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The US Is Not "One Nation" — And it Never Was
Mises Institute ^ | 07/06/2017 | Ryan McMaken

Posted on 07/07/2017 11:12:54 PM PDT by aquila48

Patrick Buchanan is an informative and interesting writer. On foreign policy, especially, he's long been one of the most reasonable voices among high-level American pundits.

When it comes to cultural matters, however, Buchanan has long held to a peculiar and empirically questionable version of American history in which the United States was once a mono-culture in which everyone was once happily united by "a common religion," a "common language," and a "common culture."

Now, he's at it again with his most recent column in which he correctly points out that the United States is culturally fractured, and speculates as to whether or not Thomas Jefferson's call to "dissolve political bands" in the Declaration of Independence might be sound advice today.

Buchanan is correct in noting that the US is culturally divided today.

But, he appears to have a selective view of history when he contends there was a time when this was not so. If there ever was such a period, it's unclear as to when exactly it was.

Buchanan can't be referring to the mid-19th century when Northern states and Southern states were becoming increasingly hostile toward each other. Many of these differences flared up over slavery, but larger cultural differences were there too, exemplified by a divide between agrarian and industrialized culture, and the hierarchical South versus the more populist North. The result was a civil war that killed more than 2 percent of the population. It was a literal bloodbath.

Was that version of the United States culturally united?

Nor can Buchanan possibly be referring to the US of the so-called Gilded Age. After all, during this period, the US was flooded with immigrants from a wide variety of backgrounds,

(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: americanhistory; culture; nation
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To: Trumpet 1

“Therefore did you neglect to say that the Americans in charge of the nation were just as evil as the communist and the nazis?!”

One has to be cognizant of the realities of the times.

When the constitution of the US was written and for a long time thereafter “We the people” did not include blacks, therefore they weren’t supposed to have any rights to began with, so “we the people” didn’t believe “we” were denying them rights, any more than we today think that we’re denying mules the right to run free or to vote.

Applying moralities or definitions of today retroactively to dead people of a totally different era is a useless exercise in virtue signaling and revisionism.

Who knows maybe if the animal right activists of the future get their way, they will castigate us tomorrow for chaining, caging, slaughtering and eating animals today.

Anyway to answer your question, no the nation leaders during the slave era were not “evil” like the Nazis and communists if you judge each by the prevailing morality of their respective times and places.

It’s also important to point out that two cultures that are anathema to each other can both existat the same time provided they do not interact and do not come into close contact with each other. So even though Nazism and Americanism are anathema, Germany and the US could have both existed if each minded their own business.

Frictions from different values and moralities only arise when two cultures come in close contact, as for example is happening today between the West and Islam.


21 posted on 07/08/2017 1:57:55 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: zeestephen
Between 1620 and 1820, except for slaves and the mostly powerless native Americans, almost every person in America could trace their heritage within a 500 mile radius of London.

I don't agree with this contention. I know that the official language of the US was very nearly German due to the number of German speakers here, in Pennsylvania and North Carolina primarily.

22 posted on 07/08/2017 2:04:37 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: aquila48

I was alive in 1963 and the civil rights law of 1964 had not happened yet. So the 2nd half of the 20th century was in fact the year 1820. OK you have shown to me the light of the truth. I am forever grateful for your intelligence. Sarcasm...actually...you did try. You are not completely wrong.


23 posted on 07/08/2017 2:09:59 AM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: Trumpet 1

One more thought: planet Earth is inter-connected. Economics, politics, military might. There is no such thing as mutually exclusive nations. To think that black people in the year 1963 were nothing more than farm animals is repulsive.


24 posted on 07/08/2017 2:17:07 AM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: Trumpet 1
One more thought: planet Earth is inter-connected. Economics, politics, military might. There is no such thing as mutually exclusive nations. To think that black people in the year 1963 were nothing more than farm animals is repulsive.

What in the hell are you prattling on about? Are you sure you belong here? You seem to have made a planetary wrong turn somewhere along the line.

25 posted on 07/08/2017 2:20:54 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: piasa; RegulatorCountry

Yes. I know one line of my ancestors came from Germany in the early 1700’s.

That family emigrated to PA but soon moved to what’s now TN.

They pledged allegiance to the US and participated in the Revolutionary War. They are verified patriots in the DAR archives.


26 posted on 07/08/2017 2:24:19 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Trumpet 1
Economics, politics, military might. There is no such thing as mutually exclusive nations.

Total globalist BS. Go over to the DU and preach you anti nationalist crapola.

There is nothing in the US Constitutions allowing for unfettered free trade with other countries. Try reading the USC and you will see that duties and tariffs are codified. Our military is "interconnected"? Right? We are the only real military in the West, the rest of the West lives rent free.

27 posted on 07/08/2017 2:53:02 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: reasonisfaith

I agree.

