{"id":2309126,"date":"2024-07-26T07:17:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T11:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pro-hamas-rioters-in-d-c-vindicate-j-d-vances-view-of-america\/"},"modified":"2024-07-26T07:25:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T11:25:58","slug":"pro-hamas-rioters-in-d-c-confirm-j-d-vances-perspective-on-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pro-hamas-rioters-in-d-c-confirm-j-d-vances-perspective-on-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Hamas Rioters in D.C. Confirm J.D. Vance&#8217;s Perspective on America"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpro-hamas-rioters-in-d-c-confirm-j-d-vances-perspective-on-america%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2309126&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The\u2062 article\u200d discusses recent pro-Hamas protests in Washington, D.C., where\u200c demonstrators vandalized American symbols and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-can-jews-attack-antisemitism-but-no-one-denounces-hatred-against-whites\/\" title=\"Why can Jews combat antisemitism, but no one condemns hatred towards whites\">expressed antisemitic sentiments<\/a>.\u2062 These actions highlight\u2063 a broader debate about American identity and the nature of patriotism, as articulated by Republican\u200b Vice \u2063Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who suggested that America is more than an \u2063abstract idea; it embodies a specific culture and shared history.<\/p>\n<p>Vance faced criticism for asserting\u2064 that to be American involves \u2062embracing core Christian values. The author\u200b argues\u200c against the \u2062so-called &#8220;Ellis Islander&#8221; view \u2063of \u200cAmerica, which posits that anyone can become American solely \u2063by\u200b accepting \u200da creed,\u2062 without needing to adapt their customs or beliefs. This perspective \u2062underestimates \u2064the importance of cultural homogeneity,\u2063 which \u2063the\u2064 author claims has historically allowed \u200dAmerica to absorb diverse \u2063populations through assimilation.<\/p>\n<p>The piece warns against the consequences of failing to \u200binsist \u200con assimilation, such as\u200b the manifestation of foreign tribal conflicts within American society, as evidenced by the recent protests.\u200c Furthermore, it suggests that without a shared cultural foundation, societal divisions deepen, \u200cleading \u2063to challenges in maintaining a cohesive republic. The article critiques contemporary leftist views that reduce America to an abstract concept, arguing that genuine\u200b self-governance requires some degree of cultural and \u2063civic\u2062 unity.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When pro-Hamas rioters on Wednesday ripped down and burned the American flag outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., and defaced nearby monuments with antisemitic, Islamic terrorist graffiti, they unintentionally made a case for what Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said at the RNC last week: that America isn&rsquo;t just an idea, but a place and a people with a shared history and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iran-china-russia-launch-3-day-joint-naval-drill-in-indian-ocean\/\" title=\"Iran, China, Russia Launch 3-Day Joint Naval Drill in Indian Ocean\">common future<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Vance ruffled some feathers when he said that, provoking instant outrage and, predictably, vague accusations of racism. Even Vance&rsquo;s simple desire to be buried in his family cemetery in Kentucky &mdash; a commonplace of human existence across millennia &mdash; was greeted with sneers from the corporate press about how it was an &ldquo;Easter egg of white nationalism,&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/msnbc-host-calls-jd-vance-wanting-to-be-buried-in-family-plot-an-easter-egg-of-white-nationalism\/ar-BB1qdlRV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as one MSNBC pundit<\/a>&nbsp;said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But what he said wasn&rsquo;t racist, it was simply common sense &mdash; or at least it once was. We&rsquo;ve become accustomed to thinking and speaking about America as if it&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>merely<\/em>&nbsp;an idea, nothing more than an abstract proposition divorced from a particular people&rsquo;s history and culture. One might charitably call this the Ellis Islander view of America, that anyone from anywhere in the world can come here and become an American because we aren&rsquo;t defined by ethnicity or tribe or ancestry, but by creed. If you accept the creed, you can become an American.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-have-changed-a-lot-in-the-past-decade\/\" title=\"Democrats Have Changed a Lot in the Past Decade\">narrow sense<\/a>, this is at least partly true. We are a propositional nation, but as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/10\/americas-conflicts-are-not-primarily-political-or-ideological-but-religious\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I noted at the NatCon conference earlier this month<\/a>, most people who invoke that idea are confused about what the proposition is. It&rsquo;s not just &ldquo;all men are created equal,&rdquo; but the source of that proposition, which is&nbsp;<em>Christianity and all that comes with it<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That is to say, the proposition at the heart of America is that the American people, wherever they come from originally, must affirm and embrace the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/don-lemon-tonight-critical-race-theory-is-more-patriotic-than-patriotism\/\" title=\"Don Lemon Tonight: Critical Race Theory \u2018Is More Patriotic\u2019 Than Patriotism\">core tenants<\/a> of the Christian faith, without which the proposition &ldquo;all men are created equal&rdquo; is just nonsense.