At Freedom Fighter's Journal, (a blog to which I contribute), there is a post titled A Question of Patriotism. It's a well written and insightful piece about the bonds of love and loyalty citizens have to their country.
But, the one thing that I think is often left out of discussions of patriotism in general, and American patriotism in particular is the unique nature of The United States.
In the post noted above, the writer does not distinguish between Russian patriotism and American patriotism, for example. He uses the poignant story of Russians dissenters, ripped from the gulag and sent to the front in World War II, who despite being treated abominably by their country, loyally went to fight and die for love of it. For them Russia the Motherland is the very ground it occupies, the race of people that grew from that soil, and the centuries that they spent there, evolving the culture unique to them. They are connected by blood, kin and land.
Americans are not.
America is not a plot of land nor a people of common ancestry. America did not evolve organically from the ground of North America, and most Americans don't even share a history beyond a few short decades.
America is an IDEA. And what defines an American is his belief in that IDEA.
We don't have millennia of American ancestors; we have Founding Fathers. America did not evolve arbitrarily or accidentally into a nation. It was founded intentionally.
On an lofty and brilliant Idea.
On Thursday, July 4, 1776.
What we share is an abiding faith in the Idea. Without it there is no America.
Being an American is a choice. Native or immigrant. Being an American is, by definition, loyalty to the Idea.
There is no other thing. There is no other way to be an American but patriotic. Without that express, voluntary dedication, that love and loyalty to the Idea, one is not an American at all, but a squatter in a land that rightfully belongs to others.
And it is those same squatters who howl the most about their "patriotism" while working assiduously to undermine and corrupt the grand Idea.
In this they are right: They are not unpatriotic Americans. They are not Americans at all. They are the enemies of Americans. And contempt is the least they deserve.
The Gunslinger
Joebama American citizens 2024 print
9 months ago
Excellent post - you completely nailed the meaning of a patriotic American.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, can anyone be an American just by asserting a belief in 'liberty'? After all, a Moslem has a very different idea of liberty than we have, as do other cultures. Our idea of liberty comes from a very specific tradition.
ReplyDeletePatrick Henry said “we are descended from a people whose government was founded on liberty; our glorious grandfathers of Great Britain made liberty the foundation of everything. . . . We draw that spirit of liberty from our British ancestors.”
Our country, as I see it, is like a family, some of whose members are adopted and some connected by blood. But it is a family rather than an idea. An idea alone is pretty tenuous to hold a nation together; nations have traditionally been based on common ancestry -- as ours was for the first 200 or so years, before the 'melting pot' era.
Many people embrace liberty by some definition but they are not all able to be called Americans.
Being an American is still a special title and privilege.
I disagree with you, but agree with Gunny -- Being an American is a positive, rational and objective state of mind.
ReplyDeleteVanishing, I didn't say a belief in any old kind of liberty qualifies you as an American!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I didn't use the word "liberty" at all. The American Idea is far more than that. But If I had, I would have meant the very specific and unique American understanding of liberty, as defined by our Founding Fathers.
Read the post again.
I utterly agree that American SHOULD be a special title and privilege...which was also my point. When you let anyone become a citizen, who has not embraced our entire American Idea and all it implies, you are diminishing the meaning of being an American, and the strength of our country as well.
Further, I was saying that even native born "citizens" who do not believe in the original American Ideals and Principles, and work to undermine them, as does most of the Left...are not TRUE Americans!
They're just Squatters.
And are you suggesting the until 1976, all the people in American shared a common original heritage? All the Italians, Poles, Swedes, Germans, Japanese, Irish, English, Austrian, Norwegians, Chinese, Africans?
They, in their separate countries of origin would bet to differ, I expect.
Can I apologize for the typos in the above comment?
ReplyDelete...suggesting THAT until 1976...
...countries of origin would BEG to differ...
What a putz!