A Republic Requires Citizens: What Does It Mean To Become An American?

In this episode of The Right Side, Doug Billings explores one of the most important questions facing America today:

What does it mean to be an American?

The debate over non-citizen voting in Los Angeles raises a much bigger question than most commentators are asking. What happens when citizenship begins to lose its meaning?

For generations, people from around the world sacrificed, waited, studied, and worked to earn American citizenship because it represented something unique—freedom, self-government, opportunity, and the belief that our rights come from God, not government.

Doug examines the difference between residency and citizenship, why republics require citizens, how the Founders understood self-government, and why the American Dream continues to inspire millions around the world today.

This isn't really a conversation about voting.

It's a conversation about America itself.

What binds us together?

What makes us a nation?

And what responsibilities come with the privilege of citizenship?

If America is going to remain America, those questions matter now more than ever.

We're in this together. Believe it.

For the Republic!

Cheers.

 #TheRightSide #DougBillings #Citizenship #AmericanDream #WeThePeople #Constitution #AmericanCitizen #Patriotism #Republic #FoundingFathers 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

The right side with Doug Billings.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

We are not liberal snowflakes who melt away in the face of tragedy, adversity, and talent. We are a covenant nation under God. His divine providence is not dead and it's not gone. It is living within each and every one of you. And you will bring it to life in such a way that the world has never seen before. We never let down. We never give up. We fuck forward.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hello, America. Hello, world. Welcome to the right side. Doug Billings here with you. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to begin with a story out of Los Angeles, California. Now, on the surface, the story looks like it's all about voting, okay? That's how it's being reported, that's how it's being debated, and that's how most people are talking about it. The Los Angeles City Council is moving forward with a proposal that would allow non-citizens to vote in certain local elections. All right. Predictably. The political arguments, they all start up immediately. One side says that it's all about inclusion, and the other side says that it's dangerous. One side says that it's compassionate, and the other side says it's unconstitutional. You know what side we are here on the right side. But when I'm sitting here this morning reading about this, getting ready for the program today, I found myself asking completely different questions. I mean, what if the real story isn't about voting? And what if the real story is about citizenship? What if that's it? Because I think that's what's actually happening in this story. I think America is entering into a debate that goes way beyond just Los Angeles, by the way, beyond California, and beyond just the word and the term and the process of elections. I think that we're beginning to debate something our grandparents never imagined that we'd be debating. What does it actually mean to be an American? You know, when I was growing up in Grandview, Missouri, salute Grandview, nobody argued about citizenship. Nobody sat around and wondered whether their citizenship mattered. Of course it mattered. We all knew that. That was a default for us. It was one of the highest honors that a person could get. People came from every corner of the planet hoping for the opportunity to become American, right? They crossed oceans, they left families, they left cultures, they left familiarity, they left everything they knew because America represented something unique. It didn't represent perfection, it represented opportunity, not utopia, but freedom and not guarantees, but possibilities. And when they got here, they didn't demand that America change to suit them. They wanted to become part of America. That's an important distinction. And it goes unsaid and unnoticed a lot of the times because becoming an American was never just about, you know, this legal process. It was about a cultural process, a civic process, a moral process. And it was a commitment. You weren't just moving to a new place. You were joining a new people. And somewhere along the way, that understanding began to change. We all know it's because of the radical liberal commu socialist formerly known as Democrat movement, yes. But it began to change gradually, quietly, and almost unnoticed. The conversation shifted. And instead of asking what it meant to become an American, we began asking whether becoming an American mattered at all. So that's a very different question, obviously. And honestly, it's a dangerous question. Because republics don't survive on geography alone. They survive because citizens share certain fundamental commitments. Not identical opinions, not identical backgrounds, not identical religions, commitments. Commitments to liberty, commitments to self-government, commitments to the Constitution, commitments to each other. That's what citizenship ultimately is. It's a membership. I want you to think about something, okay? If citizenship isn't required for voting, then what exactly is citizenship for? Seriously. I mean, ask yourself that question. If the right to participate in self-government becomes disconnected from citizenship, what unique meaning is left? What separates a citizen from a non-citizen? What distinguishes membership from residency? You know what I mean? So those, and by the way, those are not hostile questions. Those are foundational questions. In fact, they're questions that the founders would have considered essential. And you know, I think one of the biggest misunderstandings in modern politics today is that America is simply a location. Well, it's not. America is a nation, and there's a difference. A location is a place, a nation is a people, a nation is a shared story. And I would say that a nation is a shared identity. A nation is a shared understanding about who we are, what binds us together, and that's why nations have citizens. That's why citizenship matters. Now, I know that some people get uncomfortable when you talk about national identity. They immediately assume exclusion. But national identity is not exclusion. Every nation on earth has a national identity, or