<\/p>\n<p>What happens when we misapprehend the nature of America&rsquo;s creed is that we slip into the Ellis Islander view of America and begin to suppose that anyone from any culture or religion can come here and become American without changing anything about their customs, beliefs, or behaviors. This is where we get the worn-out slogan that &ldquo;diversity is our strength,&rdquo; a statement devoid of meaning deployed as a substitute for an actual argument.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is also how we misunderstand what the &ldquo;melting pot&rdquo; metaphor we were taught as schoolchildren actually means. America as a melting pot doesn&rsquo;t mean we all become people from nowhere, with no past and no culture. It means that newcomers must melt into the mainstream of American life and assimilate, shedding whatever customs and ideas from their homeland are incompatible with our way of life.<\/p>\n<p>For a long time in this country, we knew that America actually&nbsp;<em>has<\/em>&nbsp;a way of life, that it is something more than just an economic arrangement, a live-and-let-live zone of wealth accumulation. It&rsquo;s a people, as Vance said, with a shared past and a common future. Immigrants can of course become part of that people, but they have to change their ways to do it. Cultural (and yes, religious) homogeneity, not diversity, is actually our strength, and in the first two centuries of our history, it&rsquo;s what enabled us to absorb and assimilate peoples from all over the word. But the crucial thing was that we insisted on absorption and assimilation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If we don&rsquo;t insist on this, we end up with the situation we now have: terrorist sympathizers burning our flag on the streets of the nation&rsquo;s capital, chanting violent antisemitic slogans, and clashing with the police. Without a proper understanding of what the proposition is at the heart of the American republic, we end up importing all the tribal conflicts of foreign lands and hashing them out on the streets of our cities.<\/p>\n<p>We also end up with our own domestic Balkanization: pride flags on every crosswalk, endlessly multiplying identities, and the return of racial segregation in our institutions &mdash; this time under the dubious auspices of &ldquo;equity&rdquo; and &ldquo;inclusion.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You simply can&rsquo;t have a republic under those conditions. You need homogeneity on fundamental questions before you can establish and maintain something like the American republic, which is now unraveling before our eyes. Our leaders, especially on the left, have for decades rejected the idea that America is anything more than an abstraction, or that we need a certain amount of cultural and civic homogeneity for our experiment in self-government to work.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Kamala Harris <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2024\/07\/25\/statement-by-vice-president-kamala-harris-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">released a statement<\/a> condemning the description of the American flag by &ldquo;unpatriotic protesters,&rdquo; and asserting, &ldquo;Antisemitism, hate, and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.&rdquo; But her condemnation is insincere and devoid of meaning. The multicultural, Ellis Islander view of America she espouses is largely responsible for the violence and hate she claims to deplore.<\/p>\n<p>But of course our political divisions today stem from division that precedes the political. They are really religious divisions because they concern pre-political questions about the nature of God and man. We say and believe that &ldquo;all men are created equal&rdquo; because our founders embraced the Christian doctrine of&nbsp;<em>imago Dei<\/em>, that all men are created in the image and likeness of God. Hence, in a just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-culture-can-be-downstream-of-politics\/\" title=\"KNOWLES: Culture\u00a0Can Be\u00a0Downstream Of Politics\">political regime<\/a> they must all be equal before the law.<\/p>\n<p>The same is true of free speech and freedom of religion, and indeed all the freedoms we&rsquo;ve enshrined in our polity. They all have as their source the Christian gospel, and without a Christian people living out and passing on that culture down the generations, they cannot be maintained. We&rsquo;re seeing that now, and we&rsquo;re going to see a lot more of it in the years to come.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. He is the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pagan-America-Decline-Christianity-Dark\/dp\/1684514444\/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Pagan+America&amp;qid=1695306441&amp;sr=8-1\"><i>Pagan America: the Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come<\/i><\/a>. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, pro-Hamas protesters in Washington, D.C. tore down and set fire to the American flag outside Union Station, while also vandalizing nearby monuments with antisemitic graffiti linked to Islamic terrorism. In doing so, they inadvertently supported a point made by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance at the recent RNC: that America is not merely an abstract concept, but a tangible place inhabited by people who share a common history and future. Vance&#8217;s remarks stirred controversy, leading to immediate backlash and vague accusations of racism. Even his wish to be buried in his family cemetery in Kentucky\u2014a sentiment that has been common throughout human history\u2014was met with derision from the media, with one MSNBC commentator labeling it an &#8220;Easter egg of white nationalism.