Commerce Über Alles

How an American value is twisted to support mass migration

Haitians aren’t just in Springfield, Ohio. The Caribbean migrants are popping up in small towns all over America. One of those places is Charleroi, Pennsylvania. The town of 4000 received a massive influx of Haitians over the last few years. The locals are naturally upset about this and have drawn the support of Donald Trump and conservative media. 

This inspired the media to paint the situation as totally fine in Charleroi. Reporters found residents to make a peculiar argument in favor of the Haitians. These pro-Haitian locals like the newcomers because they can buy stuff just like any American. Boutique owner Casey Jageman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the “foreign people that are building” the town with their dollars, not tearing it down. Floral shop proprietor Erica Husosky complained to the paper that anti-Haitian rhetoric is driving away customers  as she tries her best to draw the Caribbeans to her store. “All the [businesses] that have catered to the immigrants, all those are thriving,” local businessman Caleb Fontus told Pittsburgh’s NPR affiliate. “All the ones that are not catering and that are staying segregated, they're not making as much as money.” Screen printer Kevin Kuzma gushed to the same outlet over how much he loves having Haitians as customers. Resident Asian Reid appreciates all the new things she can buy thanks to the Haitians.

Similar rhetoric was found to argue for Haitian resettlement in Springfield and in towns all over Alabama. This is a minority opinion in these towns as the majority of residents are fiercely opposed to being replaced by Haitians. However, this appeal to commerce can work to persuade some Americans to welcome their dispossession. 

It’s common for many Americans to believe the business of America is just business. Its defined by its unique market culture that allows anyone to make money and spend money however they please. Without the traditions and hierarchies of the Old World, the New World strives to realize a society where the dollar rules supreme–or so this theory claims. This market society is both egalitarian and individualistic. These two strands often conflict but are ultimately mediated by the market. We are all inherently equal at the cash register. What sets us apart in this setting is not race, class, height, religion, or language. It’s just money that we earned and are free to choose how we spend it.

Obviously, there is far more to American civilization than mere commerce. But with the dramatic changes in our society that have our roots and diminished our traditional culture, we’re left only with the market to bind us together. The appeals to commerce become more important in a diverse, multicultural country where nothing unites us besides the almighty dollar.

The commercial spirit isn’t inherently terrible. America is a prosperous, dynamic country in large part due to it. It’s certainly better than communism, and it’s been with us since the Founding. Alexis de Tocqueville saw economic interest as the “secret” of American life that made our citizens so democratic and individualistic in comparison with the Old World. 

Acclaimed historian Gordon Wood defined commerce as America’s core ingredient in his Pulitzer Prize-winning work, The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Wood argues that America at the Founding was stripped of the “traditional ethnic, religious, and tribal loyalties of the Old World” and forced our ancestors to look elsewhere for unifying bonds. They found it “in the everyday desire for the freedom to make money and pursue happiness in the here and now.” This made America more democratic, more egalitarian, more individualistic, and more market-directed than Europe.

Wood’s argument sounds right but it misses politically incorrect aspects about America's founding character. This nation was founded by white men based in an Anglo-Protestant culture. They weren’t characters operating in a vacuum completely bereft of ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural ties. This America was forged not simply by the market. The violent frontier played a major role in making us who we are. On the frontier, whiteness separated Americans from the “merciless savages.” Whiteness served as the basic requirement for naturalization at the Founding and was only eliminated in the 1950s. 

The Radicalism of the American Revolution was published in 1991. America no longer wanted to extol whiteness as essential to “who we are.” Scholars scrounged for other explanations, and Wood settled on commerce. The picture he painted was remarkably accurate of the modern era, but failed to fully convey America’s character pre-World War II. Needless to say, economic interest wasn’t always what defined us.

But now it largely does. If commerce is all that lies at the heart of America, what’s the reason to oppose Haitians flooding your community? Their dollar is just as good as yours, and that’s all that matters. Clearly, this argument isn’t working to persuade heartlanders to welcome the intruders. They fundamentally understand that the Haitians will forever change their community and it will no longer be Middle American. It will now be a mini Port-au-Prince in flyover country. These Americans think there’s more to the nation than mere commerce–that’s why they reject Haitian migration.

But the Empire embraces Haitian migration of the interior. These Caribbeans present the opportunity to create a new people in the heartland, and one more loyal to the current regime than its current residents. The mind-boggling level of migrant settlement in once homogenous small towns is colonialism in reverse. Rather than the Empire sending its core population to distant lands to settle to serve its interests, it recruits foreigners to settle in its own land to serve its interests. The Empire believes that America’s character is shaped entirely by commerce and abstract principles. Anyone can become an American, so why not send Haitians to areas that vote for the “un-American” Trump? This is an opportunity for the system to solidify its power and accelerate America’s transition to a multiracial entity where no group is a majority.

The “commerce über alles” mentality is responsible for many of the terrible developments in modern America. Weed, online sports betting, and OnlyFans are all defended on the basis that they make money and therefore should be tolerated and even encouraged. These things harm our society. Sports betting causes people to go into massive debt and engage in domestic violence. But the sports world now depends on it for its bottom line. It’s unlikely we will get rid of it as It’s “un-American” to restrict the commercial spirit.

Commerce as the core character of America is a recipe for disaster. No one wants to fight and die for a continental shopping mall. Americans must remember their roots and revitalize what made us great in the first place. Our dynamic economy made us prosperous, but it’s not everything. The founding people and their culture gave us this economy and allowed it to thrive. Without them, we turn into our dysfunctional neighbors and we’re no longer America.