overly collectivist, individual-erasing communist ideology in the Soviet Union; it won’t work with the overly individualistic, community-erasing liberty ideology of the US either.  Both are simply secular substitutes for the Christian Church – the only Body in the world capable of creating a new united race of men through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.  Because of this, we get second-rate ‘national’ rituals like the Super Bowl to help foster our unity rather than major feast days of the Church for the Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Pure Mother, other major saints, and so forth.

The healthier path for the States will be to recognize and nurture the various cultures amongst them, to allow them to coalesce into new confederations along rational regional/cultural lines, thereby putting to an end a lot of unnecessary clashes between States and cultures that hold opposing views on incendiary issues like abortion, drug legalization, transgenderism, immigration, marriage, guns, and the rest.