Mark K., this is why you lose people. I am the one who made the off-handed remark that, to my growing chagrin, started this whole “nation of immigrants” thread. Do you conceivably, in your wildest dreams, think I was urging the multiculturalist agenda? Do you really think I was invoking it for the “ideological purpose to downgrade and delegitimize America” because, as you maintain, the phrase is forever connected to its origins (which, I must say, remain unclear to me despite reading your posts several times)?

I know of no immigration-friendly person among us here who takes that stand without the caveat that assimilation is a must. I know of no one among us who takes that stand without a firm conviction that there is something exceptional — transcendent — about the United States of America, that we can afford to be a nation of immigrants because the unique American culture, properly inculcated, will ultimately bring out the best in us as a people — E pluribus unum.

Oh, and as I look around at the Goldbergs, Levins, O’Beirnes, Lowrys, Ledeens, Ponnurus, Lopezes, Frums, Podhoretzes, Whelans, Krikorians, et al. in the room, let me hasten to add: Good luck having this movement without the ”frosting.”