2/3. The Civic Communion Debate — Gaius observes that despite ceremonial declarations of national strength, the United States remains profoundly fragmented domestically. Germanicus presents French philosophical recommendations for "Civic Communion," emphasizing shared, major institutions—Religion, Military, Education, Healthcare—where citizens belong to each other transcending immutable background characteristics. Germanicushighlights that the US prioritizes enshrining individual rights and liberty but neglects fraternity, the concept providing implicit kinship and reciprocal obligation among citizens. Gaius articulates French exceptionalism, which embraces those joining the French civilizational sphere; the French concept of laïcité requires that kinship to France supersede sectarian and identitarian attachments. Germanicus emphasizes that the US has failed to cultivate the idea of constituting a "people" and lacks emotional bonds necessary for sustained national unity. Gaius notes this fragmentation was temporarily healed during the World Wars but is now fully developed, resembling divisions of the 1840s-1850s. Germanicus describes contemporary American society as characterized by "bile and rancor," where citizens are rewarded for denouncing American institutions, rendering reestablishment of "imagined kinship" extraordinarily difficult and requiring fundamental reconceptualization of national identity and shared purpose.
1908 FRENCH GRAND PRIX