Axar.az presents an article, “What is an American” by John Samuel Tieman.

I remember a dinner with friends. One friend was a Black woman, the descendant of slaves. Her husband was Ladino, a descendant of Jews driven out of Spain. My wife is Italian-American. And me? I'm a “Heinz 57”, a mix of nations, mostly Irish Catholic and German with a bit of Native American. That dinner was at a Chinese restaurant in our home, St. Louis, as heart of the heartland as the heart of the heartland gets. And we're all Americans.

Then there's religion. My immediate family includes Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and folks who are not much of anything at all. We're hardly unusual. And we're all Americans.

Then there's our first American pope, Leo XIV, a trilingual Creole mathematician from Chicago, a White Sox fan, who studied canon law and holds a doctorate in theology as well as U. S., Peruvian and Vatican citizenship. And he's an American.

So what is an American?

I'm a historian. So let's get one bit of history straight from the get-go. Speaking recently to the National Conservatism Conference, Missouri's Sen. Erick Schmitt said, “We are the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe's shores to baptize a new world in the ancient faith.” Let's think about that. It was on 31 October 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door. In 1519, Lutheranism was still a controversy within the Catholic Church. Indeed, Martin Luther was still a Catholic priest. It was in March of 1519 that Hernán Cortés formally claimed this continent for the Spanish crown. So, Sen. Schmitt, those first “Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe's shores”, you're referring to our founders, the Spanish? Right? No? No, I didn't think so.

So what is an American?

As of 2020, only 7.7% of Americans can trace their ancestry back to “English Only”. (Fun fact. One of the largest “English Only” groups is in Puerto Rico.) African-Americans make up 14.4% of our population. About 12 to 13% identify as German-American. Mexican-Americans account for 10.7% of us. Italian-Americans make up 5.07%. Americans are not defined by race. Indeed, there is the whole question of what race really is. But I don't have time to write a book. It is a fluid social construct. Suffice it to say that Italian-Americans, as just one example, were not always considered white.

What is an American? We are not a race. We are not a religion. America is an ideal. It follows that an American is, first and foremost, an idealist. And what are those ideals? We have a rule book, the Constitution. It records the ideals that bind us. We are not bound by race. We are not bound by religion. We are bound by the rules. If the rule book falls apart, then the democratic republic falls apart. It's not by chance that white Christian nationalists attack diversity, equity, and inclusion.

We are also bound by the norms of the democratic republic. Here's one, an old-fashioned term that you don't hear much anymore. We are bound by loyal opposition. We honor the Constitution. Out of that comes the honor we afford our fellow citizens who also uphold the Constitution. It is especially needful to remember our primary loyalties when we disagree over today's controversy. I am a city council member. I tell my colleagues, “I may oppose your proposal at the Monday meeting. But I will always have lunch with you on Tuesday.”

We are not bound by race. We are not bound by religion. We are bound by the rules. The rules create a pluralistic society in which the law takes precedence. To secure that pluralism, the rule-making is inclusive. We do it in at least two ways. One, the constitution ensures that the people in government come and go. We have no dynasties like the Romanovs, who ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917. Generally, folks serve a few years in office and that's about it. No one is permanent. Even a lifetime appointment to, say, a judgeship can't be passed on to a son or daughter. Second, our government ensures that folks have many ways to make their voices heard. There's the vote. There's also the town hall meeting, the petition, the referendum. You can run for office. City councils and county councils often open with “Citizens' Comments”. Commissions are always looking for volunteers. You can make an appointment with your state senator.

Perhaps the greatest evil of white Christian nationalism is that it predicates “The American Dream” on race and religion. The Constitution, the rule book, does not. It's inclusive, not exclusive. I'm not saying the Constitution is perfect. It has evolved. It will continue to evolve. Here's what I'm saying. The descendant of slaves and her Ladino husband, an Italian-American and her “Heinz 57” husband, these folks can have lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Missouri – and this is what Americans are.