Today, we kick off a yearlong WPR series examining the relationship between agriculture and water in Wisconsin. The first installment puts the spotlight on the state’s farmers, whose average age is on the rise. We also discuss how global economics may be changing along with Earth’s climate and ecosystem. Plus, a guest shares why she believes recapturing the vision of America’s founders can help unite the country.
Featured in this Show
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A Look At Food, Water And The Future Of Wisconsin
WPR News is kicking off a yearlong series looking at the intersection of food production and water issues. We get a preview of the series, and hear the first installment, which looks at the rising average age of Wisconsin farmers.
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Why We Value Property
Our guest looks at the ways in which society values property and what it says about ideals of community, equality and wealth.
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How Reclaiming The Vision Of Our Founders Can Help Unite Us
An author and political commentator makes the case that we, as citizens, need to re-embrace the vision of America our founders had, in order to unite the country.
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Author: Look To America's Past To Heal Today's Divisions
It’s hardly a stretch when author, journalist and Republican Sophia Nelson says the 2016 election cycle was a particularly divisive one.
WikiLeaks, scandalous recordings and FBI investigations were inescapable realities of the campaign season. Even after President Donald Trump took office, the controversy around the election has hardly died down as the new administration continues to face fallout from intelligence reports of Russian attempts to sway the contest in Trump’s favor.
Those continuing divisions are the subject of Nelson’s recent book, “e Pluribus One: Reclaiming Our Founders’ Vision for a United America.” One area she points to as a cause for division and anger is changing demographics in the U.S.
The majority of Americans are still white, but Nelson said that the country is moving away from its past as an overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country, leaving groups of Americans with a “sense of nostalgia” for a past version of the country.
“America is in the middle of what I call a midlife crisis,” Nelson said, describing America’s current challenges with diversity as one of several past challenges the country has had.
She also said that the U.S. isn’t the only part of the world reacting to shifts in their immigrant, racial and religious makeups.
“We’re seeing it in Europe with the Brexit vote and we saw it here in America with the 2016 election,” she said. “There’s a bit of nationalism going on, and that always happens when we have demographic shifts.”
In her book, Nelson argues that the key to mending the divisions within the country today is in looking to the past, particularly at the framers of the Constitution. She said that the Founding Fathers emphasized a united America and recognized that it would be diverse.
“Our founding fathers coined the phrase, ‘e pluribus unum,’ or ‘out of many comes one,’” she said. “They understood … that oneness always comes from our great diversity.”
But describing 18th century Americans who framed the Constitution as ultimate champions of diversity and equality has rarely sat well with those who have looked at America’s sinister history of slavery and limited rights for women and other groups.
“There is an extreme disconnect with these great men who had this great vision of liberty for themselves,” Nelson said, mentioning Thomas Jefferson in particular, who wrote about unalienable rights, but also owned and, by many accounts, fathered children of slaves.
For her, reconciling those histories is possible keeping by “things in their context.”
“We get in trouble when you look at the Founding Fathers through a 21st century lens … they were living in a time when slavery was literally being practiced by every ‘civilized’ great nation in the world,” she said. “Does it make it OK? No it doesn’t, what it makes it is what it was.”
When it comes to reclaiming what she believes is the vision America was founded on, Nelson places a lot of the responsibility in the hands of American citizens who have the power to hold elected officials responsible.
“We pick representatives to represent us in Washington, and when they don’t do the job, we throw them out,” she said. “They gave us every tool to be vigilant and to keep watch.”
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Author: Look To America's Past To Heal Today's Divisions
It’s hardly a stretch when author, journalist and Republican Sophia Nelson says the 2016 election cycle was a particularly divisive one.
WikiLeaks, scandalous recordings and FBI investigations were inescapable realities of the campaign season. Even after President Donald Trump took office, the controversy around the election has hardly died down as the new administration continues to face fallout from intelligence reports of Russian attempts to sway the contest in Trump’s favor.
Those continuing divisions are the subject of Nelson’s recent book, “e Pluribus One: Reclaiming Our Founders’ Vision for a United America.” One area she points to as a cause for division and anger is changing demographics in the U.S.
The majority of Americans are still white, but Nelson said that the country is moving away from its past as an overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country, leaving groups of Americans with a “sense of nostalgia” for a past version of the country.
“America is in the middle of what I call a midlife crisis,” Nelson said, describing America’s current challenges with diversity as one of several past challenges the country has had.
She also said that the U.S. isn’t the only part of the world reacting to shifts in their immigrant, racial and religious makeups.
“We’re seeing it in Europe with the Brexit vote and we saw it here in America with the 2016 election,” she said. “There’s a bit of nationalism going on, and that always happens when we have demographic shifts.”
In her book, Nelson argues that the key to mending the divisions within the country today is in looking to the past, particularly at the framers of the Constitution. She said that the Founding Fathers emphasized a united America and recognized that it would be diverse.
“Our founding fathers coined the phrase, ‘e pluribus unum,’ or ‘out of many comes one,’” she said. “They understood … that oneness always comes from our great diversity.”
But describing 18th century Americans who framed the Constitution as ultimate champions of diversity and equality has rarely sat well with those who have looked at America’s sinister history of slavery and limited rights for women and other groups.
“There is an extreme disconnect with these great men who had this great vision of liberty for themselves,” Nelson said, mentioning Thomas Jefferson in particular, who wrote about unalienable rights, but also owned and, by many accounts, fathered children of slaves.
For her, reconciling those histories is possible keeping by “things in their context.”
“We get in trouble when you look at the Founding Fathers through a 21st century lens … they were living in a time when slavery was literally being practiced by every ‘civilized’ great nation in the world,” she said. “Does it make it OK? No it doesn’t, what it makes it is what it was.”
When it comes to reclaiming what she believes is the vision America was founded on, Nelson places a lot of the responsibility in the hands of American citizens who have the power to hold elected officials responsible.
“We pick representatives to represent us in Washington, and when they don’t do the job, we throw them out,” she said. “They gave us every tool to be vigilant and to keep watch.”
Episode Credits
- Veronica Rueckert Host
- Rob Ferrett Host
- Judith Siers-Poisson Producer
- Veronica Rueckert Producer
- Chris Malina Producer
- Noah Ovshinsky Guest
- Jedediah Purdy Guest
- Sophia Nelson Guest
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
