Posted on 07/04/2017 12:57:51 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In the first line of the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson speaks of “one people.” The Constitution, agreed upon by the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia in 1789, begins, “We the people…”
And who were these “people”?
In Federalist No. 2, John Jay writes of them as “one united people … descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs…”
If such are the elements of nationhood and peoplehood, can we still speak of Americans as one nation and one people?
We no longer have the same ancestors. They are of every color and from every country. We do not speak one language, but rather English, Spanish and a host of others. We long ago ceased to profess the same religion. We are Evangelical Christians, mainstream Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, agnostics and atheists.
Federalist No. 2 celebrated our unity. Today’s elites proclaim that our diversity is our strength. But is this true or a tenet of trendy ideology?
After the attempted massacre of Republican Congressmen at that ball field in Alexandria, Fareed Zakaria wrote: “The political polarization that is ripping this country apart” is about “identity … gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation (and) social class.” He might have added — religion, morality, culture and history.
Zakaria seems to be tracing the disintegration of our society to that very diversity that its elites proclaim to be its greatest attribute: “If the core issues are about identity, culture and religion … then compromise seems immoral. American politics is becoming more like Middle Eastern politics, where there is no middle ground between being Sunni or Shiite.”
Among the issues on which we Americans are at war with one another — abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, white cops, black crime, Confederate monuments, LGBT rights, affirmative action.
Was the discovery of America and conquest of this continent from 1492 to the 20th century among the most glorious chapters in the history of man? Or was it a half-millennium marked by mankind’s most scarlet of sins: the genocide of native peoples, the enslavement of Africans, the annihilation of indigenous cultures, the spoliation of a virgin land?
Is America really “God’s Country”? Or was Barack Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, justified when, after 9/11, he denounced calls of “God Bless America!” with the curse “God Damn America!”?
With its silence, the congregation seemed to assent.
In 1954, the Pledge of Allegiance many of us recited daily at the end of noon recess in the schoolyard was amended to read, “one nation, under God, indivisible.”
Are we still one nation under God? At the Democratic Convention in Charlotte to renominate Barack Obama, a motion to put “God” back into the platform was hooted and booed by half the assembly.
With this July 4 long weekend, many writers have bewailed the animus Americans exhibit toward one another and urged new efforts to reunite us. Yet, recall again those first words of Jefferson in 1776:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them…”
Are we approaching such a point? Could the Constitution, as currently interpreted, win the approval of two-thirds of our citizens and three-fourth of our states, if it were not already the supreme law of the land? How would a national referendum on the Constitution turn out, when many Americans are already seeking a new constitutional convention?
All of which invites the question: Are we still a nation? And what is a nation? French writer Ernest Renan gave us the answer in the 19th century:
“A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things … constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is the past, the other is the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present consent, the desire to live together, the desire to continue to invest in the heritage that we have jointly received.
“Of all cults, that of the ancestors is the most legitimate: our ancestors have made us what we are. A heroic past with great men and glory … is the social capital upon which the national idea rests. These are the essential conditions of being a people: having common glories in the past and a will to continue them in the present; having made great things together and wishing to make them again.”
Does this sound at all like us today?
Watching our Lilliputians tearing down statues and monuments, renaming buildings and streets, rewriting history books to replace heroes and historical truths with the doings of ciphers, are we disassembling the nation we once were?
“One loves in proportion to the sacrifices that one has committed and the troubles that one has suffered,” writes Renan, “One loves the house that one has built and that one passes on.”
Are we passing on the house we inherited — or observing its demolition?
Happy Fourth. And God bless the USA.
To import the people of the entire world is to (by design) destroy the United States.
Natural Born Citizen
Thank the nearest Republican.
colonial ethnic & religious differences were pronounced
The intolerant Puritans of Boston
The Free Thinkers in RI
The Wild and money grubbing Dutch in New Amsterdam
The Dour Germans in Philly
The even more dour Swedes of Delaware
plus a healthy addmixture of Irish, Welsh, Spaniards, Slavs, & the odd Turk.
These people considered themselves to be of extremely different ethnic groups.
We are a nation, but no longer a *Constitutional* Republic. We instead are now a *Banana* Republic, ruled by a massive permanent Leftist Deep State bureaucracy and nine unaccountable black-robed Super Legislators. Elected representatives no longer matter.
Happy birthday, Amerika.
