Republicans<\/a> featured on the series all appeared to regard the story of America\u2019s founding with the same reverence as their counterparts across the aisle. The docuseries serves as proof that two sides that seem to not be able to agree on anything these days can come together in appreciation of the idealism and spirit behind one of the greatest underdog narratives in history.<\/p>\n\u201cWe definitely did want to make a point about partisanship here,\u201d Knappenberger said. \u201cGeorge Washington in his farewell address had warned the country against extreme factionalism, which was their word for partisanship. He really believed that it would tear the country apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, what Washington warned the country against appears to be playing out in his namesake capital. \u201cI think we\u2019re in a very, very partisan and divided time right now,\u201d Knappenberger said.<\/p>\n
Knappenberger addresses this divide head-on later in the series, with Pence recounting the events of January 6 \u2013 how he had watched, 20 years earlier, Gore certify the results of another controversial election, even though it meant losing the presidency \u2013 and how he knew he had to stand strong against the pressure from his own president to shirk his duty. \u201cMy only purpose was to keep my oath,\u201d Pence said, referring to the oath he took when he was sworn in to preserve, protect and defend the constitution.<\/p>\n
Both the politicians and academics in the series make a point about the power imbalance existing today. \u201cThe power of the executive right now would be surprising to the founders,\u201d Knappenberger said \u2013 and that the only way to combat that is for members of Congress to stand up to Donald Trump and his allies. \u201cI think the American people would do well to reflect in the 250th year since the signing of the Declaration [of Independence], on the framework of our constitution and to particularly encourage our elected representatives to take back the authority and the role that the founders intended,\u201d Pence said.<\/p>\n
The American Experiment. Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n
The experiment could still fail \u2013 all of this can be broken. But Knappenberger remains optimistic. He pointed out that when John Adams became president, he had told his wife, Abigail: \u201cWe\u2019ll be in Washington for four years if the country lasts that long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOptimistic estimates were 20 years, 30 years at the time,\u201d Knappenberger said. \u201cAnd here we are at 250 years. We\u2019ve lived through quite a lot of really serious crisis moments \u2013 a Great Depression, wars. With the civil war, the country did actually break in half. In all these moments, we\u2019ve managed to kind of correct it and figure it out and get through it and come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will not be the first time in the nation\u2019s history when its future comes under question, nor will it be the last. But it is the possibility of failure that has become just as much a part of the American story as its successes. \u201cThe fear of losing it all is actually a source of our strength,\u201d the conservative historian Yuval Levin says in the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the national anthem of England, it\u2019s God Save the King. The national anthem of France is about how great France is. The national anthem of America is about barely making it through one night,\u201d Knappenberger said. \u201cIt\u2019s who we are. We\u2019ve inherited something incredible \u2013 and we\u2019re on the cusp of losing it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first episode of The American Experiment ends with the song Devil\u2019s Spoke by Laura Marling \u2013 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-656499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}