Not Born but Made

At NRO, John O'Sullivan makes an important point about what the Boston bombings mean in regards to how we deal with immigration in this country.  Is the current trend of multiculturalism the answer or is assimilation -- assuredly a dirty word in today's lexicon -- the correct path?  The Founders thought the latter.  And as O'Sullivan argues, the current trend of multiculturalism has been steadily undermining any attachment -- Lincoln called it the electric cord -- to the principles of the regime, which the Founders thought was what truly made someone a citizen.  

Here is O'Sullivan:

Ten days ago the Hudson Institute published an important paper, “America’s Patriotic Immigrations System is Broken,” by John Fonte and Althea Nagai, which drew on a massive new Harris Interactive survey of native-born Americans and immigrants (which Fonte discussed on the Corner). 

This study shows beyond any doubt that, as John Fonte puts it, the patriotic attachment of naturalized citizens is much weaker than that of the native-born. For example, by 30 percentage points (67.3 percent to 37 percent) native-born citizens are more likely to believe that the U.S. Constitution should be a higher legal authority than international law if there is a conflict between the two. But that is only one example — the strength of Fonte-Nagai paper is the cumulative evidence that a relatively weak love of country persists across a large range of issues. But read the study for yourself. 

Into this moral and patriotic vacuum seeps what Orwell called “transferred nationalism.” In his day this was usually some variety of Marxism; today it often often a variation on radical Islam. But it is adopted and sparks violent thoughts in the minds of young men whom official America has shielded from the old Americanization. 

Getting patriotic assimilation right is as vital — perhaps more vital — than getting border security right. It is an essential part of any comprehensive immigration reform worth the name. To propose opening the country to millions of new immigrants until we have solved this problem is simply to invite more violence from more young men whom we have disoriented and left victim to the worse impulses.

In all of this, it is always important to remember that Americans are not born but made.