Buchanan on American identity
Arch populist Pat Buchanan is in Time magazine this week promoting his new book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. As you might have deduced from the title, Buchanan isn't too keen on Hispanic immigration into the United States, which he prophesies will lead to "the dissolution of the U.S. ...
Arch populist Pat Buchanan is in Time magazine this week promoting his new book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. As you might have deduced from the title, Buchanan isn't too keen on Hispanic immigration into the United States, which he prophesies will lead to "the dissolution of the U.S. and the loss of the American Southwest." Reading the interview with Buchanan, in which he talks about how American identity must be about "blood, soil, history and heroes" rather than just citizenship, I was reminded of something he wrote for us in our roundtable on Samuel Huntington's "Hispanic Challenge" essay:
Arch populist Pat Buchanan is in Time magazine this week promoting his new book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. As you might have deduced from the title, Buchanan isn't too keen on Hispanic immigration into the United States, which he prophesies will lead to "the dissolution of the U.S. and the loss of the American Southwest." Reading the interview with Buchanan, in which he talks about how American identity must be about "blood, soil, history and heroes" rather than just citizenship, I was reminded of something he wrote for us in our roundtable on Samuel Huntington's "Hispanic Challenge" essay:
Where one comes down on the issue of open borders and mass immigration usually depends on where one stands on the question of, to quote Huntington, "Who Are We?" Is the United States a nation apart, a unique and separate people with our own myths, legends, heroes, history, language, literature, art, music, customs, traditions, mores, and moral duty to protect and preserve our special identity and heritage for our children? Or is the United States a credal nation to which all may belong who subscribe to the egalitarian dogmas of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the democratic and free-market principles the United States so volubly preaches to humanity?"
As a foreigner, Buchanan's view strikes me as deeply mistaken. From an outsider's perspective it seems that the genius of America is that that it is a credal nation. Your family could have arrived on the Mayflower or in the back of a van, but if you believe in the values of this country as embodied by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, and the Civil Rights Act, then you are American. This is why the United States has not only survived as a melting pot, but thrived.
In his interview Buchanan quotes the right-wing British politician Enoch Powell's adage that all "political lives end in failure." There is something quite apt about Buchanan quoting Powell, as an amazingly over-the-top speech that he delivered in 1968 predicting that mass immigration to Britain would end with the rivers "foaming with much blood" did much to prevent any rational discussion of the topic in Britain and is responsible for many of the problems with integration that the country faces today. Let us hope that the shrill nativism of Buchanan, and others, does not have the same effect here.
More from Foreign Policy
Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.
Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.
It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.
Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.
Sign up for Morning Brief
Foreign Policy’s flagship daily newsletter with what’s coming up around the world today. Delivered weekdays.
By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time.
