(q.v. Duncan Hunter: It's What's In Our Souls — April 28, 2010)

The American Soul

One of the great things about America is that there are no "real" Americans.

There is no DNA test to prove you are of American descent.

You can be tested to find out if you're genetically Chinese or Italian. But there is no such thing as being ethnically American.

And that is what makes America unique in all the world.

There are a couple of other countries, like Canada, or Australia, where the newbies outnumber the natives. But only America has so successfully absorbed so many different cultures into our own unique brand.

We are truly a nation of immigrants without equal.

Today, the only Americans who can honestly claim to have been here first are Native Americans. And I don't think there is anyone on the neo-anti-immigrant right who would suggest that we deport everyone but the redskins.

We are Americans because we came here, not because we were born here.

Not by default, out of laziness, but because we crossed rivers and oceans to get here. Every single one of our ancestors fought and died for the right to become Americans. Not for the right to cling to the past.

We are not a nation of purebred puppies with pretty pink papers tracking our pedigree back to some foppish French poodle in Boston.

We are a nation of mongrels. But we are the toughest, most bad-ass mongrels on the whole damn planet.

And that is why this is the greatest nation on earth.

Because no matter what sort of tired, poor, wretched rejects have washed up on our shores. We have always seized upon them and made them our own. And we've always come out stronger for it.

But when we try to tell someone they're not American enough, we always end up looking like pussies.

Ironically, Congressman Duncan Hunter probably put it best, in trying to describe what it takes to be an American, he pointed out that: "It's what's in our souls."

We are not Americans because we were born that way. We are Americans because we choose to be. And that's what separates us from every other nation in history.

We become Americans by first wanting to become one. Not by proving our ancestry, but by proving our mettle.

And anyone with the balls to run across a desert to get here has already got the soul of an American.

Welcome aboard. Grab an oar.