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Election Post-Mortem 2: The Melting Pot vs. The Woke Industrial Complex

The Melting Pot is a play by Israel Zangwill, first staged in 1908. The actual story line as well as the author have been lost to history save for those who have a deep interest in the subject. The term “melting pot” went on to have national significance in the American culture. Lately it has fallen out of use as new ideas of identity have come to the fore.

SOUTHERN EUROPEAN AND EASTERN EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS

The phrase “melting pot” was applied to immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who arrived via Ellis Island. The term could be used for other peoples as well. But its rise to national prominence occurred because of the largescale immigration to New York City, home of the Statue of Liberty, by people especially from southern and eastern Europe.

It referred to a process of Americanization of these people. It differed from the Indian schools where the children had no choice but to attend. The situation for these people was different. True, circumstances back home may have been horrific thus generating the desire to leave. Still the impact of first seeing the Statue of Liberty after a long ocean journey was a powerful one. Landing at airports don’t have quite the same power.

The storyline for the immigrants was quite simple.

They would learn English (or at least their children would).

They would attend American schools (or at least their children would).

They would work hard and eventually open small businesses.

They would attend college (or least their children would with CUNY becoming Harvard for immigrants).

They would tell stories about the American way of life. Hollywood became the immigrant storytelling center of the country where the new technology was harnessed to exalt the American way of life. With Christmas we will soon be inundated with showings of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It is a classic tale of living the American dream with such traditionally American-named actors like James Stewart and Donna Reed. In the background or as a subtext to the movie, we can see the building of Bailey Park, housing for the immigrants. The new Americans are welcomed into their homes by Stewart and Reed. For Sicilian Frank Capra, the story expressed a version of the American Dream come true.

They would sing songs about the American way of life. Immigrant Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America” during World War I. He revised it during World War II. It became the “national” anthem Americans actually could sing. The iconic versions from the war later were joined by the Celine Dion version after 9/11. Clearly this immigrant song to the country of his naturalization became a defining song for that country.

Of course, there also is baseball. Back when baseball was the national pastime, it provided a way for immigrants to partake of the American Dream.

All in all the melting pot vision of America worked quite well. And these immigrants from southern and eastern Europe call ethnics rallied behind Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. For the mid-twentieth century they dominated politically at the national level and continued to do so into the latter part of the century.

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE AND EASTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRANTS

Does the model for southern and eastern European immigrants apply to southern and eastern hemisphere immigrants?

Times have changed. People are called upon to retain their authenticity. They are called upon not to abandon their heritage for the “American culture.” After all what is so great about the American way of life anyway? It is a country born in sin not that these immigrants were here in 1619.  It is a country born through the displacement of the original settlers not that these immigrants did the displacement. So why celebrate your citizenship? Why celebrate the sesquicentennial of a country that you did not help create in the first place?

The problem is that immigrants from the southern and eastern hemispheres are proud to be Americans. They or their children (or grandchildren) do learned English. They intermarry with “real” Americans both in our Hollywood stories and in real life. They do go to public schools and want them to be better. While their path may not be identical to the one taken by southern and eastern European immigrants just a few decades earlier, there are enough similarities to see that the melting pot vision of the United States did function.

SECURE BOUNDARIES   

When it comes to the present, not all legal and illegal immigrants are alike. The legal immigrants from both waves know their country of origin and played by the rules to become naturalized Americans.

They have no objections to additional immigrants provided they play by the rules.

They have no objections to immigrants who play by the rules receiving government assistance aka taxpayer money.

What they object to is a system in chaos where taxpayer money is ceaselessly spent on people who did not follow the same rules their predecessors did. Immigrants from southern and eastern hemispheres who play by the rules and are living the American dream object to the assistance given to people did not. Just because someone arrives from the same country as a naturalized American does not mean that they will be welcome with open arms.

Democrats misjudged the immigrant situation. First, immigrants from southern and eastern hemispheres have more in common with immigrants from southern and eastern Europe than they do with people arriving now even from their original country. Second immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe have more in common with the 19th century immigrants than they do with people arriving in chaos today. Third people who arrived in the 19th century have more in common with people who arrived four-score and seven years ago and created this country. In short, the American melting pot model has been working ever since we became a country. The national political party that realizes that and embraces that reality will be the one which dominates politically.

Is America Dreaming of a White Christmas?

Caption from the front page above the fold on the NYT 12/26/23 “Once Again, Christmas Snow Is a No-Show in New York. It has not snowed more than an in New York City in a long time — 680 days, to be exact. And it has not snowed on Christmas in 14 years.” The photograph is of Madison Avenue and 40th Street in Manhattan courtesy of Langill and Darling in the Massachusetts Historical Society archives

Is America dreaming of a White Christmas?

The questioned can be answered in multiple ways.

PHYSICAL SNOW

The first and most obvious way is about snow. The caption from the photograph on the above-the-fold front page of The New York Times on December 26, 2023, highlights the fact that the snow on the ground is less frequent if at all now in many parts of the country. I remember shoveling the front driveway and walk on multiple occasions when I was growing up in New York. Storms of 8” or more were routine. School closings were routine. Cars parked on the side of the hill around the corner from me were routine as they simply could not make it up the hill. I remember my father going to the gas station to have special snow tires put on the car he used to drive to work. All this was normal.

