America Is Not a Credal Nation, But It Needs a Real Creed

A System of Mutual Accountability

By guest contributor TJ Martinell.

A common statement made by civic nationalists is that America is “credal nation,” i.e., a nation in which those who belong to it are determined by whether they adhere to a certain creed.

But this falls apart the moment you ask, “What about U.S. citizens who don’t believe in that creed?” How do you even know someone believes something if his action, such as voting, does not reflect what he purports to believe?

We’d all have to have the equivalent of parole officers making sure that we’re not violating the creed, at the risk of our citizenship being stripped and/or deportation (a concept that would make an interesting dystopian story).

Having said that, this brings up a separate issue Heritage Americans need to address one way or another.

America is not a credal nation, but it does need a real creed.

I’ve recently watched the third season of The Mandalorian, and it occurred to me that one underlying theme of the show that quickly drew me in within minutes of the first episode is Mando’s emphasis on following the Way of the Mandalore, or the Mandalorian Creed. Their creed is what gives Mando and others within Children of the Watch a sense of belonging, identity, and an understanding of who they are versus what they are not. Mando can wander and roam the galaxy not in search of belonging, but on a quest in fulfillment of his creed and obligation to his fellow Mandalorian.

Americans have no such creed binding them together.

Some may point to the “official” American Creed adopted by Congress in 1918, but the problems with it are readily apparent. First, hardly anyone could recite it, let alone know it exists. Second, it is more like a confession of faith you’d find in a church. It espouses beliefs, but not real actions, whereas the Mandalorian Creed emphasizes what one must do and what one cannot do.

The State-manufactured American Creed calls on adherents to love America, support the Constitution, obey federal laws, and defend it “against all enemies.” How can one determine who America’s enemies are? (Hint: it depends on the date and whether or not it’s in the geopolitical interests of the feds.) What happens when federal laws, or the federal government itself, are the enemy of America? And how does the average American “support” the Constitution with more than mere words?

Lastly, creeds must be decided by people who agree to it by consent, not by governments through legislation that clearly prioritizes the needs of the State.

And let’s not even bother to look at the Pledge of Allegiance.

If Americans have a creed, it needs to be one that applies to their daily lives, that allows anyone, whether powerful or not, to adhere to it in a meaningful way. The creed also cannot be secret; just as the Mandalorian Creed was made known to outsiders, we should not be shy about what we believe and how it affects our actions.

A true creed, based on concrete principles rather than abstract concepts, can give Americans a sense of belonging even if their communities and neighborhoods no longer resemble anything American. It is what can connect Americans who otherwise do not know one another so that they can collaborate and cooperate in times of need.

This matters more than ever because, as James Kirkpatrick recently observed: “Whites are stateless precisely because they have no loyalty or identity other than America itself. There is no realistic alternative forthcoming in the short term. This basically makes us food for the groups who are loyal to their real nations but use America as a trough.”

This remark reminded me of a line from The Mandalorian, where Mando is defending a certain rule of the Children of the Watch’s Creed to Bo-Katan, princess of Mandalore:

Without the Creed, what are we? What do we stand for? Our people are scattered like stars in a galaxy. The Creed is how we survived.

The advantage of a creed is that it is organized only by belief and action. Those who follow a creed do not require infrastructure, though it helps. They don’t require winning an election or getting approval from others. They don’t need to fill out government paperwork or maintain a tax exemption status. They don’t need crowdfunding or millions from some wealthy entrepreneur sympathetic to a cause. They don’t need permission to live by it.

A fundamental requirement for any American Creed is that it demands duty and sacrifice on the part of the individual who adheres to it, but in a manner that cannot be exploited by another, especially those who do not follow the creed. It must also empower the person so that he feels moral authority to assert himself in defense of the American nation and others who follow the creed. It must be a system of mutual accountability, which is sorely lacking in most if not all institutions today.

Before they can be accepted, those who claim to believe in the creed must demonstrate their willingness to do so when it is not tangibly beneficial or convenient.

Superman’s motto was that he was fighting for “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”

What is the “American Way”?

The answer to that question will decide what the American Creed will look like, and the kind of people who will step forward to follow it.