Philosophy and the Mirror of Nationalism: Richard Rorty, The New Left, and the War on Terror

In the wake of the 2016 election, liberals turned to Richard Rorty’s Achieving Our Country to understand the state of politics and mark an oppositional path forward. Few commentators noted the importance of national pride in Rorty’s argument, and even fewer questioned his assumptions. Here, I argue that Rorty’s argument provides liberals with a reason to support radical leftist politics. Even though Rorty denounces the “anti-Americanism” of the New Left, he credits the movement with ending the Vietnam War when reform-minded leftists could not. In the age of the War on Terror, Rorty’s argument is useful, for it shows why a program of liberal reformism cannot bring an end to America’s current unending war. Just as the anti-imperial New Left saved America in the 1970s, making continued reform possible, liberals should demand that a revived anti-imperialist movement bring the War on Terror to and end.