Reflections on America’s 250th

It’s hard not to feel glum as I write this post on the 250th anniversary of my country. I remember celebrating the 200th as a teenager. As I recall it, it felt like the country was ready forward to better times. The Vietnam War and Watergate were over. Americans celebrated the 200th with exuberance. Today, the stagnant, possibly toxic state of the Reflecting Pool, along with Trump’s hijacking of Congress’s America250 funds for his personal Freedom250 group to create an empty and lifeless Great American State Fair on the National Mall, perfectly symbolize Trump’s enshittification of America.

However fitting it may be to be glum, a country cannot move forward if it has no hope. So I offer the following hopeful thoughts about the U.S., starting with a speech made some years ago.

A man wrote me and said: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it’s the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America’s triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close.

This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people — our strength — from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost. . . .

It is bold men and women, yearning for freedom and opportunity, who leave their homelands and come to a new country to start their lives over. They believe in the American dream. And over and over, they make it come true for themselves, for their children, and for others. They give more than they receive. They labor and succeed. And often they are entrepreneurs. But their greatest contribution is more than economic, because they understand in a special way how glorious it is to be an American.

These words were spoken by Ronald Reagan, in his last address as President.

I know many immigrants and first-generation Americans for whom Reagan’s words ring true even today. Many are my current or former students. One is my son-in-law, who is first-generation American and ethnically Chinese-Dominican. How could that even be?! His family’s story perfectly exemplifies what Reagan was talking about. His grandmother was a teenage peasant in a small Chinese village during Mao’s famine. She wanted to leave the country to avoid starvation. She lied about her age so she could marry a young man in the village and plan their exit together. In those days, China prevented emigration to non-Communist countries. But it allowed them to emigrate to Cuba, which had recently undergone its Communist revolution. Cuba offered them visas on condition of spending some years of virtual slave labor in its sugar plantations. That was better than starving, so they agreed. But they wanted freedom. After serving the requisite years, they were allowed to leave Cuba for the Dominican Republic. They still had to live under a dictatorship. But they enjoyed more freedom and opportunity. They set up a small grocery store and restaurant in a remote village, attained modest prosperity, and raised a daughter there. Still seeking more freedom, the family immigrated to the U.S. Their daughter gave birth to my son-in-law in New York City. Contra J.D. Vance, and in line with Reagan’s perspective, he’s a more patriotic American than many of my students whose families trace their American ancestry further back. Birthright citizenship truly is a great thing.

The share of immigrants in the U.S. population reached a local demographic peak (15-16%) under the Biden administration. (ICE brutality under Trump 2 has pushed it down slightly.) Every time this has happened in U.S. history with people entering from new corners of the world, an immigration backlash has occurred. But every time, the U.S. has gotten over the backlash. If Americans are true to our history, we will do so this time as well.