I am an American

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Last Night, as the sandwich shop employee assembled my foot-long oven roasted masterpiece, and my wife's cold cut combo, I got to talking to the gentleman in line behind me.  He made reference, after quipping we are losing our rights and freedoms, that a red star is on California's flag for a reason. I understood the communist reference, chuckled, and then the man said that it could be worse.  He's originally from New York, and at least here he's not limited to the size of soda he can buy.

He said that when he was a kid, he should have seen this coming.  One of his elementary teachers asked that in the class for all Americans to stand up.  He said he was the only one climb to his feet.  The children in that class, even though born in the United States, considered themselves to be more associated with the nation of their ancestors, than the nation of their birth.

A few weeks ago a member of my Constitution Class asked me what the Founding Fathers would think of dual citizenship.  She figured they wouldn't be hip with the concept of sharing one's allegiance with another country, in addition to their loyalties to the United States.  She was right.  The plan of the deconstructionists, and the work of over a hundred years of socialist infiltration and indoctrination, has finally brought America to a point that the leaders of the Soviet Union often spoke about.  We would someday cease to be America, and we would do it to ourselves.

During the American Revolution only a third of the young country's population supported the fight for independence.  Another third of the country was indifferent, willing to live under whatever rule emerged victorious from the hostilities.  The final third were "loyalists."  These Tories were loyal to The Crown, considering themselves to be British Subjects.  They saw the revolutionary effort to break away from Britain as being treasonous.  These were the people that sabotaged the American war effort, and did what they could to discourage the effort towards independence.

After the American Revolution ended, most of the Tories headed for Great Britain.  Some remained behind.  The British did not recognize the United States as being a sovereign country, and believed that the petulant colonies would come crawling back to the King, asking for forgiveness, in due time.  After all, believed the British, and their loyal subjects in America, self-governance is a losing proposition, and in the long run would fail, and the hungry colonists would come crawling back to the British Empire.

The Tories that remained behind in the young United States tried to infiltrate the system, sabotage local politics, and convince the wayward Americans to return to the Mother Country.

The Founding Fathers, in turn, demanded full allegiance to America.  For example, the definition of Natural Born Citizen required that both parents of the American in question had to be American citizens at the time of the birth of the subject in order for him to be considered natural born.  This would avoid people with divided loyalties from taking the presidency.

Assimilation was a key to becoming an American.  Immigrants were always welcomed, but under the condition that they properly navigated the processes of coming to America, and that they become fully American, and shed their loyalties to the country of their birth.

George Washington, in a letter to John Adams, stated that immigrants should be absorbed into American life so that "by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures, laws: in a word soon become one people."

In a 1790 speech to Congress on the naturalization of immigrants, James Madison stated that America should welcome the immigrant who could assimilate, but exclude the immigrant who could not readily "incorporate himself into our society."

Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1802: "The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias and prejudice; and on that love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education and family."

I am an American, through and through - and so is my wife.  She was born in Mexico, and naturalized in 2007.  If you ask her she does not say that she is Mexican, or Mexican-American.  She will tell you straight to your face, "I am an American."

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Assimilation and the Founding Fathers - Patriot Post