A nation too diverse
Is a nation cursed.
Ex pluribus, sed multa.
A century ago, America painted itself as a “melting pot.” The strength of our nation was thought to be the diversity of cultures which constituted America’s new Middle Class. America believed it could alloy diverse cultures in the crucible of its dynamic industrial society. America believed in the good faith of new immigrants; that they would settle here, raise families, learn the language and customs of America, adding to it the best of their own cultures.
In theory, a great idea.
Over the following decades, millions of wannabee Americans were checked and cleared (or not) through our ports of entry, such as Ellis Island. The melting pot worked particularly well with Europeans because America is the offspring of Europe. Our original settlers, laws and traditions are primarily European. Even our science and technology had their birth places in Europe. Thus by the 1950s, Brits, Irish, German, Italian, Polish, French, Spanish, Swiss, Danish and all the rest were fairly well alloyed, well on their way to the goal: e pluribus unum.
I was born and grew up in a large Eastern U.S. city during the 1940s, among neighbors who were the grandchildren of European immigrants. My grammar school was filled with them. We pledged allegiance to our flag, “and to the country for which it stands.” Every kid spoke English, and families strove toward the values, traditions and tastes we came to know as The American Dream.
Oh, of course there were problems. Most were a result of poverty, and the tendency of the first generation of immigrants to cluster among one another for support and security, quickly creating whole sections of cities filled with one nationality or another. Still, for the most part, my generation quickly became part of middle class America because we all believed in the Dream. And we knew, if we learned something, worked hard and stayed on the straight and narrow, we could expect to live that Dream.
But it all began to unravel after the ‘50s. Not for my generation, but for the next generations. America no longer was a melting pot. It was a variety pack without the wrapper to keep it together. E pluribus unum has become Ex pluribus, sed multa (from the many.... still many). A form of Balkanization.
Every nationality and ethnic group now has its own precinct. English is not welcome or respected everywhere. Customs from the emigrant cultures no longer give way in favor of the “American” way. Immigrants began coming to America not to share in our beliefs, laws and traditions, but to recreate much of the very places from which they fled! Some even would like their parts of town to be judged by non-American law. Chinatown seemed to have become a template for every other culture. Every group has its own lawyers, political groups and lobbyists pressuring politicians to adopt their ways or face defeat. There are growing communities of Muslims, LGBTQ and every flavor of mankind clamoring for special attention, and for government funds.
Our deeply rooted race problems have been exacerbated by an inability or an unwillingness to successfully meld black, brown and white cultures. Blacks and whites reject each other’s ways. Blacks, browns, whites are constantly at political and cultural odds.
We are experiencing nothing short of political chaos.
And it’s not just political chaos. American’s lifestyles have degenerated into another kind of chaos. Cultural chaos. A full description of this degeneration isn’t necessary. You know the drill as well as I do. From massive addiction, dependence to shocking loss of morality.
If cultural chaos spreads like a disease, the pathogen is political correctness. Far too much of the nation’s energy, treasure and time is now spent patronizing the unreasonable demands of diversity.
Into this boiling cauldron will step a new president.
I don’t know if anyone, short of the Lord himself, can rejoin what is at this point torn asunder. After this election, half the voters will despise the new President, Donald Trump, from day one, and for at least the next four years. 50% of the voters are ready to jump on every word and deed of the new president. Mr. Trump has not even been sworn in yet, and the “honeymoon period” has not lasted 24 hours!
I don’t know if Donald Trump can deliver all or even any of his promises. I don’t know if he will try to be President for all the people. I don’t know if he will be able to make things better for the majority of Americans. But I do know Hillary Clinton wouldn’t. And many Democrats knew it too. Which is why they looked the other way when it came to Mrs. Clinton’s record, and her compulsive lying.
With all his faults, Donald Trump strikes me as Traditional America’s last best hope. Had he not triumphed in this election, America’s future very well may have been that of another has-been. A “Great Experiment” which, after a couple of hundred years, was tossed into the crowded dustbin of history.
My hope for President-elect Trump is that the oath of office will awaken his better angels. If America is to heal, her people, people of every stripe must learn to recognize and acknowledge those angels when they appear.
