“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them; and every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.”
– George W. Bush
“America is not only for the whites, but it is for all. Who is the America? The American is you, me, and that. When we go to America we will become Americans and there is no a race or nationalism called America and the Americans are those Africans, Indians, Chinese, and Europeans and whoever goes to America will become American…. American is for all of us and the whole world had made and created America. All the people all over the world had made America and it shall accordingly be for all of us.”
— Col. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya
Both men are liars. Civic nationalism is a lie. The proposition nation is a lie. The nation of immigrants is a lie. Immigrants, and their descendants, are not, and will never be American any more than the original settlers have become Indians over time by virtue of their possession of the Magic Dirt.
Nations are not soil, they are blood and birth. Because nations are people, extended families that share genetics, language, religion, culture, and traditions.
If America is for everyone, if anyone can become American, then America does not exist. Which, of course, is the insidious objective of the entire exercise in redefining it.