The tragic mistake of the “big tent” solution

People make cultures, cultures don't make people, although they can influence and even destroy people. As John Jay said in the Federalist No. 2, cultures are formed by a people descended from the same ancestors, very similar in manners and customs, and so on. This is no longer the case in America. We have become an increasingly diverse people.

We need to be embracing our differences in separate regions and states. As Pat Buchanan put it, “our people are going to need the freedom to live apart according to their irreconcilable beliefs.”  The legitimate job of the federal government is to protect the freedom of the states and regions, and not to try to force different people into one big tent, which seems to be the Republican solution to losing the presidential election of 2012. 

Whoever is responsible for insisting that we are all the same was simply wrong about real human nature. The tragic consequences of trying to force us to be the same will lead to civil war---this has already been happening in our urban centers. The Tenth Amendment to our Constitution was wisely added to underline the independence of the states, so no revolutionary change and no big tent solution is necessary.