What is the essence of America? How does one define it in such a way it’s clearly distinguishable from other democracies, republics and so on? One approach might be describing it as a work-in-progress, trying to live up to the ideals and concepts in its founding documents; all created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights which include life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Recall how pilgrims came here seeking to establish themselves as free people who could live, work and worship as they saw fitnot how the king saw fit! They were white English-speaking protestants but over time their colonies expanded taking in peoples of differing extractions/ethnicities also wanting to be free! If they weren’t like colonists (Americans) it became their first order of business; learn English and join in their customs, practices and habits. The melting pot began percolating . . .
By the time of the Revolution Americans were an eclectic mix coming from various places. They had assimilated into liberty’s cauldron to become an admixture of hearty, independent, freedom loving people. When old King George tried to yoke them with regulations, taxes, fealty enough of them rebelled, fought and won their independence.
This core group contained the founders who went on to frame our Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Never before had such documents been drafted by a people on their own behalf, a set of rules for self-governance. There was nothing like it at the time and the world held its collective breath expecting to see it fail. The pot came to a low boil.
Well, it didn’t fail. It began growing by leaps and bounds, becoming a beacon of hope and opportunity to all desperate souls who journeyed here any way they could to join the grand experiment. It was a tumultuous, formative time as the young nation took root, asserting itself on the world’s stage. Whether naturalized or newly arrived, becoming American was everybody’s goal. You sought membership in this new society as your top priority; everything else was secondary.
Till the time of Lincoln, things burgeoned out enormously from colonial days and those English speaking WASPs to a heterogeneous society embracing all who came, so long as they wanted to become American! With the glaring exception of color, fair-skinned people of western Europe, Scandinavia, even eastern European and Baltic peoples including Russians migrated here seeking a better life. The pot now came to a rolling boil trying to melt everyone down into an Americanized common denominator, but the brew was getting lumpy.
We entered the Civil War as a fully Americanized/partly assimilated people, momentarily divided by the issues of secession and slavery. The struggle took four long years and ended the only way it could; in a constitutional and humanitarian society. From there the great cauldron continued the boil till century end, now including peoples of color from South America, Mexico, Africa, Middle/Far East. Stress entered the mix related to darker-skinned people and their religions. Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Middle Easterners, Indians, Asians clung to their cultures, treating English as a “second” language and proudly projecting their ethnicity.
Americanization/exuding American Creed began to falter. Stirrings of dissimilitude arose under an insistent new dynamic of foreignness. New arrivals wanted to be Americans – but hyphenated-Americans! The melting pot became more like a stew pot; things being tossed in weren’t completely melting. They were keeping their ethnicity. The process of assimilation was slowing down.
Like pea soup, certain additives didn’t change it but simply enhanced its overall heartiness: diced carrots, celery, onion for example. Americans were becoming more dissimilar in their appearance and attitude but remained an integral part of the national identity > pea soup!
The next sixty years brought us Wilson, FDR & LBJ and here’s where things really began to change. These were all men of the left: liberals at their most innocent, socialists at their most un-American! To be fully American you must whole-heartedly subscribe to the Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights. There can be no reconciling of socialism/statism to America’s capitalistic republicanism. Yet oddly, some think there can! Each of these presidents introduced radical elements of progressivism/socialism into the fabric of American culture, society and politics.
There were also many changes made to our immigration policy, causing major shifts in migrating demographics. By the time Nixon arrived, government/public utility notices were printed in about twenty different languages. These include ballots, DMV instructions, electricity-water-gas bills and so on. Over the next sixty years languages offered would grow to more than a hundred!
The American populace was (1960’s) now comprised of traditional, home-grown liberals-conservatives; naturalized liberals-conservatives; naturalized hyphenated-American liberals-conservatives; home-grown progressives-socialists; naturalized hyphenated-American progressives-socialists; home-grown AND naturalized American Marxists.
From the 60’s until today, new arrivals are coming more and more from 3rd world countries with no English, no skillsets and no viable resources, making them immediate wards of the state. Sustainability was forfeit long ago, our pot literally boiling over and despoiling its surroundings. Many are jumping out of the pot, others only want a little of what the pot has to offer.
The truth is our wondrous Melting Pot of yore has become a crockpot with no great broth or brew – just an unidentifiable stew of sorts with bits of everything thrown in. Pea soup is just a memory. There is a large bloc of people who actually hate America. They believe it has become an obstacle in the path of one world government and must be taken down, bit by bit, as quickly as possible. With America gone, Marxism- Communism becomes the model for worldwide governance, with a small cabal of ideologues/megalomaniacs ruling over the planet.
I hope enough of us will wake up to this reality and turn things around before it’s too late! Ask yourself – am I an American out of the Melting Pot – OR – just a dummy in a Worldwide Collective Crock?
You’ve Been Reading Shaneview
I’m Al Shane
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