Defining America—literally—as the universal nation

A. Zarkov writes:

The recent book by Peter Spiro, Beyond Citizenship, provides a revealing example of how some professors want to see an end to America. Spiro thinks globalization should open American citizenship to anyone who wants it. He thinks granting citizenship by birth is arbitrary and essentially unfair. He’s currently blogging over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Here’s a gem from one of his posts where he pleads to a more inclusive granting of citizenship to people like the following:

“A tech worker living in Bangalore who’s never been to the United States but watches the Simpsons, wears Levis, is employed by Dell, has cousins in the US, follows US politics closely on MSNBC (is a big fan of John McCain), and would eagerly take an oath to uphold the Constitution.”

Thus his reasoning is as follows. Foreign consumers of American pop culture should really be given citizenship if they want it. Why deny it if we give citizenship to a child born of illegal immigrants? Indeed there is no place in his mind even for the concept of an illegal immigrant. In his mind “Everyone an American, No one an American.”

Spiro goes beyond the usual open border advocacy to an unqualified attack on the very notion of American nationality. This is the modern academic mindset run riot to the point of national suicide. I wonder how much push-back he gets on campus. At least he’s getting it on the blog. Mainly from me.

LA replies:

Horrifying. But really, how is this different in principle from the neoconservative view of America? How many times has someone on our side said, “If, as the neocons argue, anyone who believes in the Proposition ‘all men are created equal’ is an American, then isn’t anyone anywhere in the world who believes in the Proposition an American? Isn’t everyone in the world who believes in ‘freedom’ just an American who just hasn’t come here yet?”

So, while this Spiro sounds very evil, all he is doing is taking to its logical conclusion the abstract view of America—that America is a universalist idea, not a country and people—that the neoconservatives have been promoting for decades. What, after all, did Ben Wattenberg mean when he called America the first Universal Nation”?

Adela G. writes:

Peter Spiro’s notion of what it means to be an American reminds me of that cutesy saying, “A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.” Evidently, to him, a foreigner is just an American who hasn’t come here yet; there is and should be no distinction between citizens and residents.

I read no mention in his post of the rights of American citizens to determine who can and cannot come to America and who can and cannot become a citizen. He thinks everyone who wants to come, should be able to do so. To Spiro, then, non-Americans have more rights over and on American soil than do American citizens.

Spiro writes: As I ask in the book, if that person in Bangalore wants to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, on what grounds can we deny him membership? Indeed, why wouldn’t we want to welcome that person to our community.

Newsflash! We can deny that person in Bangalore membership in the U.S. on any grounds that we choose or on no grounds at all. That’s what being a sovereign nation means—for now. You and your ilk haven’t taken over quite yet.

Spiro writes: Indeed, why wouldn’t we want to welcome that person to our community[sic]. Well, for starters, you seem to think it’s a swell idea, that right there is enough for me to nix it.

What an utter and complete idiot.

LA replies:

“To Spiro, then, non-Americans have more rights over and on American soil than do American citizens.”

Look at this in light of my idea that modern liberalism does away with democratic self-government in the name of equality. Democratic self-government implies the existence of (1) a majority of a people that has more power than the minorities, a situation that is unequal and therefore morally wrong; and (2) a self-governing sovereign people that is distinct from other peoples and treats members differently from foreigners, which is unequal and therefore morally wrong. Therefore modern liberals want to dispense with democratic self-government, particularly in the form of the nation-state, and replace it with a transnational order governed by an unelected elite devoted to the equality of all mankind. Spiro is one such new leader. He pronounces what America “really” is, and overrides the actual existence of America as a self-governing sovereign country.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 20, 2008 05:47 PM | Send