Aren't We All Americans?

I Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the Republic for which it stands,
One Nation, Under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice For All.

Everyone who's grown up in this country has recited the above pledge in school countless times.  The Pledge of Allegiance, even more than the Star Spangled Banner is the truest stated goal of the American experiment.  The promise of our country is that we don't recognize religion, race, economic background, or gender when it comes to rewarding hard work and perseverance.  If you work hard and do the right things, your place here will be assures.  In practice however, America has been far more exclusionary.  It's taken almost 200 years to even approach that ideal.  White women have only been able to vote for 95 years, descendants of African slaves only for last 50 years, and there are American "citizens" in certain territories that still can't vote.  (A full timeline of American voting rights can be found here.)  Even now, there are those in power that are determined to set us back.  In that context, I suppose it should come no surprise that some of the longest retainers of full fledged citizenship are still having a difficult time adjusting to the idea of a President that doesn't fit the mold of the last 43. Even through all that difficult history, people still come to America for the promise of opportunity to work hard and do better.  The people who have been the objects of exclusion still by and large believe in America and wouldn't want to be anyplace else.  I see us as one large mixed up crazy family.  We're all from so many different walks of life and so many different cultures but we're all here for the same reason.  To do better as one nation moving with common purpose for the benefit of all...just like the pledge says.  However, as his term inches to toward its sunset, the newly elected Republican majority are employing tactics that show that they clearly don't believe in the last line when they don't get their way.
  

Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, addresses Congress.
Image: NY Magazine

No congress has allowed a foreign leader to use the chamber floor to boldly speak out against White House policy.  It is a clear indication of the level of contempt that both Boehner and Netanyahu have for the Obama Administration, despite what they're telling the press.  2 weeks ago, Congress sent an "open letter" to Iran signed by 47 Republican Senators designed to treat the President as if he were a non factor.  Though not directly violating the Logan Act, the intent was clear.  Iran has the highest percentage of American college graduates serving in its government and the condescending letter was rebuffed with an embarrassing lesson in the same American laws these Senators are supposed to know and uphold.  

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Guliani appearing on "Fox and Friends"
Image: Mediamatters.org

Our family disputes are supposed to be handled in house. This new idea of pretending we have no President because we don't like him doesn't just divide the country it threatens to topple our system.  What good are the checks and balances our democracy prides itself on if you can simply bypass them when it suits you? Further, the next generation of politicians are looking at this 7 year display of disrespect and obstruction as a baseline on how to behave when your party isn't in power.  For any new leader to stand out he or she will have to take the rhetoric to a whole new level to stand out.  Considering the current establishment has already set the precedent of using foreign policy to score political points domestically, it is out of the question that in the next few years our men and women in uniform could be cut off from much needed funding because of some imagined slight at home?  It's been threatened before by Democrats during the Bush Administration.  Republicans are proposing the same for similar reasons.

There's a new generation of young men and women who are watching this shameful display and realizing that some of us are still treated as more American than others.  I won't be as cynical to declare nothing has changed.  Clearly, America has made progress toward fully extending the ideals of America beyond rich white male landowners to all of her people but there is still much work to do before we can truly say we are "One Nation, Under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all."