The Meaning of E Pluribus Unum

From a new Dennis Prager podcaset:

Race and ethnicity have defined every nation on earth. Except one: the United States of America. It is defined by values.

So, to understand America, you have to understand American values.

They are:
1. “E Pluribus Unum”
2. “Liberty”
3. “In God We Trust.”

I call this “The American Trinity.” I made up the name, but I didn’t make up the values. They are on every American coin.

The first, E Pluribus Unum, is Latin, meaning, “Out of many, one.” When first adopted as an American motto shortly after the American founding in 1776, it referred to the thirteen American colonies becoming one nation. Over time, however, most Americans understood the motto to mean one people from many backgrounds. To quote The E Pluribus Unum Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, “Over the years, E Pluribus Unum has also served as a reminder of America's bold attempt to make one unified nation of people from many different backgrounds and beliefs.”

Wikipedia defines the meaning of the phrase:

The meaning of the phrase originated from the concept that out of the union of the original Thirteen Colonies emerged a new single nation.[8] It is emblazoned across the scroll and clenched in the eagle's beak on the Great Seal of the United States.[8][9]

Okay, that seems clear enough. Some of the colonies had citizens whose ancestry was from different parts of Northwestern Europe, and some followed different Christian denominations.

Prager deduces:

In other words, America doesn’t care about your national or ethnic origins.

This explains why people who immigrate to America assimilate faster and more fully than immigrants to any other country.

Most of those who have immigrated to Europe, from, for example, Turkey – as millions have – are not considered fully German by fellow Germans or fully Swedish by fellow Swedes or fully Spanish by fellow Spaniards. This is even true of the children and grandchildren of those immigrants.

And, just as important, few of those immigrants – or their children or grandchildren – will ever feel fully German, Swedish, or Spanish. But a Turk who immigrates to the United States will be regarded as fully American – as American as any other American – the moment he or she becomes a citizen. And they – and certainly their children – will feel fully American.

What? The people who put E Pluribus Unum on our coins did not have Turks in mind.

Prager is an Orthodox Jew and I am glad he feels fully American, but I am not sure that is true about most of the races and ethnic groups that have come to the USA.