Sadly many people have given in to the greed and hatred of Americanism or Nationalism.
The Puritans of New England considered themselves to be a covenanted people, gifted with a vocation from God that put them under God’s blessing as well as His continuous scrutiny and judgment.
The 19th Century brought the concept of a melting pot of many people from every nation that are mixed together into a new kind of humanity - America. Many Europeans and Asians resisted the melting together maintaining their own languages and ways of life, until they eventually were forced to melt into a generic America. We still have this in the China Towns of the big cities for example.
By the 20th century, Americans began defining themselves by politics and an American creed of equality and freedom. During the twentieth century creedal nationalism emerged even as Lincoln among others promoted equality . Creedal nationalism was promoted through education, military training, in political propaganda. America was united through a “civil religion” of Americanism distinguishing it from the Nazis and Fascists, with their violent blood-and-land grab nationalism.
The covenant model has largely if not totally disappeared as we have fell further and further into godlessness and toxic expressive individualism.
The melting pot of immigrants that help make American American has been replaced with a suspicious nationalism even as many American workers have abandoned the "work ethic". There is a shortage of workers not because there is a shortage of people but because peoples priorities have changed.
The selfish greed of many employers has finally come back to haunt them.
But the saving grace of people at the border looking and hoping for work and the chance for improvement are turned way by anger and hostility. Once again we shoot ourselves in the foot!
Today we have a failed national creed bound up in our selfish political goals and personal sins.
Samuel Goldman in his book " After Nationalism: Being American in an Age of Division (Radical Conservatisms), that America is a "community of communities".
We have obviously lost our sense of community in most of America, the fact most of us don't even know who our neighbors are is a good example. A true nation isn’t a collection of individuals, but instead consists of a variety of overlapping and contentious groups that reflect and cultivate different conceptions of their identity, responsibilities, and purpose in life. To be a true nation we must give up our grand visions of nationalism or Americanism.
Can we or will we do it?
What unites us then is a common commitment to let other groups, or tribes or movements be who they are. We must make a commitment to a body of procedures that prevents one or more groups from destroying the others.
But can we even think this way any more?
Christians in American have by and large (it seems to me) given into Secularism, Americanism and Cults of Personality (Trump worship, Qanon etc.) as well as our expressive individualism.
The nation, the flag will not save us from ourselves or from external threats, only a personal commitment to Christ will do that!