Reclaiming the American Ideology
What it is,
Where to find it, and,
Why it matters now,
more than ever
It’s a question too few have asked—yet everything depends on how we answer it. American Ideologue begins with a simple but urgent thesis: that the United States is not merely a place, but a proposition. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, America is “the only nation…founded on a creed.” That creed—however obscured by time, politics, and polarization—has always shaped our civic life. This project seeks to recover its meaning, trace its development, and confront the consequences of its unraveling.
OUR MISSION
01 SUBSTACK SERIES
America Ideologue is a new Substack series that introduces a bold and timely thesis: that America is, and has always been, defined by a coherent—if often unspoken—ideology.
02 AMERICAN IDEOLOGY 101
American Ideology 101 is an interactive online seminar that explores the first real ideology. Through short lectures, essays, historical deep-dives, interactive discussions, and curated reading lists, participants will engage with a new analytic framework for understanding the American Ideology and how we have relied upon it throughout our history.
03 EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Curriculum and educational materials for secondary and higher education will be available for license. We are also designing free materials for non-profit civic, religious and other groups seeking to ground Americans in their ideological heritage.
01 IDEOLOGY SURVEY LAB
The American Ideologue Survey Lab is an open-source research project designed to measure the strength, structure, and survival of the American Ideology in the 21st century. A collaborative space for scholars, pollsters, and civic-minded citizens to contribute to question design., survey methodology and analysis plan.
02 THE IDEOLOGY INDEX
We are building a comprehensive, transparent, and evolving survey model that maps how the four core values still live (or fail to live) in the American mind and experience. Drawing on decades of political science, survey research, and statistical modeling, this project aims to define the core constructs of the American Ideology in testable, measurable terms, develop and crowdsource a set of validated, rigorous questions and indices, and diagnose the ideological health of the country by linking values to behavior, identity, and belief.
03 IDEOLOGY TYPOLOGY
Once data starts coming in, we will create a tool like Pew’s “Political Typology Quiz” where users answer a short battery of questions and are placed in a quadrant or segment of the American Ideologue map.
04 OPEN SOURCE DATA
We are committed to deploying the tools openly, inviting scholars, journalists, civic educators, and citizens to use and interpret the data. This is civic infrastructure, not a proprietary product. However, we need support for generous foundations and donors to fund the data collection. We are also open to partnerships with University survey research centers.
01 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
We believe the American Ideology cannot be reclaimed in isolation. It requires a broad, cross-sector coalition of institutions, scholars, civic organizations, educators, journalists, and public leaders committed to renewing the nation’s civic center. Through strategic partnerships, we aim to build a living network of collaborators who recognize that ideological coherence—not partisan loyalty—is the key to restoring public trust, democratic functionality, and cultural confidence. This initiative welcomes pilot programs, co-branded research, and civic literacy efforts that bring the core values of the American tradition back to life in schools, media, congregations, and communities.
02 TRANSLATION PROJECT
To bridge the great divide in American life, we must speak in a language both sides can hear. The Translation Project takes the four cardinal values of the American Ideology—communitarian individualism, moral and social equality, republicanism, and federalism—and renders them in the moral and political languages of both red and blue America. This is not spin; it is translation in the truest sense—making our shared inheritance intelligible again across lines of difference. Through essays, tools, media collaborations, and community-based workshops, this project shows how Americans who seem ideologically opposed often live by the same values, if only they could recognize them.
03 ANNUAL REPORT
Each year, we will produce a comprehensive Annual Report on the Health of the American Ideology—a civic diagnostic that measures the state of our shared commitments. Drawing on original survey research, behavioral data, and cultural analysis, the report will track how the four ideological values are reflected (or missing) in American political discourse, institutional trust, civic engagement, and social cohesion. It will also feature public-facing insights, visualizations, and recommendations—offering both a mirror and a map for those seeking to restore ideological balance and national purpose.
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Dedicated to the Memory of
Dr. Everett Carll Ladd
1937-1999