That situation no longer exists. Snow is rare and much less now when it does occurs. My childhood days are from a distant past somewhere after the dinosaurs and before the internet. It is not unusual now to read about people who moved north for whatever reason only to find out that San Diego weather came with them. Ski resorts obviously wish for a white Christmas but we live in a world where there is even indoor skiing.

DEMOGRAPHIC SNOW

The demography of snow in the United States has changed substantially. For years the country has experienced the growth of the sun-belt states. In the winter, their population surges when beings called “snowbirds” sojourn for the winter to warm states. Then they return north in the spring to resume their lives back “home.” Some people after years of making the trip back-and-forth drop the “back’ part and decide not to return.

These population movements have had a political impact as well. For example, for a brief time, New York State had 45 Congressional Districts. Then after the 1950 census and the subsequent censuses that number has dwindled to 26 today. Projections indicate a significant drop to 23 by the time of the 2030 census. The constant reduction in seats has led to continual wrangling in the state legislature over where the cuts should be. The pattern of one upstate (Republican) and one downstate (Democrat) can no longer be maintained. There simply are not enough Republicans left in the state.

The beneficiaries of these demographic movements have been the sun-belt states, especially Florida. New York once was a state which produced presidential candidates, even from the same county. When finally a candidate from New York once again did become President he fled the state to Florida but it has not enabled him to escape litigation against him from New York. Still his departure to a place where he can ride a golf cart year-round reflects the demographic change which has occurred.

CULTURAL WHITE CHRISTMAS

For decades if not longer, white Christmas on the ground, expressed itself in the culture of the United States. The song “White Christmas” written by Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin, became one of the great block busters in music history. It has sold tens of millions physical albums, been covered by a large range of singers, and continues on in multiple formats.

It appeared in the movie “Holiday Inn” in 1942 and then again in 1947 in the movie “White Christmas.” The movies were very New England in their setting and in the role of snow. In effect for the Depression and World War II generations the movies and music defined what Christmas should be just as Norman Rockwell illustrated what Thanksgiving should be. The movie “White Christmas” even starts and ends with World War II figures: at the beginning, on a Hollywood set of a war camp and at the end with the now veterans rendezvousing at the inn run by their former commanding officer. This movie and music were passed on to the baby boomer generation raised in one-TV homes.

Another cultural white Christmas staple is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This time the movie is from 1946. Instead of Jewish Irving Berlin, Sicilian Italian Frank Capra was the man behind the scenes. In this movie, English George Bailey builds homes for Italian immigrants, a subset of the main story line which doesn’t get a lot of attention. Snow does factor into the story line. Here we have a story without music (save for the high school graduation scene) about living the American Dream including by people who would be classified as “vermin.”

It should be noted that Jews and Italians, often living check to jowl in places like Brooklyn were not considered to be “white” or real Americans either. They simply created the images, scenes, storylines, and music that came to be identified as authentic America.

One last oldie but goodie from cultural white America is “Miracle on 34th Street” also from 1947. This movie is light on snow and on immigrants becoming Americans living the American dream. In this case, that dream is symbolized by a newly-built house in the suburbs. The storyline revolved around Gimbels, founded by a Jewish immigrant, and Macy’s, purchased by Jewish immigrants. These stores with their Thanksgiving parades and July 4th fireworks also became defining symbols of the American Dream even though their vaunted rivalry from around the time of the movie has long since passed.

Together these movies and music made white Christmas in the United States in the 20th century. So the question to be asked now is not “Is there a Santa Claus” answered in an editorial published in the New York newspaper The Sun on September 21, 1897, but “Does American Dream of a white Christmas anymore? The fake conflict between wishing people a merry Christmas or not obscures at larger question of what the holiday stands for besides Black Friday and a zillion Hallmark movies.

The original white Christmas developed at a specific point in time at the end of World War II. It followed on the New England tradition of “We are a city on a hill and the eyes of the world are upon us.” America today does not need to wear blinders to the world that was back then but nor should the potential of what America could become be dismissed either.

WHITE CHRISTMAS TODAY

Timed have changed.

Today, many new Americans are not white.
Today, many new Americans did not grow up with snow at sea-level.
Today, many new Americans did not grow up with Santa Claus.
Today, many new Americans did not grow up with the white Christmas movies.
Today, many new Americans do not remember 9/11 yet alone any of the historical benchmarks in American history of previous generations or if they do remember it is not from being in the United States then.
Today, the younger generation does not even remember 9/11 yet alone any of the historical benchmarks in American history of previous generations either.
Today, the younger generation often thinks of America as a stolen land and not a land of promise.

The core values expressed in the vision of white Christmas America forged in the aftermath of World War II were:

America as a melting pot
America as the land of the American Dream
America as the leader of the free world.

They were a vision and not a reality for all American citizens yet it was something We the People shared in common even when we fell short.

The question of is America dreaming of a white Christmas can be answered in many ways. Even the physical meaning of actual snow on the ground has been caught up in the polemics of climate change just being another hoax. True, the storylines and music may change to reflect changes which have occurred in American society since then, but they still should reflect the core values expressed decades ago.

Merry Christmas Everyone.