SOLID ADVICE: Get Married. Have Kids. Stay Together. Mind Your Own Business. “American life offers space to honor all those ethnic and religious heritages, as anyone who lives here knows, while also demanding newcomers embrace ones that make a diverse culture work. Despite all our sloganeering about “diversity” making us stronger — and it certainly enhances our personal and cultural lives — what makes us “stronger” is the ability to convince disparate groups of people with disparate traditions to adopt a set of societal norms and ethos. This means sharing a broad, unifying philosophy and a common understanding about civic life: a respect for the law and order and the foundational liberal ideas of rights, governance, and liberty; a common language; a belief in a meritocratic society; and the ability to live and let live by minding your own business. The United States, notwithstanding all its obvious injustices and sins, does this better than any place in the world.”