This piece was originally written either in the late 1990's or in 2000. It has existed in various versions, most of which were longer. When it came to writing something I wanted to leave for my kids to read, I decided to pare it down and tighten it up.
This is the result from early 2002:
Yes, there is a "unique American Culture"
Patriotic Americanism must continue to prevail over the desires of those who wish to deny that there is such a thing as "a unique American culture." Our ancestors anticipated attempts to lead our nation down a path to balkanization and expected us to stand fast against them. We must consistently refute lies that contend America was founded by and populated by people possessing broadly diverse perspectives and ideals. The ideas behind concepts like multiculturalism and diversity were anathema in the America of 1776 and for nearly 200 years thereafter.
In their faith, habits and principles, the first American citizens were a most narrowly diverse lot, separated only by slight variations in Christian denomination. In their ethics, morals and values, the first Americans could only be described as virtually homogenous. It was the similarity not the diversity of our forefathers and founders that set the stage for America to become a great nation.
Those who advocate diversity and multiculturalism as being historically important to this nation's greatness are dangerously wrong. Using their twisted logic, we are to believe that the ideals driving Islamic terrorists to fly planes into buildings are societally compatible with the motivations that drive Presbyterian women to have fundraising bake sales. Diversity theory places Christian Baptism on par with Animist ritual mutilation of baby girls' genitalia. Diversity theory blindly accepts into our midst hordes of incompatible, poorly educated, virtually aliterate(if not outright alingual) illegal alien border-jumpers from third-world Kleptocracies because it is supposedly in keeping with "the things for which this nation stands." There is no doubt that our founders would be nauseated by such absurd notions.
Thomas Jefferson expressed concern about this issue in "Notes on Virginia" (brackets added for clarity):
"…But are there no inconveniences to be thrown into the scale against the advantage expected from a multiplication of numbers by the importation of foreigners? It is for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much as possible in matters which they must of necessity transact together. Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. Every species of government has its specific principles.
Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute monarchies [the equivalent of today's despots, tyrants and kleptocrats]. Yet, from such, we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass."
Jefferson chafed at the thought that we could, by inaction, surrender our homogeneity and he was greatly concerned that we might! All this banter about diversity and multiculturalism would have given him fits.
Nothing exemplifies how far we have strayed from the intentions and dreams of our founders more clearly than our current immigration policy. Yes, immigration is an important part of our history. But nobody from the pro-immigration camp wants to discuss the fact that the none of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were immigrants, they were colonist and British subjects. Every member of the Constitutional Convention of 1789 except Alexander Hamilton was born in the colonies. The absolute truth is that the vast majority of our first citizens were Americans by birth and the vast majority of Americans have always been "citizens by birth." We have never had as many as 15 percent of our residents being of foreign origin.
Cast in this proper light, the "nation of immigrants" mantra to which we are constantly subjected becomes tritely idiomatic. If we are to be strictly precise, our history is one forged by colonists who became the first American citizens via revolution. These originals were augmented by immigrants who were eager assimilants: All Americans. Before and until the immigration reforms of 1965, between one quarter and one third of all migrants to this land could not adapt and ended up leaving. Those who came here "seeking a better life" without possessing the all-important corollary "dream of becoming American" were roughly cast aside by a society that was decidedly intolerant of selfish opportunists who didn't want to "get with the program." Promoting diversity for the sake of diversity is as accepting of malignancies as it is of the benign; it will always be an utterly stupid practice.
The only way in which we can assure America's long-term continued success as a sovereign nation is to establish new policies promoting American cultural homogeneity via imposing strict limits on the number of immigrants, demanding rigorously-enforced visa and border laws and insisting that all new arrivals submit to and successfully complete compulsory "patriotic assimilation" courses soon after their arrival. Those who cannot accept our unique culture, mores and values as their own, forsaking all others, should be summarily returned to their countries of origin.
Technorati tags: core beliefs, American Kernel
Labels: American Kernel, Conservatism, Culture, Diversity, History, Western Civilization
Katie's Dad said...