The United States is an idea, not an amalgam of tribes
Biden's tribalist census plan a stab in the back to E Pluribus Unum
Whom the Gods would destroy they first make tribal.
The Biden administration is racing forward heedless of the warning.
It has proposed in the census to tribalize the nation and abandon E Pluribus Unum as its unifying idea. (E Pluribus Unum was the unofficial motto of the United States until 1956, when Congress by statute substituted “In God we Trust” unhinged by anti-Communist hysteria). In particular, the administration has proposed to add the Middle Eastern and North African population as a distinct ethnic identity. Latinos would also be made a stand- alone identity separate from Black or White.
These distinctions encourage Americans not to think of themselves as Americans who sink of swim together. They encourage Americans to think of themselves primarily as members ethnic groups with paramount claims to their loyalty. Indeed, they will be taught to perceive themselves as invisible without an ethnic identity emblem. Thus, as reported in The Washington Post (A1, January 31, 2023), Tala Faraj, an Iraqi American, feels alienated when unable to boast about her Middle Eastern heritage.
Is there any doubt that other ethnic groups will clamor for distinct census categories to satisfy their juvenile amour propre? Latinos already may further refine their ethnic origins as Puerto Rican, Cuban, or Mexican American in the census.
We know what tribalism looks like. Endless conflict, strife, and convulsions pitting tribe against tribe. Think of the genocides or crimes against humanity sparked by tribal divisions ongoing in South Sudan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Myanmar. Tribal divisions have reduced Lebanon to a failed state.
The United States was born of more enlightened stuff. The American Declaration of Independence proclaims that all men are created equal (irrespective of ethnicity or tribe) and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights. President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address amplified that this nation “was conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” President George Washington, writing to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, addressed his audience not as Jews but as Americans: “For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
The idea that there is but one race in the United States-American-found electrifying expression in Justice John Marshall Harlan’s unforgettable dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): “But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.”
We are a nation of immigrants unified by the meritocratic principle that our station in life should be determined only by character and accomplishments. Everything else is irrelevant. Thus, Emma Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty welcomes all without regard to tribal or ethnic identity: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift me lamp above the golden door!”
Congress should abolish racial, ethnic, or tribal categories in the census if we wish to endure as the last best hope of earth.
Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum ["I am a Roman citizen"]. We should be aspiring to make the proudest boast today, “I am an American.”
I agree the United States was an idea. Was that really a good idea? The propositional nation was always an experiment, and one whose outcome was never assured. If the American idea required bloodshed to manifest in reality, what does this tell us about that idea? If the American idea required the invasion of foreign lands, from the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, what does that tell us about that idea?
You point out that America is now falling apart to tribalism and corruption, and I think you are correct to do so - But if you are right, then what does this tell us about the American idea?
Wrong, George Washington was sympathetic to the Jews while all the other founding fathers warned against them. He was a mason entrenched in the enlightenment concept. Truth is, what made America Great was the ethnicity of the people who founded it and built it. Black people were lucky to be here and the truth is the ones that understood their slavery saw it as freedom. Now look at the black people of the north, they are lazy and dependent on welfare and food stamps. They were freed first and promised mobility. Turns out without direction they want handouts and don't act civilized in the least bit. The blacks of the south who were the last to be freed are more civilized because of the work ethic they gained from the white families they lived with and learned worksmanship and family life. Truth is, both blacks are lower IQ and need constant hand holding. White European traditions and culture are what made this nation great. But today we can't even recognize Europeans even in their homeland of Europe because Jews have corrupted the political leaders who they appoint using monetary, media, and mob like influence to bring in their world view of cultural marxism. Boiling in the pot slowly of constant race mixing while they stay pure. Unfortunately for you plebs, you look at every question without the question of all questions. THE JEWISH QUESTION.