@Lustig Andrei,
Lustig Andrei wrote:
Your theory falls down, foofie, when youlook at the historical facts:
Just one example: during World War Two, the arguably the most valiant (certainly the most decorated) combat unit was the 44d RCT, made up exclusively from second-generation Japanese-Americans. These were perhaps the most patriotic Americans in uniform at the time; they had to prove to the world that they were,in fact, Americans not "dirty Japs." No soldier with Mayflower ancestors could easily claim that.
I have no statistical evidence to back this up, but my gut feeling is that most of the draft dodgers during the Vietnam conflict who went to hide out in Canada were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Some patriots.
Ethnicity is largely irrelevant when it comes to feelings of "patriotism" towards a country. I'll concede that religion, however, can be a factor. Thus, during the US Wat with Meexico (1846-1848), a large group of Irish-born American soldiers later known as Los Patricios [the 'Patricks'] deserted the US Army, which they saw as commanded exclusively by Protestant Anglo-Saxons, to join their fellow Roman Catholics, the Mexicans. A patriotism of a different sort.
Your reference to Japanese-Americans as patriotic Americans is a sample size of one (1). Not statistically significant.
Your gut feelings about who went to Canada as draft dodgers is a non-sequitor to my argument, since a much greater number of WASP males, that did not want to walk through a rice paddy with a rifle, might have joined the Navy, Air Force, and did not see combat.
But you are missing my point entirely. I was stating that in my opinion those whose families were here going back in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century, do not OFTEN NEED A PERSONAL NARRATIVE TO DECIDE THAT THEY ARE PATRIOTIC AMERICANS. HOWEVER, THOSE WHOSE FAMILIES CAME HERE LATER THAN 1850 DO NEED A PERSONAL NARRATIVE TO DECIDE THAT THEY ARE PATRIOTIC AMERICANS.
And, 1850 is the beginning of the mass immigration of non-WASPs. So, in my opinion, Protestants do not question usually whether they are JUST Americans, since their identity has no hyphen. However, those with a hyphen often have to have a personal narrative to understand what that hyphen means, in context of being an American. It is called cognitive dissonance.
