If The Russians Engineered a Trump Victory

[Bob Butler 54]

(03-29-2017, 02:12 PM)Kinser79 Wrote: As to non-Americans or those who feel they are not Americans.  I hold the view of Theodore Roosevelt.  I have no time for hypenated Americans.

T.R. Wrote:What is true of creed is no less true of nationality. 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. This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. 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 any one else.

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. 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. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. 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.

I bit ago I reviewed some generalities about world views and values.  Most everyone can defend their own systems with logic, evidence and woo.  The logic often feels like convoluted doublethink.  The evidence often feels cherry picked and spun to death.  The woo is generally a child of the logic and evidence, but more poetic for lack of a better word.  What seems like nigh on holy high principle to one person feels like ugly garbage to someone else.

The TR quote might be an example of woo that feels holy to some, ugly to others.  TR...   Those were the days of manifest destiny, the white man's burden and Jim Crow.  There was a lot of pride in one's race and culture back then.  TR expressed it with his typical confidence and bombast.

I was into genealogy a while back.  I'm a pure bred mongrel.  I've got lines that trace back to France via Canada, to Norway, and many elsewheres.  The dominant best researched and documented branch, though, is original yankee on the south shore of Massachusetts.  I've got lots of ancestors who settled in Hingham MA.  The most famous landed in Plymouth in 1620, including Priscilla Mullens and John Alden.  I guess that makes me Anglo-American.

I guess I might take pride in my hyphenated past, perhaps enough to celebrate Thanksgiving with an extra spoon full of stuffing.  I don't think my heritage makes me superior to anyone else.  The hyphen doesn't make me want to see the US going into the Commonwealth, and let the queen to some of the ceremonial head of state stuff.  Thing is, I think those with Irish blood should feel as much pride and fun in celebrating St Patrick's day as I do Thanksgiving.  I'm pleased with the melting post aspect of America.  I eat Chinese food regularly enough, and Mexican.  I studied martial arts styles from both China and Japan.  A lot of cultures have contributed to what makes America great.  So long as they aren't practicing actual treason, it's all good.

I see the TR quote as garbage.  There is room for people to celebrate their heritage.  People were more into race and cultural prejudice back then.  I'm pleased to see that fading.  If privilege and prejudice can become more of the past, I'm good with that.

I kinda like TR as a historical figure, but he isn't one of my patron political saints.  I like Jefferson more.  He is one of my patron political saints.  Jefferson's self evident truths are my favorite bit of political woo.  Jefferson was also a slave holder.  I find it necessary and appropriate, when remembering great Americans of the past, to remember that parts of the past belong in the past.

Tribalism is part of humanity.  It is easy and natural to divide the world between 'us' and 'them' and treat 'them' poorly.  Meanwhile one's own tribe becomes a special bunch naturally destined to have a privileged place.  To me, if one has a conscience, if one cares about good over evil, tribalism is a character flaw to be striven against rather than a justification for treating people badly.  But that's woo.  It's an abstract moral principle.  I can say it and expect a smattering of approval and support, especially from among the blue leaning.

I expect it less from the red leaning.  To the degree that my expectations are met, I am disappointed in those who use race and culture to draw the us / them divide, and who actively promote privilege for their tribe while disparaging other tribes.