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, Vance&#8217;s statements were not racist; they reflected a basic truth that has been overlooked. We have come to view America as simply an idea, detached from the specific history and culture of its people. This perspective, often referred to as the Ellis Islander view, suggests that anyone from anywhere can come to America and become an American, as our identity is based on shared beliefs rather than ethnicity or ancestry. While there is some truth to this notion, it is often misunderstood. The foundational proposition of America is not just that &#8220;all men are created equal,&#8221; but that this idea is rooted in Christianity and its accompanying values.<\/p>\n<p>The essence of America\u2019s proposition is that all individuals, regardless of their origins, must accept and uphold the core tenets of the Christian faith; without this, the assertion that &#8220;all men are created equal&#8221; loses its meaning. When we misinterpret America&#8217;s creed, we adopt the Ellis Islander perspective, mistakenly believing that anyone can come here and retain their customs and beliefs without any need for adaptation. This leads to the hollow slogan that &#8220;diversity is our strength,&#8221; which lacks substance and serves as a poor substitute for a real argument.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the metaphor of America as a &#8220;melting pot&#8221; is often misrepresented. It does not imply that we all become culturally unmoored, but rather that newcomers should integrate into the mainstream American culture, letting go of customs that conflict with our way of life. Historically, Americans recognized that our nation embodies a distinct way of life, transcending mere economic arrangements or a laissez-faire attitude toward wealth. As Vance pointed out, America is a community with a shared past and future. While immigrants can join this community, they must be willing to adapt.<\/p>\n<p>Cultural and religious homogeneity, rather than diversity, has historically been our strength, allowing us to assimilate people from various backgrounds. However, this requires a commitment to absorption and assimilation. Failing to uphold this principle has led to the current situation, where sympathizers of terrorism burn our flag in the capital, chant violent antisemitic slogans, and clash with law enforcement. Without a clear understanding of the foundational proposition of the American republic, we risk importing the tribal conflicts of other nations and playing them out in our cities.<\/p>\n<p>This misunderstanding also contributes to domestic fragmentation, evident in the proliferation of identity politics, the display of pride flags, and the resurgence of racial segregation under the guise of &#8220;equity&#8221; and &#8220;inclusion.&#8221; A republic cannot thrive under such conditions; fundamental homogeneity is necessary for the establishment and maintenance of a functioning American republic, which is now facing significant challenges. For decades, our leaders, particularly on the left, have dismissed the notion that America is more than an abstract idea or that a degree of cultural and civic homogeneity is essential for our self-governance to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the actions of the &#8220;unpatriotic protesters&#8221; who disrespected the American flag, asserting that &#8220;antisemitism, hate, and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.&#8221; However, her condemnation lacks sincerity and fails to address the root causes of the violence and hatred she claims to oppose, which are largely a result of the multicultural, Ellis Islander perspective she promotes.<\/p>\n<p>The political divisions we face today stem from deeper, pre-political religious divisions concerning fundamental questions about the nature of God and humanity. The belief that &#8220;all men are created equal&#8221; is grounded in the Christian doctrine of imago Dei, which asserts that all individuals are made in the image of God, thus deserving equal treatment under the law. This principle extends to free speech, freedom of religion, and all the rights enshrined in our political system, all of which originate from the Christian gospel. Without a Christian populace to uphold and transmit this culture through generations, these freedoms cannot be sustained. We are witnessing the consequences of this reality now, and it is likely to become more pronounced in the future. <\/p>\n<p>John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist and has contributed to various publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. He is the author of &#8220;Pagan America: the Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come.&#8221; Follow him on Twitter @johnddavidson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":2309127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Hamas-protesters.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5374,35138,16617,36290,5279],"class_list":["post-2309126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-america","tag-j-d-vance","tag-perspective","tag-pro-hamas","tag-rioters"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Hamas-protesters.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2309126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2309127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2309126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2309126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2309126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}