Blood, Soil, God, and Country

Pat Buchanan--gotta love the man--wrote the other day:

Now, the change since the 1960s in the character of the nation has been great. The moral and social sappers spawned by that decade have done their work well. But Middle America yet remains a blood-and-soil, family-and-faith, God-and-country kind of nation.

We are not Europe — yet.

Most Americans remain visceral patriots. It’s in the DNA.

And for the most part, outside of the bluest of the blue states, the ones that were half-seriously talking about seceding from "Jesusland" after the 2000 elections, I think he's right. But for how much longer?

Next to no time, I think. We've not managed to pass on the foundational building blocks of our society to the young, and we are importing--largely illegally--huge numbers of people who do not share our language, history, and culture (Now don't go getting huffy on me. I've nothing against legal immigrants. As a matter of fact, I welcome them. I just want them to come here wanting to become Americans, not come here wanting to recreate the country that they've left. I help teach ESL in pursuance of this goal; what do you do?

Yeah. That's what I thought.) The country we will see within just a couple of decades is likely to be dramatically different from the one so many of us middle-aged and older folks grew up in. To my mind, the task now before us is to prepare for that.

Pat goes on to say:

Rooted people love the things of the heart: God, country, family, and faith. The weapons of the mind have been given to us, they believe, to defend the things of the heart.

Knowledge follows love; it does not precede it.

Most Americans have grown to love America long before they read the Constitution, or the Federalist Papers. There are heroes in Arlington who never learned to read. A true nation is an extended family. If fathers or sons do not defend it, it is their conduct that is indefensible.

And again, I think he's right. This really is how it works, in practical terms. But for at least three generations now, acid's been poured on these bonds, and things will not hold together much longer.