Is Homeland Security Really Just America's Version of Heimat?

Heimat is a German term that was adopted by the National Socialist Party, the Nazis, to create the sense of nationalism and patriotism that proved so vital in convincing otherwise rational people into believing that there country was under attack by forces from without; alien forces intent on poisoning their Aryan purity and controlling every aspect of their lives. The term came to mean something akin to a deep sense of national consciousness that was based a belief in the inherent superiority of the Germanic race. Heimat was manipulated by the Nazi propagandists to create a powerful either/or absolutist process of identification. Love of Germany was equated with suspicion of anything foreign. Eventually Germany as an idea became inextricably intertwined with love of the fascist ideology that was seen as reawakening Germanic pride. Assimilation into a mindset that confused the abstraction of patriotism with the concrete embrace of Nazi fascism and all the insanity contained within became the goal. Of course, it is important to remember that the Nazis rarely referred to Germany by that name when propagandizing heimat. Germany was almost always referred to the Fatherland. And a key component in making it such a vital element to their message was instilling the idea that important above all else was the security of the Fatherland. If that sounds kind of familiar, it should. Except today it is called Homeland Security.