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Entry: Nationalism is What We Need Now--The Case for an "Unpatriotic Conservatism" Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/nationalism_is_what_we_need_now_a_case_for_an_unpatriotic_conservatism#23424 Post contents: I'm interested in learning how one who says that we need more nationalism defines <i>nation</i>—particularly in the American context. For if we are to love our nation, we need to know what it is, whom it includes, and whom it excludes. Dan, you say that you find much that is "repellent in nationalist views of ethnicity, culture, and economics." I think I know what you mean there. But in the American context, how do we draw that circle? I'm sure you wouldn't say that the American nation includes everyone who is born on American soil—budding jihadists and the children of Santeria and everyone else. So who is it, then? Everyone born on this soil who believes in [X]? Everyone born on this soil who is of [Y] ancestry? In solving for X, it is difficult not to define nationalism as an ideology. And, if we're left with solving for Y, how is it not White Nationalism? That, ultimately, is what I'm asking: How can a conservative nationalism, in the American context, be anything but White Nationalism? And how, then, can one promote American nationalism without succumbing to those "repellent" aspects of it? One could say that we are talking not about whiteness per se but about a people whose heritage is generally European and, therefore, generally ("merely"?) Christian. But there is great diversity among the Christian confessions of those people, not to mention the fact that for a good many, it is only a heritage and not an active, living faith. So what are we left with to define our nation and, therefore, our love? One could say that no, we are not advocating any ethnic cleansing or final solution or resegregation. Doesn't that just mean that we're still talking about White Nationalism—just Nice White Nationalism? Sent at: 2008 05 16