Is Anyone Not an American?

Is there any person among the seven billion people on this planet who is not and cannot be an American?

I only ask because it’s 2020, and Americans have been able to see the effects of massive amounts of immigration, legal and illegal, for nearly 60 years. The Democrats are trying to steal the Presidential election, most certainly with the help of legal and illegal immigrants. If declared President, Joe Biden has promised to grant citizenship to even more illegal immigrants, who will start voting if they’re not already, and I’m still hearing conservative leaders claim that “America is an idea!”

I mean, damn. What does it take for people to open their eyes? If “America is an idea!” what are the specific ideas that a person must affirm to be an American? For the love of God, spell them out and then point to those among us who are not Americans and shouldn’t be voting and directing the future of the United States of America.

Today, millions of “Real Americans” don’t even affirm what 20 years ago would have been considered a fundamental American value – free speech as outlined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Glenn Greenwald recently published an excellent piece on the death of that long-vaunted value, The Ongoing Death of Free Speech: Prominent ACLU Lawyer Cheers Suppression of a New Book.

Is free speech an American value? Are those who no longer support free speech still Americans? What damn values do people have to affirm to be an American if “America is an idea!” Voting? Is that all you have to support to be an American, the right to vote? Lots of people vote in lots of places.

For many people, it seems that the definition of an American depends on the situation. The naive and the commies alike resort to different versions when it suits them.

Sometimes, people are Americans when they immigrate, answer 10 questions, and take a brief oath.

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learn-about-citizenship/the-naturalization-interview-and-test/naturalization-oath-of-allegiance-to-the-united-states-of-america

Raise your hand, pledge those words, and BAM! you’re an American just like me. It’s magic. You don’t have to affirm any specific ideas, you just have to promise to follow laws not raise arms against the state. Wow. Much American. Very idea.

At other times, Americans are Americans because their illegal immigrant mom birthed them in an American hospital on American soil. It doesn’t matter if those birthright citizens grow up believing in “Viva la Mexico!” and “This is stolen land!” It doesn’t matter if they fly foreign flags on the Fourth of July. They’re American as apple pie, because they were born here. See how this works?

I don’t see how taking an oath or popping out a kid on American ground makes someone an American. The oath is so vague as to be meaningless. What ideals are affirmed, the ideals in the Constitution? Actual Americans fight over the Constitution. Such a vague affirmation is nothing but theater.

And, it’s not so much that America lets immigrants in, it’s the numbers and the fact that they vote and don’t care about or affirm the ideas so many claim make America America.

Are white German kids born on Chinese soil Chinese? No, they aren’t, and everyone knows it. There is no such thing as magic dirt. Being born somewhere doesn’t automatically make you part of the the people there. To be part of a nation, you must share the nation’s heritage and values, the people’s myths and legends.

The only people who are Americans are those who were born to American parents and raised to believe in America and its founding ideals. I’d say the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights as clearly understood at the time are a foundation of American ideals. The history of the American Revolution is a foundation. Christianity as woven through our American history, the history of our European founders and the histories of their nations is a foundation. “Liberty,” not “license,” is a foundation.

The inscription on the Liberty Bell, “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof Lev. XXV. v X” is from Leviticus 25:10.

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

“In God We Trust” was adopted in 1956 as an alternative motto to “E pluribus unum,” “From many one,” which was written on the Great Seal of the United States, adopted in 1782.

If Americans want to retain a nation, we have to come to terms with who is American and who isn’t. We have to know in our bones what it means to be an American, and what values are non-negotiable. Then we have to fight for those values and teach them to our children. If we don’t, America and Americans will die.

“America is an idea!” is not sufficient to sustain a nation. If anyone can be an American, the no one is.