The main problems arose when you they stopped educating young people about the history and government of the nation.
We have an nation of ignorant people where, during the last 50 years or so we have cultivated not one nation, under God, indivisible but rather one nation multi-diverse. Ask any guy in the street what “E Pluribus Unum” means and where this saying can be found.
Coupled with a massive influx of immigrants both legal and illegal who have no desire to join the melting pot rather are there just to rape the material land of plenty. It's like joining a club, without ever reading the bi rules and regulations of membership.
It's still not too late to reverse this downward spiral and Trump is trying to rectify the situation and is facing so much resistance it is scary.
We can only hope and pray that the nation comes to it senses in time or we may find ourselves in a real Mad Max world.
Happy 4th to all of you Freepers and may God shine his countenance upon all of us again.
Within the definition above, the term “nation” no longer applies to this country. When half the population would readily sacrifice national security in order to grab the reins of power, that is not a united people. Hell, the left wouldn’t even keep the facade of unity for more than a week or two after 9/11.
I couldn’t agree more.
Some people want to pretend that is not true. That Kith & Kin don't matter. That we are just thoughts & ideas with no real connection to where these thoughts & ideas came from.
It is just coincidence that our disunity is increasing in relation to our 'multiculturalism'.
These are the essential conditions of being a people: having common glories in the past and a will to continue them in the present; having made great things together and wishing to make them again.”
Amen to that.
“Some people want to pretend that is not true. That Kith & Kin don’t matter. That we are just thoughts & ideas with no real connection to where these thoughts & ideas came from.”
Unless you are white and European then you are NOT an American... Is this basically the talk-around you are getting at? Because that is not the U.S., that is no different that some European nation. We are all quite aware of the nasty subculture that really is pushing this, but the reality is that the United States is a nation based on an idea for people to aspire to, not an skin color to be born as.
Any idiot can be born as something, and those people are generally mediocre, but the United States called for people to look past their lot in life and to look beyond the limitations imposed on them to value life, liberty, and to pursue happiness. To value their potential and God-given talents.
The only thing missing today is that attitude. These days it’s all little groups looking to claim to be victims so they can get by on that alone.
The Leftists and Gubment parasites are petulant children who must be stood up to.
They must learn responsibility and societal cause and effect. It will be painful for them, but eight years of a Trump presidency should be enough time to move enough of them to the righteous path.
Live within your means. Carry your own load. If you have enough means, go ahead and give to the charity of your choice, clean your own environment, but don’t impose your burdens and laws on free men who do not choose your course.
An understanding of the birth-death process (think queueing theory) helps understand the growth of the problem on the birth side.
#####Does this sound at all like us today?
Watching our Lilliputians tearing down statues and monuments, renaming buildings and streets, rewriting history books#####
Unfortunately, another dead Canary in the coal mine is Colonial Williamsburg. When I was growing up and later raising a family, Williamsburg was a “must visit” for children and visitors. Now, it is suffering financially (declining attendance) because most adults don’t know or don’t care about our rich heritage anymore. Very sad state of affairs.
“...but the United States called for people to look past their lot in life and to look beyond the limitations imposed on them to value life, liberty, and to pursue happiness. To value their potential and God-given talents.”
VERY well said.
Blah, blah blah... I'll tell you what. You get the massive anti-white & anti-West subversive BS in this nation to cease and disband and we can talk otherwise that is all it is...is talk.
'skin color' - what a hoot! Skin color is crammed us our arse everyday. Skin color is allowable as long as it isn't white. From our laws & government to our colleges to the MSM & 5th Ave.
'Skin color'...don't make me laugh.
WE are.
Hacksaw off a couplea counties on the East and West coasts, and the cancer in Illinois—and we would be united, too.
Recent issues have caused me to realize that in all human history, the first person to be able to say “I own the body I live in” without being a king was an American. Now the leftwards want to give that up because they think they can force someone else to pay for the maintenance.
So to sum up, all you had to say was “Yes that was what I was saying”.
Well at least that’s one more nut case outed on FR.
Say hello to the other freaks at the Daily Stormer.
You and I must have read this very differently. What's got your panties in a bunch about what was written. It makes perfect sense that people with like ideas will band together and make the nation stronger. Adding millions and millions of people who a) don't think the way we do and b) are not expected to learn our ways will destroy this nation. Or, haven't you noticed?
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