ClayMore2

I wanted to sit with the Mamdani July 4th comments for a while before reacting to them. I think here is my ultimate problem: (And it's not a perfect metaphor, but I think it's a basically accurate one) An immigrant-- especially one who comes from neither a European nor a Christian background like Mamdani, has to come to America like a new Christian comes to Christ. You make your spiritual breakthrough when you understand that you are bringing nothing to the party. It's not "Jesus+my awesome works"-- it's just Jesus-- he already did everything. You just need to show up and honor him. Nothing in the background of someone like Mamdani contributed in a meaningful way to the building of America from a small set of colonies hugging the Eastern seaboard to the greatest and most powerful nation the world has ever seen. That's not a moral or personal flaw of Mamdani's. But it is what it is. My family has been here since the mid-to-late 19th century-- far less time than some and with far less distinguished contributions than others-- but enough time to have contributed to a meaningful way to the building of modern America. I still absolutely "didn't build that" myself but I'm the rightful inheritor of some of those who did. Mamdani is demanding to share in and even define my inheritance--an inheritance that just doesn't belong to him. Mamdani's been a citizen for less than a decade. He has nothing to add to the understanding of America. His job right now is just to show up and honor it-- not to formulate new doctrines about it's meaning. In a few generations, his story and the story of his family may well be part of a new American story-- but he's not there yet, and there are no shortcuts to getting there. That's hard-- personally and on the ego. And not too many immigrants are capable of it-- which is why we need a closed border right now. But in theory, I can welcome someone from any background capable of accomplishing that very difficult task. As Stephen Tonsor once memorably said in a different context: "It is splendid when the town whore gets religion and joins the church. Now and then she makes a good choir director, but when she begins to tell the minister what he ought to say in his Sunday sermons, matters have been carried too far.” Mamdani hasn't even joined the church yet. And he's trying to tell the pastor what to say in his Sunday sermons. And that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.