How Nancy Mace made American politics un-American again | Opinion
President Donald Trump scored a huge political victory on the Fourth of July with the signing of his One Big Beautiful Bill Act, buoyed by support from all eight South Carolina Republicans in Congress. Only one of them showed any skepticism. Another called opponents un-American.
Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. And more Americans oppose the bill than support it, according to numerous polls in recent months where the spread was double digits.
That’s a whole lot of un-Americans.
And that made it all the more alarming when Rep. Nancy Mace, who represents the Charleston area in the 1st congressional district and who wants to be the state’s next governor, issued a statement on July 3 that read in part, “If you’re against this bill, you’re against America.”
In the social media era, politicians, and Mace in particular, say silly things. This takes the cake.
The America I know prides itself on the careful study of complex issues, on political debate, on selling legislation before and even after its passage so the public can rejoice or revisit any law.
Mace, of course, will likely dismiss my criticism and tell me to clutch my pearls harder and say, as all politicians do, that she’s standing up for constituents who support the bill. That’s all fine.
This still is America.
People – the proletariat and our politicians alike — can say what they want — even if what they say is not true, even if it’s insulting. That’s the freedom of speech we all should cherish.
Calling a deeply divisive bill “beautiful,” for example, is a staple of American politics. Saying of said bill that, “I’ve never seen such a betrayal of the working class,” as Rep. Jim Clyburn, the Democrat in the state’s 6th congressional district, did? Also a staple of American politics.
But it’s one thing to characterize legislation as good or bad for the American people and let the public debate it — and it’s quite another to characterize the American people as good or bad.
Saying “If you’re against this bill, you’re against America” is as un-American as you can get.
Thoughtful debate – and the disappearing art of civil political disagreements — have helped make and keep America great for nearly 250 years. Calling those who disagree with you un-American, especially when many people do actually disagree, is genuinely un-American.
President Donald Trump’s signature legislative accomplishment has been called many things in the days since he signed it into law. It is big alright. But the fact is the jury’s out on beautiful.
It’s clearly one of the largest transfers of wealth in U.S. history. The Yale University Budget Lab crunched the numbers to determine that the final version of the bill will decrease the average income of the poorest 20% of Americans by $700 a year and increase it $5,700 a year for the richest 20% of Americans and more for the wealthiest 1% of Americans — about $30,000 a year.
It does this in part by cutting Medicaid and food stamp benefits to millions of Americans who have relied on them and by promising that the eventual impact of the tariffs and tax cuts Trump says will boost the U.S. economy will truly supercharge it. The bill also boosts the federal deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years — what fiscal conservatism in Congress? — and honors presidential priorities such as immigration enforcement and defense spending, a show of force for Trump.
The bill does so much its impact is unknowable at this stage. It could be that Trump is the dealmaker he purports to be and America emerges stronger than ever. It also could be that Trump betrayed the middle class that elected him to fix its economic pain by making its life harder for generations.
It will take number crunchers smarter than me to say for sure, and other number crunchers to argue with the first group of number crunchers, and still more number crunchers to argue with the second group, and so on. But those arguments are all fine — and expected, and encouraged.
They’re how Americans will try to figure out the complex ramifications for them, their families and their communities of a bill so long it’s safe to say not all lawmakers read it to the end.
Its ramifications won’t be clear for years. Some of the bill’s provisions take effect right away. Others are phased in over time. Some are temporary while others are meant to stay in place.
What’s certain now is that Trump’s work has only just begun. Ultimately the people of South Carolina and the nation’s 49 other states will decide what they like or don’t like about the law and factor it into the 2026 mid-term elections, or not.
It’s on the people — we the people — to digest what the president and his many surrogates and supporters — and the many critics of the law — say about it. We will decide whether it is beautiful, ugly or something in between.
That’s the American experiment in action.
Right now, Americans overwhelmingly oppose the legislation based on what they have heard about it, but that could change. The law only narrowly passed each chamber of Congress, largely along party lines, with only two Republican defections in the House and three in the Senate. Trump and those who voted yes will try to tell Americans the law is in their best interest. Those who disagree will try to persuade Americans that Congress needs a course correction.
The beautiful thing is that we get to decide. It’s our responsibility as Americans to watch what our elected leaders do and say. It’s our right as Americans to call them out when their actions and words fall short of our ideals, or to compliment them when they take an approach we like.
To his credit, Rep. Ralph Norman, who represents the state’s 5th congressional district, emphasized in the headline of his statement that he has “serious fiscal concerns” about the bill.
“The American people elected President Trump to get this country back on track, and he was clear about the priorities he’d fight for,” Norman’s statement read. “I worked hard to make this bill as strong and fiscally responsible as possible, but at the end of the day, I’m standing with the president and the voters who sent him to the White House to get this done.”
Back on track? Responsible as possible? Standing with the president? All words we’ve heard before but they make their point better than, “If you’re against this bill, you’re against America.”
At this point, I’m not here to say whether you should be for or against this bill though I may help with your research as I learn more about it myself. I am here to tell you that if you’re against the bill you remain American.
This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 4:00 AM with the headline "How Nancy Mace made American politics un-American again | Opinion."