Yet, if you look again — through obfuscations foreign and domestic, beyond the noise of the social media mob — you find a durable past that may just save us yet. The big story of the American experiment, a nation that is not an ethnic, racial or religious state but an idea, is not dead. It’s not even past.
For starters, despite a presidential policy sourced from the sewers of white supremacy, a nation of immigrants has not turned against immigrants. The consensus, though battered, is intact: About 60 percent of Americans say openness to outsiders is essential to our identity. The majority says immigrants strengthen the country.
Twice before, this animating idea has been under deadly assault. In the 1850s, as waves of ravaged Irish refugees washed up on our shores, the Know Nothing Party rose to keep them from becoming citizens. The huddled masses were too dirty, too criminal, too foreign, too loud, too clannish, too Catholic. Lincoln despised the Know Nothings; his rise helped lead to their demise.
Then, again, in the early 20th century our better angels were on the run.
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