The Specter of Vile Jingoism Raises its Ugly Head
Vile jingoism reminiscent of the likes of Gary Birdsong, known for his fundamentalist and accusatory style, has not been heard from the White House since perhaps the mid-19th century. Sadly, today, it has found a welcome home in the highest office of the land.
Vice-President JD Vance became unwittingly and offensively embroiled in the dispute about US support for Ukraine in its existential war against Russian aggression by urging the latest wave of Ukrainian immigrants, those who left their native Ukraine after the war began in February 2022, to forget about their homeland and become Americans. His observations that were reported in American newspapers such as the New York Post as well as overseas’ ones demonstrated Vance’s callus disregard for America’s best tradition of embracing immigrants from any part of the world that is etched on the base of the Statue of Liberty. Vance’s antipathy toward today’s new immigrants to America was thought to have gone out of style along with the false belief that the United States is a melting pot. In his seminal 1972 work, “The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics,” Michael Novak disparaged the concept of immigrants or refugees abandoning their languages, cultures, traditions, heritages at America’s shoreline. On the contrary, he argued, the vast immigrant populations added to the strength that has become America.
Vance went on to elaborate that during his Senate campaign in 2022, he met a Ukrainian American man in northeast Ohio, home to many Ukrainian Americans, including Ukrainian Greek-Catholic faithful of the Eparchy of Saint Josaphat in Parma, Ohio.
“He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close,” Vance said on social media, adding that the man told him, “You are trying to abandon my country, and I don’t like it.”
“‘Sir, I replied, ‘your country is the United States of America, and so is mine,’” Vance wrote.
The Vice-President added that he finds it “offensive” when individuals use American influence to try to end conflicts at home.
Vance continued: “I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old. One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It’s part of the bargain: if you’re welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States,” Vance continued in his lengthy X post.
“I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I’m grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?”
The Vice-President’s elaboration raises more substantively damning questions rather than answering any. The visible one is the lack of the hyphen. Ukrainian Americans are not hyphenated. They are not half of one and half of the other. They are equally Ukrainian and American.
It also sadly shows Vance’s insensitivity to the needs of the Ukrainian American community or Ukrainian American voters regardless of when they or their ancestors left their native Ukraine and arrived in the land of the free and the home of the brave. All Ukrainians are one; they are not divided into strata. They regard spiritual nationality as being greater than a passport consequently the Ukrainian American children of the first settlers are equal to the latest Ukrainian refugees who will commune in the same churches and in time become citizens and voters.
The implied assurance of the United States is that it would stand up for the legitimate claims and aspirations of all its citizen-immigrants and citizen-descendants. In return, Ukrainian immigrants, those who settled here in the 19th century and contributed to America’s betterment, their descendants and the newest arrivals—the war refugees have demonstrated a high degree of citizenship. Afterall, the community has been guided by what is called its three commandments: Be loyal citizens of your new land; help your community in the United States; and don’t forget about your brothers and sisters in the native land. What’s offensive about that?
To be sure, Ukrainians from all regions of Ukraine came to the New World to escape foreign oppression and captivity be it Russian, Austro-Hungarian or Polish. They picked up the banner of liberation from George Washington whose teachings they embraced.
In the Jubilee Book of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of its existence published in 1936, the historical, ideological and philosophical primer for Ukrainian Americans, we read many references about liberation, freedoms and social welfare found in the United States that inspired Ukrainian immigrants.
For example:
Long live the memory of George Washington!
Long live freedom!
Long live the revolution!
Long live the republic-Ukraine!
Indeed, Russia, among others, has always been the oppressor that Ukrainians most feared. The Founding Fathers of the Ukrainian American community also wrote:
Russia – is rape and violence.
Russia – is national captivity.
Russia – is hell for farmers and laborers.
Russia – is darkness, oppression and national death for our people.
The UNA’s newspaper, Svoboda, the first Ukrainian-language one in the United States, opposed forced loyalty and separation of the immigrant from his and her native land as Vice-President Vance would have it. “Svoboda stands against the attempts to forcibly assimilate. It argued that national separation of immigrants does not contradict the ideals of Americanism. Svoboda pointed out that the immigrant would sooner come to accept this ideal if he or she is given the opportunity to speak his own language and read his own newspaper,” the Founding Fathers wrote. It should be noted that these concepts were enunciated ahead of World War One.
“Ukrainian immigrants! Remember your obligations toward the Free Land of Washington, upon which you found safety and social welfare. Remember that we should be loyal toward our adopted Free Homeland. Remember that America has not been a stepmother to us but rather nurtured us as blood relatives. Ukrainians! Remember that your sacred obligation is to love free America and to defend the glory of the American flag.”
The fatal behavior of the MAGA movement is its complete disregard for the person, persons or national group’s raison d’etre. “The discussion of almost any aspect of the situation of Ukrainians in America – if it is to contain genuine knowledge rather than an assemblage of emotional phraseology, mere hopes or platitudes – demands at least an elementally concise definition of what ‘is behind the term ‘Ukrainian,’” Stephen W. Mamchur wrote in the Jubilee Book. “What particularistic meaning the world ‘Ukrainian’ has to any specific individual depends on his experiences. But there is a common denominator, as it were, of these subjective conceptions, and that common denominator is that the term stands for a certain group of people – to use layman terminology. Just what is it, then, that fundamentally distinguishes Ukrainian from non-Ukrainian?”
Exactly! No one, especially the occupants of the White House, cares about Ukraine, Ukrainians and their history. If only the MAGA movement would take the time to learn about Ukrainians and Ukrainian American voters and the latest refugees who will become voters and understand their pain points, then the Russian war against Ukraine would find genuine allies and come to an end.
The social structure that is America nurtures both Ukrainianism and Americanism. Accept it. Embrace it. Cherish it. Don’t belittle Ukrainians by demanding that they surrender their heritage at the door or the demand will backfire.
If you are unaware of these tenets of Ukrainianism, then it’s best for you not to venture an opinion and awaken the specter of jingoism.
