Lind is a fifth-generation Central Texan, of Swedish, English, Scottish and possibly German Jewish descent.

[4] After working as assistant to the director of the U.S. State Department's Center for the Study of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1991, he was executive editor of The National Interest from 1991 to 1994.

[11] Lind has examined and defended the tradition of American democratic nationalism associated with Alexander Hamilton in a series of books, including The Next American Nation (1995), Hamilton's Republic (1997), What Lincoln Believed (2004) and Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (2012).

According to an article published in The New York Times in 1995, Lind "defies the usual political categories of left and right, liberal and conservative.

He has argued for "an immigration policy in the national interest would shift the emphasis from family reunification to skills ... [and] enable long-term population growth ... compatible with the economic integration and cultural assimilation of newcomers to the United States".

Wouldn't there be at least one country, out of nearly two hundred, with minimal government, free trade, open borders, decriminalized drugs, no welfare state and no public education system?