A recent Pit thread about Louisiana requiring the above national motto to be displayed on all school classroom walls (presumably only publicly funded schools, but I don’t think that point was raised in the part of the thread that I read). I suggested that it is past time for a new motto, hence this thread. I put it in this forum specifically because it is likely to be a highly-charged political issue.
Personally, and the reason I think it’s time for a new motto, is that I think the official U.S. motto should not have any religious references at all. If you think religious references are fine, then you may not want to change the motto, or you may want to make it more specific which of the hundreds of religions you think should be honored. I hope not, but post whatever motto you think is good. What I would prefer, if it is allowed to express such a preference, is that this thread should be for suggestions only, not for debate about either the current motto or suggested replacements. If there are some good ones suggested, I may run a poll thread to pick our favorite.
Style: a motto should be short and to the point.
Content: a motto should be aspirational not descriptive. It should reflect the most basic values that we hope our country would represent to ourselves and to the rest of the world.
Here is my suggestion, for what it’s worth, and only offered because I think it would be cowardly to make such a thread without a suggestion, even though I think you all will come up with much better ones.
The change from “E Pluribus Unum” to “In God we trust” was generally considered uncontroversial at the time, given the rising influence of organized religion and pressures of the Cold War era in the 1950s.
Cold War is over. Organized religion is in a steady decline. Let’s change it back.
A motto should not be divisive. So I don’t like In God We Trust.
But having Congress vote on a new one would also be divisive. And it would be unlikely to pass through our Congress unless the filibuster was eliminated. And if that happened, the motto would change back and forth.
This doesn’t exactly mean it is hopeless, just that it can only change informally. Here is an example of that being done: