THE DEAN FLUNKS AGAIN

This has been gnawing at me since I read David Broder's column "One Nation No More?" Broder seems to believe that political cohesion is genetic and thus makes another category mistake. This would not be so bad if the year were 1808 instead of 2008 but to make such an anachronistic observation should mean its time for him to stop writing. Here are the reactionary passages:

The takeoff point for the argument is an observation about the uniqueness of America that was made by Thomas Jefferson -- and by myriad other worthies in the centuries since. They all have drawn attention to the fact that the national identity of America, unlike that of other countries, rests "not on a common ethnicity, but on a set of ideas."

And so, the Bradley scholars say, "knowing what America stands for is not a genetic inheritance. It must be learned, both by the next generation and by those who come to this country. In this way, a nation founded on an idea is inherently fragile."

Knowing what any country stands for is NOT a genetic inheritance. It's all in the realm of politics, not biology.