Nearly half of Americans feel like strangers in their own country.

[Ron]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/1/47-of-americans-feel-like-a-stranger-in-their-own-/?bt_ee=2dvdVvuT8nensYyS34i1dOcjDytEL6ilUxAqiuCXYrGm8hXvEu8GqU1HStvP7FCc&bt_ts=1541097786359

Alienation and atomization are the new normal.

The ties that bind are barely holding.

A nation cannot be united merely by consumerism and entertainment.

This isn’t a racial thing, there is fracturing and alienation between and within racial/ethnic groups as well as between the sexes.

Multiculturalism equals no culture.

[Hawkmoon]

My knee jerk reaction is to say that it began when Obama was elected President, but if I'm honest I think it began before that. The first time a Hispanic was allowed to take the oath of citizenship in Spanish was the day we should all have known that it was too late.

[Perd Hapley]

My knee jerk reaction is to say that it began when Obama was elected President, but if I'm honest I think it began before that. The first time a Hispanic was allowed to take the oath of citizenship in Spanish was the day we should all have known that it was too late.

When did that occur?

[Hawkmoon]

When did that occur?

I don't remember, and my Google fu is weak, because I can't find any reference to it. I think it was in Arizona, and I think it was at least 20 or 25 years ago ... but I don't recall.

[230RN]

This is for general information and does not answer the query to Hawkmoon about taking the oath in Spanish.

My search engine skill (or actually, my patience in doing searches) is near zero.

But I poked around a little bit on it, found government video of what to expect in the naturalization process:

https://youtu.be/m_3ri8gl3uQ (16:27)

Note "english" pop-up note at 1:51.

[HankB]

I feel like a stranger in my own country when I drive through Little Mexico or listen to hood rats jabbering in some arcane dialect at the mall.

And riding "The El" in Chicago wasn't much fun in some areas, either - the "urban blight" visible out the windows made me think I was passing through some backward nation.

Then there's trying to order in English at the local Wendy's - I've had less difficulty at a McDonald's in West Germany, or any number of places in Tokyo.

Funny how I never got the same negative vibes on my many visits to Chicago's Chinatown . . .

[Ben]

When I go into Bank of AMERICA and hear literally 90% of the banking conversations going on in Spanish, yeah, I feel alienated. I suppose that will change when I move to the United States next year.

[HankB]

When I go into Bank of AMERICA and hear literally 90% of the banking conversations going on in Spanish, yeah, I feel alienated. I suppose that will change when I move to the United States next year.

Well, it got started as Bank of ITALY, so . . .

[Hawkmoon]

Frankly, I don't think I'm the only person who has felt like a stranger in their own country (and state, and town) for many years as a result of Democrat party actions and policies.

[makattak]

The last time we had such a large portion of foreign-born citizens, we all but closed off all immigration for 40ish years.

It gave enough time for everyone to become assimilated and we had a much more coherent culture. Then we opened the floodgates again in 1968 and have an education system morally opposed to "assimilation", but pushing atomization more and more.

In case there is any doubt, this isn't a good thing. History is rife with examples of what happens when the people of a country/empire/etc... no longer think of themselves as one people.  

[Perd Hapley]

The last time we had such a large portion of foreign-born citizens, we all but closed off all immigration for 40ish years.

I've come to believe the most important thing we can accomplish in the realm of immigration is to re-establish that we have, and ought to have, total control over our borders, including the ability to completely exclude any and all non-citizens, if the people should so choose. I don't think we can have a reasonable immigration policy until we establish that truth, to Americans and to the rest of the world. That's why I'd like to see a temporary halt on all immigration, for the express and highly-publicized purpose of making a point to the voters, and to the rest of the world. Trump, of course, would be just the guy to do it.

[charby]

I hate things about planks in both parties and I like things in planks of both parties. I still identify as a Republican, but I feel like a stranger because I'm not very conservative and I'm not liberal enough for the Democrats.

[KD5NRH]

I feel it every time an elected official starts demanding socialism.

[Pb]

That's why I'd like to see a temporary halt on all immigration, for the express and highly-publicized purpose of making a point to the voters, and to the rest of the world. Trump, of course, would be just the guy to do it.

Unfortunately, Trump can't do it without Congress, and Congress (and the rich people who own them) love unskilled immigration, both legal and illegal.

[gunsmith]

 i have been watching a lot of youtube lately, they got these "first amendent audits"
a whole lot of them its foreign born folks, in positions of power like corrections, PD, postal supervisors, IRS etc...
all telling videographers that they cannot take video on public and of public properties.
inevitably, they get told that the 1st amendment protects citizens rights to photograph and they never ever understand what that even means.

[DittoHead]

David Brooks of all people seems to agree (in his own twisted way)

After 30 years of multiculturalism, the bonds of racial solidarity trump the bonds of national solidarity. Democrats have a very strong story to tell about what we owe the victims of racism and oppression. They do not have a strong story to tell about what we owe to other Americans, how we define our national borders and what binds us as Americans.

Here’s the central challenge of our age: Over the next few decades, America will become a majority-minority country. It is hard to think of other major nations, down through history, that have managed such a transition and still held together.