In the second quarter of the twenty first century in America, nationalism is the dominant ideology that we hear about.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s equated with populism.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s broken down into identity nationalism (white nationalism, black nationalism, La Raza, etc.), there\u2019s even religious nationalism out there.<\/p>\n
But where does that leave us civic nationalists?\u00a0 And is it just one thing?\u00a0 Or are there multiple definitions and multiple groups using the term differently?\u00a0 Well, there probably are.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve never done a deep dive of exactly what I believe the definition of an American is.\u00a0 And that\u2019s probably because other than finding it by accident and naming it after one of us, Italians aren\u2019t really the primary architects of Americanism.<\/p>\n
The Brits started this show.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And they fought some more Brits and the Spanish and the Mexicans and even the Canadians(!) to make this a world power.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 And to fight the Civil War.\u00a0 And since they look closely enough like Brits no one cared after a couple of generations.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cthose durn foreigners.\u201d\u00a0 So, it took them four generations to be accepted in the club.\u00a0 Well, what can you do?\u00a0 People are suspicious of what they don\u2019t recognize as their own.<\/p>\n
Well, okay, so now I guess, I\u2019m kind of, part of, the club (sorta kinda).\u00a0 Maybe not to everybody\u2019s 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\u2019m as American as the Fourth of July.\u00a0 And I am.\u00a0 The descendants of the Brits in New England don\u2019t believe in this thing called nationalism.\u00a0 They\u2019re globalists.\u00a0 They think loading up America with people who don\u2019t speak English and don\u2019t want to be American is okay.\u00a0 In fact, better than okay.\u00a0 They want to eliminate the idea of America because they\u2019re ashamed of their history and want to destroy the country they live in.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Of course, I\u2019m also hemmed in on the other side by the real descendants of the Brits who haven\u2019t turned globalist.\u00a0 The good old boys consider anyone whose people haven\u2019t been here for three hundred plus years to be Johnny-come-latelies.\u00a0 And maybe they\u2019re right.\u00a0 But honestly, I don\u2019t imagine it makes any difference.\u00a0 Unsorting the ethnic grab bag that this country has become doesn\u2019t seem to be a realistic project.<\/p>\n
But what then is civic nationalism to me?\u00a0 Well, part of it is having an identity tied to the American project as it has emerged over the long history of this country.\u00a0 That means embracing Jamestown and Plymouth Rock.\u00a0 It also means embracing the expansion westward with all the cruelty and pain that meant for the settlers and the Indians.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They have to stand up during the Star-Spangled Banner at baseball games and put their hands over their hearts and sing the song.\u00a0 They have to have cookouts on the Fourth of July and watch the fireworks.\u00a0 And they can\u2019t 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.\u00a0 And it means respecting the laws and especially the laws we have for coming here.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We get to invite or not invite who we want or don\u2019t want.\u00a0 It\u2019s an exclusive club and it should be thought of as a great honor to be allowed in.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s my idea of civic nationalism.\u00a0 Americans respect their heritage and respect the laws and customs of this land and don\u2019t trample on the rights of other Americans.\u00a0 And we give our allegiance to this country and not the places that our ancestors came from.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the second quarter of the twenty first century in America, nationalism is the dominant ideology that we hear about.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s equated with populism.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1859],"class_list":["post-33941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-civic-nationalism"],"yoast_head":"\n