Rich Lowry: American Nationalism Crushed “Bigoted Regionalisms”

I’ve started reading Rich Lowry’s new book The Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful, United, and Free which came out this morning.

“In an anti-nationalist speech in 2017, George W. Bush said, “Our identity as a nation, unlike other nations, is not determined by geography or ethnicity, by soil or blood.” It is certainly true that “blood and soil,” the rallying cry of ethno-nationalists and the Charlottesville Nazis, is deeply inimical to the American project. Yet denying the contribution of geography and land to our identity is willful ignorance.”

By the American project, Rich Lowry means the New England project. After all, it was only in New England where citizenship wasn’t tied to race before the War Between the States. The American project as it existed outside of the East was certainly tied to “blood and soil.” The South thought of itself as a “White Man’s Country” and was determined to stay that way. The Southern social order was based on whiteness, patriarchy and authoritarianism and rested on the foundation of slavery. Boston was perceived in the South as “a City of Notions.”