“We Want Our Country Back”

How you react to that phrase says a lot about your view of culture in a nation. 

Politically, of course, that sums up the so-called BREXIT vote. 

To those on the left, “wanting your country back” is synonymous with hostility to immigrants, legal or otherwise, heavily laced with racial antagonism.  That attitude was summarized by former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnacle (a regular on Joe Scarborough’s MSNBC morning talk show) as “fear of others”!

[How comforting it must be to view those with whom one disagrees as being motivated by negative emotions or deficient character.  That way, you don’t need to inquire as to whether there might be intelligent reasons for their contrary opinions.]

For those Americans who favor “repossessing” their country, they consider their motivations to be quite reasonable.  They object to America’s failure to enforce its immigration laws, bilingual signs in major department stores, the existence of sanctuary cities and so on.  To the extent that these views are fueled by emotions, the paramount one is anger.

What has happened to the melting pot?  America was founded by “others”.  It’s a cliché to recite that we are a nation of immigrants.  Of course we are.

Historically, for our two hundred and forty plus years of existence, we’ve been bound not by shared ethnicity or race, but by values.  We treasure freedom, individual rights and mutual respect among our population.  As Americans, we do not demand uniformity of beliefs, conduct or customs of our fellow countrymen.  But we used to expect a commitment by all to our nation’s values.

That, after all, was what “the melting pot” meant.  People who immigrated to the U.S. naturally came with the manners and habits of the old country.  But they were drawn here by the opportunity and tolerance America offered. Their implicit – if not explicit – obligation was to join the American community, to absorb and adopt its values as well as the English language.  If not, why did they come?

Perhaps a succinct way to describe the relationship between existing inhabitants and lawful newcomers is as a pact.  The immigrant is welcome so long as the person is willing to join the culture.

For those who rally to reclaim America, they believe, understandably, that the pact is not being honored and the country’s current leaders are either unable – or even worse, unwilling – to do anything about it.  On the left, to the extent that these concerns are noted (not by the numerous Mike Barnacles in the media, of course), they are dismissed as outmoded and xenophobic.

The voters in Britain, for example, as far as their country was concerned, would beg to differ.