Proud To Be An American

It was hot, humid and insect-ridden that summer in Philadelphia in 1787, when 55 men from the 13 states met to write a new Constitution for the new nation.

Fresh from leading the Continental Army to victory against the mighty British military, George Washington was voted president of the meeting. One of his early decrees was to order that all the windows in Independence Hall be closed tight. He was worried that word of their proceedings might be overheard, and stir controversy.

Well, too late for that now.

Then, the most contentious debate was over the arcane question of how many citizens each congressman should represent. This debate raged for weeks, finally settled by the infamous clause that allowed the South to count their slaves as three-fifths the value of free citizens. Though he said little as the meetings droned on from May to September, General Washington worried this issue alone would derail everything.

Flash forward 238 years and the question of congressional districts is again in the news. Texas Democrats fled to Illinois and New York, funded by George Soros and Beto O’Rourke and welcomed by blue state governors who like to preach that only they can save democracy, to deny a quorum to the Texas Legislature about to vote on a new district map. The map would likely give Republicans five more seats in Congress, reflecting the shift of sizeable blocs of Hispanic and black voters to the GOP.

Gerrymandering has long been with us. In fact, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting plan in 1812 to favor the Democratic Republican Party. One district in Essex County was so contorted that it resembled a salamander, prompting critics to coin the term “gerrymander” by combining Gerry’s last name with “salamander.” Apparently, the governor was not the primary architect, nor a fan of the map, but he signed it and his name became synonymous with the practice.

Gerrymandering has flourished ever since. In recent years, Dems have made a science of carving out political advantage for their party, by snaking the districts, opening voter rolls to illegals and keeping polls open for weeks after the election to “find” enough absentee ballots to achieve desired outcomes. In California, candidate Trump won 40% of the vote in 2024, but of 52 House members in Congress, only 9 are GOP.

President Trump this week ordered up a new census, reflecting the population shifts from 2020 — when the Pandemic led to a large migration to the South — to 2024, when Trump won the presidency decisively. In his tweet announcing the new census, the president insisted that “PEOPLE WHO ARE IN OUR COUNTRY ILLEGALLY WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.” It is not clear whether he directed the Commerce Department to prepare a new form for the regular 2030 census, or if he wanted a mid-year redo of the 2020 one. Either way, there are likely to be lawsuits.

There is much to unpack in this 21st century debate.

First, who is an American? A US congresswoman, Democrat Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez, was in Mexico last week for an all-progressive international forum. Taking the mic, she stated in Spanish that she is a “proud Guatemalan before [she is] an American.” The Daily Wire reported that she was born in American to illegal immigrants, becoming the anchor baby for her family, and is married to an illegal immigrant. Michael Knowles suggested she and her family be deported.

For me, the Ramirez story raises a far more troubling question.

Can you be a citizen and not root for your country to win?

If you’re not proud to be an American, if you’re not moved with tears of patriotism by the sight of a flag-draped casket, or a veteran without legs, or a brilliant rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, if instead you are embarrassed when USA defeats Somalia at the Olympics or when the US military obliterates Iran’s nuclear mountain or when President Trump negotiates a tariff deal that the biased media says is not good for the EU— then stop sucking off the bosom of our generosity and benevolence, stop making the Statue of Liberty cry when policy debates don’t go your way, stop calling Americans “Nazis,” stop doxxing those whose views you don’t share or encouraging violence against ICE agents — stop, and just go home — to Guatemala or Somalia or Uganda or Pakistan or wherever home is in your heart.

When the Constitutional Convention finally ended in 1787, a woman named Mrs. Powel approached Benjamin Franklin. “Well Dr. Franklin,” she asked, “what have we got — a republic or a monarchy? To which he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

And it seems to me that the missing ingredient in the whole debate over illegal immigration — those estimated 20 million illegals let into our country by President Biden’s open border policy — is assimilation. To remain a republic, we have to keep our common ties. We have to speak English, honor the Ten Commandments, respect the flag. Without a common culture, we have no nation. As The Federalist said last week, “Mass migration — legal or illegal — is incompatible with national survival.”