The View from Lou: "American Spirit"

By Saratoga

We asked the group about the attitudes that make up the “American spirit”. Care to guess which got the highest score on the “yeah, everyone would agree with that” scale?

America 250 questions & responses by the Louisville roundtables from previous weeks got us wondering about what we all mean when we say and hear the words “American spirit.”

So, last week, we asked:

To what degree do you think people consider each statement below as an aspect of American spirit, from 0 (nobody would agree) to 10 (everyone would agree)?
Scroll right to see all six

We also had a place to say more if we felt like it. The top answer was…

The order was:

• Nobody likes being told what to do (most common rating was 10)
• When it really matters, people show up for each other (most common rating was 9)
• We don’t quit (most common rating was 8)
• We don’t have to stay what we were born into (most common rating was 8)
• We figure it out for ourselves (most common rating was 8)
• The horizon is always calling (most common rating was 5)

It was a tough question to answer for many of us based on comments folks volunteered. Here are a few great ones that are emblematic of the large majority of responses…

I tried to fill this out, but it’s like Stranger Things – there is what I would consider our historic American Spirit, and there is the current situation which is like The Upside Down. There is a dark side to all of these questions, and right now I see that more clearly than ever in my life. And I’m old.

I think the character of our nation has been fractured — actively for political purposes — so severely, I lack confidence about how to parse out the balance of what the nation believes.

There’s so much hope in these statements that I want to put 10s on all of them but the underside of each is pretty gritty, too… I do think the American spirit is one that embraces potential and that potential is a fierce part of our character. I think hope lies in that as well. We just have to make sure we lean into ‘the better angels of our nature’ too.

And these takes would also get a few heads nodding

We spent 5 years as expats and I found myself saying often (and I really believe it) “yes, America has some of the worst things in the world, but we also have some of the BEST things in the world”.

meh

We apologize to the group for bumming them out, yet what we’re saying together is also fascinating. The list of the American spirit attitudes aren’t widely disputed, with the possible exception of the beckoning horizon, but it hurts for many of us to acknowledge them in July of ’26. The definition of the American spirit is something that has survived partisan times, but it has a different ring now for many.

For this author, bravely pseudonymized as Saratoga, there is something reassuring, or at least useful, about our agreement on something shared in America. The American spirit is not fake news. And, in so not being, maybe it offers a basis on which to decipher one another a bit better.

“Nobody likes being told what to do” is something I’ll consider when I’m flummoxed by someone’s political reaction I don’t understand. And I’d like others to keep in mind about me when the shoe’s on the other foot.

But it’s easy to take that idea too far. I think most of us like being responsible for things. I do. I also like when I follow through on things I commit to. I like being needed. And I like that I need things from others who are dependable.

I sometimes get the impression is that we’re forgetting the difference between “Nobody likes being told what to do” and “Nothing should be asked of anyone.” We’ll try to unpack that together as the year goes on.