Losing Traditional America

Pat Buchanon wrote an essay today on how "traditional americans" (which he later defines as working class americans) are losing their country; I quote:

In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.

They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on – then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand U.S. citizenship.

They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.

They see a government in Washington that cannot balance its books, win our wars or protect our borders. The government shovels out trillions to Fortune 500 corporations and banks to rescue the country from a crisis created by the government and Fortune 500 corporations and banks.

America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.

 Now the usual liberal counter-argument is specious and disrespectful -- basically slandering one as a racist, and saying that slavery, Jim Crow laws, antisemitism, lynchings, etc.  But this misses the point, as no one wants those things back.

What "traditional Americans" want is our country united under traditional american values:

• the protestant work ethic, in which work is a duty that benefits the individual and society (get off your dead ass and onto your dying feet)
• independence and self-reliance (i.e., cowboy instead of group)
• Liberty - don't tell me what to do, and I won't tell you want to do
• Freedom - I don't want the government telling me what I can and can't do (as much as possible)
• property rights - I have the right to own and enjoy property; this property may also carry responsibilities so that I don't infringe on your rights

America needs to be a melting pot, not a fruit salad.