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We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of citizens. -Mark Levin
Levin has the right of it. The people who come here from elsewhere may start out as immigrants. Once they are naturalized, and swear an oath to uphold the Constitution they become citizens. Their children, born in this country? They are citizens, too.
This is one of the few countries where someone can move to and become an American. Someone from Japan can move here and become American. Someone from Germany or Russia can do the same. Yet I cannot move to Japan and become Japanese or Germany and become German, or Russia and become Russian. Even in countries where I could pass as a native by my appearance, I would still be a foreigner.
My grandfathers came here from Greece. Both became American citizens (one the hard way, collecting a Purple Heart in World War I). They thought of themselves as American citizens. Born in Greece, but American citizens. One of my daughters-in-law came here from Vietnam. She became an American citizen. She may have been born in Vietnam, but she thinks of herself as American — and is proud of it.
Nor is this unique to my family. Senator Ted Cruz's father came from Cuba. He is now a citizen, and proud to be one. His son was born here and is rightly a proud American. Hung Cao came here as a refugee, became a US citizen, went to the Naval Academy, and retired as a Captain. Science fiction author Sarah Hoyt came here from Portugal. Today, as an American citizen, she bleeds red, white, and blue. The good people who immigrate here and become American citizens.
America is an exceptional nation. Part of what makes us exceptional is that we are a nation of citizens, not subjects. Peel away what it means to be American: at the core is citizenship and responsibility. Yes, at the periphery of this country — Massachusetts, the Pacific Coast from Washington State to California, and the coastal parts of the Central Atlantic States — the appreciation of American exceptionalism has rotted away. But has familiarity with this fact waned in the core of the country? In Texas, Florida, the flyover states? There, it is still as strong as ever. It is still recognized in upstate New York, Virginia and eastern Washington and Oregon.
Maybe those living far from the solid parts of the US might not see it. Maybe if you spend too much screen time on social media or Nextdoor, you'll miss it. But it is there when I walk out my door in Texas. It is there in rural America. The United States is a land of citizens, citizens willing to work.
Yes, some who come here and take the oath of citizenship do not mean it. But they are not really citizens. They remain immigrants.
Discussion (18)
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It is here too. I know and hear many with Spanish and European accents every day and I never think of them as anything but Americans.
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One of your best, thanks, Seawriter.
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I recently read Teddy Roosevelt's speech to the Knights of Columbus in 1915. It is famous as the "No-hyphenated Americans" speech (highlights below), but I also found it refreshing that he was addressing an Italian fraternal service organization founded in America but did not pander to them for votes. He addresses discrimination against immigrant communities and the duties we have as a country to rectify that, but he also emphasizes that what makes someone an American is not where they were born, but allegiance to this country alone, and their willingness to take on the duties of citizenship.
"You of this organization have done a great service by. your insistence that citizens should pay heed first of all to their duties. Hitherto undue prominence has been given to the question of rights. Your organization is a splendid engine for giving to the stranger within our gates a high conception of American citizenship."
I think it is the latter emphasis that distinguishes the Left's vs the Right's view of immigration.
Some highlights:
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. ...Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as anyone else."
"The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. ... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."
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Well, not to be Patty Pedantic here, but you can become a citizen of those countries and embrace their culture.
The best thing about becoming a US citizen is that there are less boundaries on what is possible as compared to other countries. I read somewhere that the difference fundamentally lies in how we look and react to laws. Here, if there are no laws against an activity, then one may perform that activity. In other countries, a citizen cannot make that assumption; their laws tend to say what is permissible. If there is no law governing the activity you wish to proceed in doing, then you have to make the assumption it would be ruled illegal and therefore not do it.
Another great thing about being a US citizen is the ability to own and use firearms - well, in most states . . .
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