Orion's Cold Fire

In the second quarter of the twenty first century in America, nationalism is the dominant ideology that we hear about.  Sometimes it’s equated with populism.  Sometimes it’s broken down into identity nationalism (white nationalism, black nationalism, La Raza, etc.), there’s even religious nationalism out there.

But where does that leave us civic nationalists?  And is it just one thing?  Or are there multiple definitions and multiple groups using the term differently?  Well, there probably are.  And I’ve never done a deep dive of exactly what I believe the definition of an American is.  And that’s probably because other than finding it by accident and naming it after one of us, Italians aren’t really the primary architects of Americanism.

The Brits started this show.  They came over at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock and they fought the Indians and fought the French and finally fought the British to make it America.  And they fought some more Brits and the Spanish and the Mexicans and even the Canadians(!) to make this a world power.

Eventually they brought in the Irish and the Germans and the Scandinavians to work in the steel works and the coal mines and build the railroads.  And to fight the Civil War.  And since they look closely enough like Brits no one cared after a couple of generations.

But when the Italians and the other Southern and Eastern Europeans showed up, they were different enough that everyone could spot them and grumble about “those durn foreigners.”  So, it took them four generations to be accepted in the club.  Well, what can you do?  People are suspicious of what they don’t recognize as their own.

Well, okay, so now I guess, I’m kind of, part of, the club (sorta kinda).  Maybe not to everybody’s liking but at this late state in the American Empire most of the people who have been here for only a couple of generations would think I’m as American as the Fourth of July.  And I am.  The descendants of the Brits in New England don’t believe in this thing called nationalism.  They’re globalists.  They think loading up America with people who don’t speak English and don’t want to be American is okay.  In fact, better than okay.  They want to eliminate the idea of America because they’re ashamed of their history and want to destroy the country they live in.  So here I am a fifth generation Italian American stuck with trying to wave the flag for the people who still believe in this project.

Of course, I’m also hemmed in on the other side by the real descendants of the Brits who haven’t turned globalist.  The good old boys consider anyone whose people haven’t been here for three hundred plus years to be Johnny-come-latelies.  And maybe they’re right.  But honestly, I don’t imagine it makes any difference.  Unsorting the ethnic grab bag that this country has become doesn’t seem to be a realistic project.

But what then is civic nationalism to me?  Well, part of it is having an identity tied to the American project as it has emerged over the long history of this country.  That means embracing Jamestown and Plymouth Rock.  It also means embracing the expansion westward with all the cruelty and pain that meant for the settlers and the Indians.  It means embracing all those people who built the country and fought its wars and allowing for their descendants to have a claim to being called Americans as long as they agree to become Americans.  They have to stand up during the Star-Spangled Banner at baseball games and put their hands over their hearts and sing the song.  They have to have cookouts on the Fourth of July and watch the fireworks.  And they can’t ally themselves with the globalists who bad-mouth George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (and especially not Christopher Columbus!) and say that America is a racist country and all that other jazz that the leftists are always spouting.  And it means respecting the laws and especially the laws we have for coming here.  Specifically, we have to abolish the notion that just being a human being gives anyone the automatic right to come to America and be an American.  We get to invite or not invite who we want or don’t want.  It’s an exclusive club and it should be thought of as a great honor to be allowed in.

So that’s my idea of civic nationalism.  Americans respect their heritage and respect the laws and customs of this land and don’t trample on the rights of other Americans.  And we give our allegiance to this country and not the places that our ancestors came from.  That’s it.