A few centuries ago people from many ethnic backgrounds flocked to America to find a safe place where they could practice their religion and live among people who believed in a peaceful and tolerant approach to community living.
The ethnic diversity of the 16th, 17th and 18th century America also made us a popular destination for free-thinkers from all over the world, largely because they would be protected from persecution for exercising their right to holding and voicing opinions that differed from the mainstream's. Their cultural/ethnic backgrounds made the country an exciting place to live but it did not make us stronger as a nation. Our real strength was due to a universally-held belief in something far greater and more powerful than the diversity of ethnicity, language and customs. It was something we newly-minted Americans all had in common - agreement on overarching, collectively-supported principles that made our differences less important.
Those commonly-held beliefs were instrumental in starting a war which led to the birth of our nation and the formation of a Constitution which codified those beliefs. America was the envy of freedom-loving people from around the world...until the Civil War. The war did tear us apart and it took generations to patch up our society to the point where people started believing in one, unifying, uniquely American purpose - that despite our differences and not because of them we were strong enough to fulfill the founders' promise. That promise was to create a true melting pot of an amalgamated citizenry that would move together as one to confront and solve our problems for the benefit of all people. That unifying task has come under unrelenting attack during the last half-century by special interest organizations that are only concerned with money and power to enable THEIR groups to achieve hegemony and control over other groups and rebalance the status quo in their favor.
They are using victimhood, racism, social prejudice and estrangement as their battering ram to destroy centuries of one-nation one-purpose governance. Their crusade is to replace strength through unity with division by diversity. Their goal is to create a new cultural Civil War that will put the minority in control of the majority, eliminate states' rights and move power to the federal government which they hope to control. They are operating a cultural insurgency that is infecting all aspects of American life from school to church and from workplace to our election systems. Their modus operandi is to sow discord and doubt about our history and our national motivations: "America is a racist White supremacist nation." America is an imperialist nation." America is for the rich and not the middle class."
Because Americans believe in free speech and the free expression of divergent views, we have allowed this 'movement' to exist and flourish. We saw the visible manifestation of the movement's success in the recent election of a Trojan Horse president who was wheeled inside our gates as a unifier only to reveal his true self as one who has little use for unification unless it benefits the goals of the Progressive wing of his party one of which is to redefine the very nature of America. To them, unity is nothing but a concept. Diversity is strength only when THEIR group controls the diversity. Some say we've past the point of no return. Others simply worry that their ox will soon be gored and that America will be unified under one, brutal, authoritarian, top-down government that mandates conformity.
To be sure there are some that are ready to push back at the spread of the identity politics virus that undergirds the promotion of diversity über alles. But in order for those of us who value true unity to succeed, we must secure a political reversal at the ballot box in November. Without that win, we will continue to make only negligible progress in stemming the tidal wave that the diversity hustlers have created with their efforts to marginalize the majority.
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of twelve books, six of which are on American politics and has written over 1,200 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website, www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com