at least they used to. Now, I know that if you go to Europe and you go to places like Italy, Germany, the UK, Spain, they're losing their self-identities. They're losing that. France, almost gone. Italy, close. Germany? UK? Yeah. Not so much. And it's because of their unmanaged migration system. In a perfect world, every nation has a sense of who they are. And America's no different from that. Our identity, it's not based on ethnicity either. It's based on principle. That's what makes America unique. Now the founders gave us something revolutionary. They didn't give us a nation built around bloodlines. They gave us a nation built around ideas. The idea that rights come to us from God. The idea that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. And the idea that freedom belongs to ordinary people. The idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator, as you know, with certain unalienable rights. Those ideas became the American identity. That's why people came here. Not because of our rivers, you know, our rivers are no better than any other river in the world. Our mountains are not prettier than anybody else's mountains. But it is because our ideas are different and better. And that's why citizenship carried such significance. Citizenship represented entry into a tradition. Now, here's where the Los Angeles story becomes important because what we're witnessing there isn't really a dispute over local elections, it's a dispute over whether citizenship should remain meaningful. And I think that debate is happening because a lot of people don't view America the way previous generations did. For some, America is a nation. For others, America is just a location where people happen to live. So those two views produce very different outcomes. If America is a nation, citizenship matters enormously. But if America is just a location on a map, citizenship becomes just a little bit more than just doing some extra paperwork. So that's the divide and that's the debate. And that's why I think conservatives sometimes miss the larger opportunity here. We immediately begin talking about election mechanics, ballots, voting procedures, registration requirements. All of those are important, okay? But those discussions occur downstream from this real issue. The real issue is whether Americans still believe citizenship means something. Because if we lose that understanding, folks, the procedural debate becomes secondary. Now, let me let me tell you something that gives me hope personally. I think most Americans still understand all of this instinctively. I really do. I think most Americans understand that citizenship represents something valuable. Not because they're angry, not because they're partisan, but because common sense tells them. It tells them so. The overwhelming majority of Americans understand that joining a family is different than visiting a family. Membership is different than attendance, and commitment is different than presence. I mean, that's all true. I believe it. And those distinctions matter in every area of our lives. They matter in churches, they matter in civic organizations, they matter in your business, in corporate America, they matter in families, they matter in nations. And you know, one of the reasons that I personally remain optimistic about America is because we've faced identity crisis before. We've debated in the past, you know, what it means to be American. We've argued about the future, we've struggled before. Every time we've come out of the thing stronger than we returned to our foundational principles. And that's the key. We became stronger when we returned to our foundational principles. Not our partisan principles, our American principles. And the principles, by the way, that inspire Frederick Douglass, the principles that inspired Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., all right, the principles that continue inspiring people around the world today. That's the remarkable thing. People still want to become Americans. Think about that. Even after all of the criticism, after all of the negativity, after all of the attacks on our history, the fake news from the media, the commute socialist, formerly known as Democrat Party, whose goal is to deconstruct America and fundamentally transform it, people still want to come here. Now, how could that be? Why? Because the American idea remains powerful. The American idea remains attractive in a lot of ways, and I think the American idea is alive. But that idea depends upon citizens. A republic requires citizens, right? Not subjects and not spectators, citizens. People who get this, who understand it, people who understand that self-government comes with responsibilities as well as rights. I mean, people who understand that freedom requires stewardship, taking care of the republic, people who understand that preserving a republic isn't somebody else's job. It's our job. And that's why this conversation matters. It's not because of Los Angeles, it's not because of California, it's not even because of politics. Because every generation eventually faces the same questions. Will we preserve what we've inherited or will we allow it to fade? And I believe Americans already know the answer to that question because despite all of the noise, despite all of the division, despite all of the political theater, the American people still understand something fundamental, and that is citizenship matters. It mattered to the founders, it mattered to the greatest generations that built this country. And if America is going to remain America, it's got to matter to us also. That's where I stand, that's where I see this thing, ladies and gentlemen. A lot of passion around this citizenship. And make no mistake, part of the war on America from within is that our identity was born from sin and from oppression, right? The radical left liberal movement would have us believe that. That's just not the case. There's great hope here, and the American dream is still alive. America is not on her deathbed. We may be, in a lot of ways, or a few ways, in a nightmare or two. But the good news about that, as I've said before, is that everybody wakes up from nightmares. Please like, share, and follow, ladies and gentlemen. Subscribe to my program on YouTube at the right side Doug Billings. Prayerfully consider donating to the show at Doug Billings.us. God bless you. God bless your families. God bless the United States. Folks, look, we are in this thing together. Dog on it. Believe it. For the Republic. Cheers. The right side with Doug Billings.