This esssay of mine ran in yesterday's Waterloo [IA] Courier newspaper:

Un-Americanism defined

by DC Larson

Freedoms of thought and speech are indisputable American rights. Our Constitution protects unpopular ideas as vigorously as mainstream ones.

Open debate is essential to intellectual health and national vibrancy. For that reason, some declare, there can be no such thing as ‘unAmericanism.’ There cannot be, in a country where men have the liberty to believe however they see fit.

But that is spuriousness. It falls to pieces under examination. A definition of Americanism would begin with the Constitution and the principles it embodies.

Of course, those not inclined to respect that document are still American citizens, but their status is merely geographic. They are unAmericans in America.

By design, the Constitution is open to democratic alteration. So, of course one can disagree with a given passage. But to challenge the entire document’s validity, and declare this nation, itself, to be illegitimate, are not matters of marginal amendment, but wholesale rejection.

America has always had subversive elements. In Revolutionary War times, shadowy confederates of the Monarchy plotted to foil the courageous fighters for independence.

In 1943, under the pseudonym “John Roy Carlson,” Arthur Derounian published his best-selling Under Cover: My Four Years In the Nazi Underworld of America. The author put himself in great danger, infiltrating numerous subversive fascist groups that were hostile to the United States and its WWII effort.

I don’t know what Carlson’s political affinities may have been. But he and I would have agreed that enemies of America deserve ruination.

Lets turn our thoughts from the unpatriotic among us. Better we recall a time when nationalist sentiment was a sturdy bridge that united even Americans of divergent pursuits.

("My country, right or wrong," went the adage.)

In 1941 film Roar of the Press, reporter Wally Williams and numbers racket boss Sparrow McGraun discuss an anti-American network active in their hometown of New York:

Sparrow: "Me, I'm mixed up in a good, clean racket. But there's some people runnin' around loose who ain't. They're out to get this country into trouble. And that's the mob you're runnin' up against. They're tough. Plenty tough. Foreigners, mostly. And they won't stop at nothin'!"

Wally: "How do you know about this?"

Sparrow: "They propositioned me. Wanted to know how much you know about their set-up. They figure you're gettin' too nosy."

Wally: "Wait a minute. Did they send you to scare me off?"

Sparrow: "Certainly not! I don't want any part a-them. They're un-American. They're against this country, and they oughta be exposed. Me, I got me a racket, sure. And the cops don't like it. But that ain't nothin' against this country."

Wally: "Thanks, pal!"

Sparrow: "Ah, it's nothin'. Us Americans gotta stick together.”

Waterloo writer DC Larson counts among publishing credits Daily Caller, American Thinker, and Western Journal.