1/ So, there's a lot to say about this @BenSasse piece, including a contestable and contentious conception of the realm of political life. But ...

2/ I want instead to focus on this passage.

3/ I notice that he never defines this mythical past. It's just "the past." It partakes of Phoebe Buffay's division of the past into the "colonial era" and "yore."

4/ The problem here is that any attempt to specify this "past" more clearly would have to surrender Sasse's claims to universality.

5/ To the extent that "the whole town" turned out and rooted for the same team, Sasse is figuring authentic Americanness as involving small, racially and otherwise homogeneous communities.