“One Nation” is correct, because when those immigrants became Americans...they committed to One Nation, under God and left whatever citizenship in a different nation behind!

That is WHY The American Revolution happened...to be America-One Nation without British control, and it was fought by ALL who committed to a NEW WORLD created by God for his purpose~

Even the papers of Columbus (translated) showed the Holy Spirit in control of his journey to New World. What God has created can only be destroy with his permission!


28 posted on 07/08/2017 2:57:29 AM PDT by Ambrosia
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To: Trumpet 1

Frankly, blacks worked back then.


29 posted on 07/08/2017 3:25:49 AM PDT by Lumper20
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To: Telepathic Intruder

And they all had there kids assimilate.


30 posted on 07/08/2017 3:31:43 AM PDT by Lumper20
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To: JohnyBoy
We’re one good shock away from everyone grouping with their own and carving territory.

We're already there, in one sense. Try driving by yourself through the south side of Chicago, through Harlem or Watts on a Saturday night.

31 posted on 07/08/2017 4:07:41 AM PDT by Hardastarboard (Three most annoying words on the internet - "Watch the Video")
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To: aquila48; 2ndDivisionVet
So, we can't be a single nation (tell the enemies during WWI and WWII that) because we have a concept of Freedom under God where we don't force religion and other cultural practices down the People's throats?

Being One Nation and being a bunch of clones are very very different things.

I know that simplifies and condenses much of the article, but the overall premise is more a self-fulfilling prophesy than a statement of fact - the question is, what are we willing to do to remain One Nation????

32 posted on 07/08/2017 4:11:39 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: zeestephen

“Between 1620 and 1820, except for slaves and the mostly powerless native Americans, almost every person in America could trace their heritage within a 500 mile radius of London.”

Your statement is an exaggeration, but illustrative of a reality, nonetheless. The original thirteen colonies were populated overwhelmingly by the English, with some Dutch and Germans in much smaller numbers. Blacks were anomolous due to their status. French and Spanish settlements were established in their own territories. In fact, bloody wars were fought to keep the English, French, and Spanish from encroaching on each other’s lands. The result was that the Revolution was fought by Englishmen, for the most part. The United States was predominantly a white English construction. By English, I mean Britisher, including the Scots, Welsh, and Irish. Subsequent expansions west integrated other Europeans, like the French and Spanish, into the mix.

What the heck are we today? Some polyglot mishmash of discordant and unfriendly racial and ethnic subgroups from all over the world, constantly at each other’s throats. All of which proves that the globalist catch phrase “Our Diversity Is Our Strength” is asinine in the extreme.


33 posted on 07/08/2017 4:16:48 AM PDT by DrPretorius
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To: Pollster1

Peruse the Ninth Amendment.


34 posted on 07/08/2017 4:28:08 AM PDT by monocle
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To: aquila48

United Individuals with an understanding of the arc of history and a compass of right/wrong move the republic...forward.


35 posted on 07/08/2017 4:34:06 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: reasonisfaith
The invaders (cultural Marxists, or immigrants of whichever variety) are forced to pretend to have traditional American values such as honesty, good will, work ethic, etc.

I would agree that the values of Marxists and Muslims are contrary and hostile to our republican form of government and therefore should be outlawed. However, your contention that "immigrants ... pretend to have ... values such as honesty, good will, work ethic etc." is flawed seeing that, except for the American Indian, we are a nation of immigrants and the decedents of immigrants .

36 posted on 07/08/2017 4:35:30 AM PDT by JesusIsLord (uite some time.)
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To: zeestephen

My ancestors were part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I also have a couple of ancestors from the Connecticut colony. I really haven’t looked back at where they came from before they migrated to those colonies... maybe I should.

If I traced my lineage back from before the colonies, I’m sure it would show interesting things. My DNA analysis shows mostly British ancestry—but it also shows that I have a very diverse background from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Unfortunately, the further back you try to trace your ancestry, the more unreliable the results are.


37 posted on 07/08/2017 4:40:56 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: JohnyBoy

“...abolish papers and language schools that were not English to force integration.”

When did “we” do that?


38 posted on 07/08/2017 4:49:12 AM PDT by ExGeeEye (For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
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To: JohnyBoy

“...abolish papers and language schools that were not English to force integration.”

When did “we” do that?


39 posted on 07/08/2017 4:49:15 AM PDT by ExGeeEye (For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
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To: aquila48

The immigrants from the early 1900’s through the mid 1900’s may have come from “diverse country’s but they for the most part cam for the same reason. To become Americans, work hard and build a better life for their families then they could where they came from. They did not come here to turn this Country into the same shit-holes they cam from. Big Difference!


40 posted on 07/08/2017 5:06:38 AM PDT by 48th SPS Crusader (I am an American. Not a Republican or a Democrat)
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