Posted on 03/15/2019 4:53:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
"We can't be divided by race, religion, by tribe. We're defined by those enduring principles in the Constitution, even though we don't necessarily all know them."
So Joe Biden told the firefighters union this week.
But does Joe really believe that? Or does that not sound more like a plea, a wistful hope, rather than a deep conviction?
For Biden surely had in mind the debate that exploded last week in the House Democratic caucus on how to punish Somali-American and Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for raising the specter of dual loyalty.
Rebutting accusations of anti-Semitism lodged against her, Omar had fired back: "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country."
Omar was talking about Israel.
Republicans raged that Nancy Pelosi's caucus must denounce Omar for anti-Semitism. Journalists described the raising of the "dual loyalty" charge as a unique and awful moment, and perhaps a harbinger of things to come.
Yet, allegations of dual loyalty against ethnic groups, even from statesmen, have a long history in American politics.
In 1915, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, at a convention of the Catholic Knights of Columbus, bellowed: "There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism ... German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans, or Italian-Americans.
"There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is a man who is an American and nothing else."
The New York Times headline the next morning:
"Roosevelt Bars the Hyphenated."
It continued: "No Room in This Country for Dual Nationality, He Tells Knights of Columbus. Treason to Vote as Such."
What would Roosevelt think of the dual citizenship of many Americans today? If someone is a citizen of more than one country, how do we know where his primary allegiance lies?
Does not dual citizenship, de facto, imply dual loyalty?
Nor was the Rough Rider alone in his alarm. As America edged toward intervention in the European war, President Woodrow Wilson, too, tore into "the hyphenates":
"The passions and intrigues of certain active groups and combinations of men amongst us who were born under foreign flags injected the poison of disloyalty into our most critical affairs. ...
"I am the candidate of a party, but I am above all things else, an American citizen. I neither seek the favor nor fear the displeasure of that small alien element amongst us which puts loyalty to any foreign power before loyalty to the United States."
In another address, Wilson declared:
"There is disloyalty active in the United States, and it must be absolutely crushed. It proceeds from ... a very small minority, but a very active and subtle minority. It works underground but it shows its ugly head where we can see it, and there are those at this moment who are trying to levy a species of political blackmail, saying: 'Do what we wish in the interest of foreign sentiment or we will wreak our vengeance at the polls.'"
What did Ilhan Omar say to compare with that?
Roosevelt and Wilson had in mind some German and Irish citizens whose affection for the lands and peoples whence they came made them adversaries of Wilson's war, into which we would soon be dragged by a WASP elite with deep ties to Great Britain.
Our Founding Fathers, too, were ever alert to the dangers of dual loyalty. In his Farewell Address, President Washington warned against a "passionate attachment" to any foreign nation that might create the illusion of some "common interest ... where no common interest exists."
Did FDR fear dual loyalty? His internment of 110,000 Japanese, mostly U.S. citizens, for the duration of World War II, suggests that he did.
Did not the prosecution of American Communists under the Smith Act, begun by Truman and continued by Eisenhower, suggest that these first postwar presidents saw peril in a secret party that gave allegiance to a hostile foreign power?
Where Wilson, TR and FDR distrusted ethnic and racial minorities, Truman went after the ideological enemies within -- the Communists.
What defines us, said Joe Biden, are the "enduring principles in the Constitution, even though we don't necessarily all know them."
But if these principles, of which many Americans are not even aware, says Joe, are what define us and hold us together, then what is it that is tearing us apart?
Is it not our differences? Is it not our diversity?
Is it not the powerful and conflicting claims of a multiplicity of races, religions, tribes, ethnicities, and nationalities, as well as clashing ideologies, irreconcilable moral codes, a culture war, and conflicting visions of America's past -- the one side seeing it as horrible and hateful, the other as great and good?
"Diversity is our greatest strength!" we are ever admonished.
But where is the evidence for what appears to be not only an inherently implausible claim but a transparently foolish and false one?
Fighting extreme diversity.
Diversity is another word for affirmative action, you get what you want not because of who you are but because of what you are. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!
Another Biden trope.
Anyone who believes and follows the Koran cannot swear allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. The two documents are antithetical to one another - pure and simple.
They need to do away with dual citizenship.
Pick ONE allegiance and stay with it.
Anything less shows the inability to make decisions.
We have a problem with globalists. A lot of these globalists have dual citizenship. That means that at least one of the citizenships is for reasons that likely have nothing to do with the interests of the country in question or its citizens. As long as you have dual citizenship you are going to have pseudo-citizens who may well act as parasites on one of the countries they are a citizen of. It seems reasonable to think that this is a danger our country has walked into thanks to one hard case years ago that created a precedent that many have since exploited.
Poor Joe. He doesn’t go out into the world much. Joe lives out in the deep woods
Diversity means not excellence.
You’re right.
America is unique in that many don’t have to go back more than 3 or 4 generations to track their ancestors to another country.
Find to like and even keep some of the traditions of that country.
Loyalty is a MUCH different word than tradition.
Most of us get a kick out of hearing about each others’ different ethnic ancestries.
That is SO FAR from pledging allegiance to or loyalty to another country. Or a religion or ideal that is an antithesis to the constitution.
Who the hell know if i used that word in the right context? :) I think I did.
Sorry but “multi culturalism” and all its bizarre ramifications is here to stay. There is absolutely no evidence that diversity strengthens a nation. The Immigration Act of 1965 was the beginning of the end of the American republic. There no longer exists a common consensus of values or culture. The people live in enclaves. BTW be prepared for a crazed suicide bomber, a member of America’s multi cultural, diverse society to attack a packed Church this Easter after what happened in New Zealand.
“’Diversity is our greatest strength!’ we are ever admonished. But where is the evidence for what appears to be not only an inherently implausible claim but a transparently foolish and false one?”
BTTT
A gifted politician might respond, "History and gateful nations around the world know our greatest strength is that we are Americans".
For centuries children around the world were taught our national motto, "America is a boiling pot." President Teddy Roosevelt stated, "The only man who is a good American is a man who is an American and nothing else."
This is a good article by Pat Buchanan but one wonders where he was on NBC and Obama's ineligibility and whether he was public when it counted?
A little coffee helps:
“History shows, and grateful nations around the world know, that our greatest strength is we are Americans”.
100% correct a century ago, 100% correct today.
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