Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The New American

What makes a nation? Nations are not simply political communities contained within geographical borders. They are expressions of a shared culture, language, and political principle, that unite citizens in a common bond.

Article Excerpt
The de facto obliteration of our southern border, facilitated largely by cheap-labor advocates, global elites, and vote-seeking politicians, raises many questions about the concept of nationhood. Americans are waking up to the unpleasant fact that a massive and seemingly perpetual influx of millions of foreign nationals into this country might change our traditional concept of nationhood, slowly shifting it from a time-honored model based upon shared ideals to a new supranational paradigm in which national identity is considered passe, or even dangerous. The unprecedented movement back and forth between national borders of millions of illegal immigrants, coupled with the flouting of American sovereignty and law, has Americans rightfully asking --what constitutes a nation?

Max Weber, the celebrated German sociologist, wrote that on a basic level, "a nation is a community which produces a state of its own." Weber's definition is correct in that a nation is a self-defining political community. But what makes a nation? Is it merely a political community set within territorially defined borders, or is it something more? The history of our nation, and that of most successful nations, tells us that it is something much more. Nationalism, or the idea of nationhood, is based upon clearly defined ideas and sentiments--feelings of distinction, a shared allegiance or a shared sense of belonging, a commitment to accepted moral and political principles, a common language, and a marriage between culture and politics that ensures the maintenance of political sovereignty. These characteristics have defined American nationalism from the beginning and have formed the basis for her assimilative success. But these are under attack.

National Personality/Distinction

A belief in the distinctive nature of a state's political and cultural community is a cornerstone of nationhood. Without such feelings of distinction, there is little impetus to establish a nation. America began to form a national personality even before it obtained political freedom from England. It was a nascent nationalism built upon the premise that America had indeed become a "self-defined" political and cultural community, independent of Britain's imperial plan....

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!