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DesideriScuri -> RE: Mitt Now Officially A Birther (7/18/2012 11:11:03 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kalikshama
I've reached my monthly limit of free LA Times articles - would someone please repost? I'd like to answer thishereboi's question about whether this is a legitimate birther issue or not.
From what I can read, the birther logic flows thusly - he wasn't born here, so he's not one of us, and his administration resembles foreign governments.
Romney campaign's attacks on Obama play on 'birther' fears
Mitt Romney says the Obama administration resembles foreign governments, and a chief surrogate for the GOP candidate says the president needs to 'learn how to be an American.'
Is he, or is he not working to make the US more like foreign countries? Why, yes, yes he is. I acknowledge that is not entirely a bad thing, either. It's just a thing. It would be bad if he were trying to turn the US into a Depression-era German State,which I am not saying is happening by any stretch. So, the socialization that is being touted by the President and the rest of the Lib/Dem's is pushing us towards a style of government more akin to foreign countries' than our own.
But, that's not what it means to be an American....
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/what_does_it_mean_to_be_an_ame.html
quote:
Whether described as a "proposition nation" or a "creedal nation" or simply just "an idea," the United States of America is defined by our way of life. This way of life is rooted in the ideals proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; in the system of personal liberty and limited government established by the Constitution; in our traditions of self-reliance, personal responsibility, and entrepreneurism; in our emphasis on private property, freedom of contract, and merit-based achievement; in our respect for the rule of law; and in our commitment to affording equal justice to all. Perhaps above all, it is marked by our abiding belief that, as Americans, we have been called to a higher duty in human history. We are the "city upon a hill." We are "the last, best hope of earth."
http://science.jrank.org/pages/7484/Americanization-U-S.html
quote:
Americanization refers to processes of "becoming American," and to organized efforts to encourage the transformation of immigrants into "Americans." The term was in informal use in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, but it is most prominently associated with the movement of that name during the 1910s and early 1920s. The term is often used interchangeably with assimilation.
The "problem" of Americanization arises because American national identity must be constructed in the absence of primordial ethnic mythology, and in the face of exceptional diversity. There is general recognition that the United States is a "civic nation," rather than an "ethnic nation," in which devotion to "founding principles" is the source of national identity and community. The creedal nature of American identity carries the implication that anyone may "become American" by committing himself or herself to the nation's founding principles, and to their expression in distinctively American symbols and ways of living. However, the propositional nature of American identity carries with it the question of who is capable of the necessary understanding of, and commitment to, American principles, and to the ways of living that they are taken to imply. That seed of doubt has led Americans to scrutinize cultural differences, ethnic consociation, and race as potential indicators of the lack of qualification for trusted membership in the polity, and to insist on outward demonstrations of Americanization by those considered for membership.
http://multifariousone.newsvine.com/_news/2009/08/30/3207807-what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-american
quote:
It is said that being an American means sharing a commitment to a set of values and ideals*. But clearly, someone can believe in American ideals without being American.
To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.**
** - Philip Gleason, "American Identity and Americanization,"
This, not surprisingly, is not a contention of any birthers.
Whether their claims are true or not (and I don't believe they are true), the birthers sure do know how to get lib's all riled up. It's almost comical.
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