Citizens

by Matthew Fulton

Created on: September 28, 2011   Last Updated: September 29, 2011

The United States is probably one of the proudest nations in the world. We wave flags, sing songs, salute our military, and cheer on our athletes in the Olympics in sports we usually do not care about. But what Americans should be a little more proud of is the state that they live in. The reasoning behind this has many roots. "American" is not even an accurate name. Historically and culturally, the United States was merely a coalition of states and separate cultures. Economically, being a citizen of your state means supporting business within your state that also benefits the country as a whole. Politically, many DC laws and policies exploit some states to help others, something that "Texans" or "New Yorkers" would not tolerate while "Americans" do.

"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free." Every citizen has heard, and probably sung, that song many times. Venezuelans are "Americans" in the same sense citizens of the United States are. They are in no way free when they wake up every morning in a communist dictatorship. The term "America" refers to the North and South American continents. So are we proud to be the same people as those who live in Canada? Maybe we should include the Caribbean nations into the term "America" for the sake of simplicity. I'm very certain that I'm not proud to call myself the same as Cubans, who blindly followed Castro into destroying a tropical paradise in favor of communist squalor. "America" is an invented term to make people more loyal to the national government and proud to be part of a whole.

The United States of America has changed meanings over the years. When founded, it was intended to keep individual nations (the 13 Colonies) safe and create a sort of trade zone. It was basically a forerunner to NATO or the European Union. The Constitution changed things up quite a bit and gave the USA a single currency, but states were still the dominant force in government. It was "these United States" and "the United States are", not the singular expressions for the USA we use today. The Army was not organized in national units like it is today, but rather state units recruited locally. The Civil War changed this. The Lincoln administration fought to preserve the Union, but what he ended up doing was massively overhauling the governmental system in favor of more federal power. The United States now had a strong national government, and its citizens slowly started thinking of themselves as "Americans".

Thinking of yourself only as an American makes no sense in this regard. Your main government was once located in your state capital, not Washington DC. It would have made many of the laws that DC makes for the nation as a whole today. It essentially ruled its own country, answering to DC only to provide a few things. This is what the nations of the European Union are beginning to experience today. Since they are all under the rule of "the United States (state being a word synonymous with nation) of Europe", Germans should consider themselves European in the American logic, even though Germans are much different culturally than the Irish or Spanish. Likewise, a Texan is much different culturally than a Californian or New Yorker. Each state's people have a different culture, but we are grouped into the "American Culture", which is largely fictional save our shared love for hamburgers and football. South Carolina BBQ is different from Kansas City BBQ. East Coast rap is different than West Coast rap. Northerners shovel snow through most of the winter, while someone who has always lived in Miami has never even seen snow. We are all so different, but we surrender those identities without question so we can all be "Americans".

Economically, thinking of yourself as a citizen of your own state pays off. Someone who sees themselves as a Texan eats their hamburger from Whataburger and a Californian eats In-and-Out, both choosing their own state's fast food establishment over a national chain like Burger King or McDonald's. In doing this, they support their state economy much more. The workers at the restaurant make their wage, the franchise owner gets his cut, and the corporation makes theirs, all while staying in the state. This keeps the money in one place, allowing it all to be used to make all other people within that state wealthier. The money comes back to you much faster when you do this, since the CEO of the company is more likely to end up paying the wage of someone who works in your home town, who then pays for a service at the business you work at. Buying a burger (insert other service of choice) from a national chain results in your money being split up all over the country and paying the wages of people in every state it operates in. The time it takes your money to come back to paying for your services can be quite lengthy in this case.

Politically, it makes much more sense to think of yourself as a "Floridian" or "Virginian" (insert any state) than an "American". We have the Department of Education in Washington, DC, but why? Does every state need a national government organization to tell them how to educate children, at the expense of taxpayers no less? Could we not get away with scrapping it, saving the money that we send to the Federal Government for education, and just pay it to the state instead? This would mean that more of your money would go to the children and less to bureaucrats, and everyone can agree that is a good thing. But we pay for the Department of Education anyway, because we are "Americans". 

Does it make sense for everyone to pay into the same Social Security and Medicaid programs when only 3.5% of Nebraskans are unemployed compared to 13.4% of Nevadans? (http://www.bls.gov/w eb/laus/lauhsthl.htm ) I would not say that it does, seeing as the Social Security and Medicaid benefits going to someone in a different state barely helps someone in a state with fewer people needing them. Giving your money to someone in another state via government-sponsored (mandated) charity drains one state to pump up another. We let this happen because we think of ourselves as one "American" people who need to be helped. How about we start thinking of ourselves as being from our state first and make other states take care of their own problems? Doing this will force states to stop depending on the earnings of other "Americans" (in actuality people of a completely different culture than their own) and make sure the people of their state become prosperous instead of a drain on the rest of the nation.

This said, you do not have to fully give up your "Americanness". Be proud of the collective history. Enjoy other cultures from other parts of the United States. Mourn the losses of 9/11 even if you are not a New Yorker. But first and foremost, be proud of the state you are from and work to make it better before you work on "America".

Learn more about this author, Matthew Fulton.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.