WHO GETS TO BE ONE OF US? THE UNITED STATES. SATURDAY’S EDITION

Civic nationalism or ethnic nationalism - Series 13 #6

This week we covered civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism, what causes societies to shift and where the shift is happening. Saturday applies the framework to the United States.

The United States was founded on civic nationalism. The Declaration of Independence made no mention of blood or ethnicity. The Constitution created citizenship through law, not lineage. For most of American history, the civic promise held: follow the rules, embrace American ideals, contribute to society, and you belong. Immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Germany faced hostility, then integration, then acceptance. Their grandchildren became simply American. Over time different groups face hostily, but the march of time made it clear all, were moving to aceptacne.

Civic nationalism strengthened over the decades and may have culminated with Reagan’s January 1989 speech: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.” That has always been the promise. Until today, when the Republican Party is actively destroying American civic nationalism.