Posted on 08/04/2004 1:52:53 PM PDT by quidnunc
America's core culture has primarily been the culture of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century settlers who founded our nation. The central elements of that culture are the Christian religion; Protestant values, including individualism, the work ethic, and moralism; the English language; British traditions of law, justice, and limits on government power; and a legacy of European art, literature, and philosophy. Out of this culture the early settlers formulated the American Creed, with its principles of liberty, equality, human rights, representative government, and private property. Subsequent generations of immigrants were assimilated into the culture of the founding settlers and modified it, but did not change it fundamentally. It was, after all, Anglo-Protestant culture, values, institutions, and the opportunities they created that attracted more immigrants to America than to all the rest of the world.
America was founded as a Protestant society, and for 200 years almost all Americans practiced Protestantism. With substantial Catholic immigration, first from Germany and Ireland and then Italy and Poland, the proportion of Protestants declined — to about 60 percent of the population by 2000. Protestant beliefs, values, and assumptions, however, have been the core element (along with the English language) of America's settler culture, and they continue to pervade and shape American life, society, and thought. Protestant values have shaped American attitudes toward private and public morality, economic activity, government, and public policy. They have even deeply influenced Catholicism and other religions in America.
(Excerpt) Read more at taemag.com ...
What did Ronald Reagan say? Something like "You can move to Germany and never be considered a German. You can move to France and never become French. But anyone in the world can move to American and become an American."
Its sort of sad that even a liberal Harvard Professor like Huntington who makes sure to preface any criticism of current immigration policy with effusive praise for immigration in general will still be heavily criticized by those on the left and right who believe in unending mass immigration with the fervor of religion.
In a 1988 poll, 76 percent of Californians rated speaking English as "very important" in making one an American, and 61 percent believed that the right to vote should be limited to English speakers. In a 1998 poll, 52 percent of Americans strongly supported, and 25 percent somewhat supported, legislation that would require all school instruction to be in English.
Those are very good ideas, but also I believe that voters should also at least be Income Tax payers.
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