No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.

Safire’s line uses a floral metaphor to argue against reducing the United States to a single emblem, ethnicity, tradition, or “official” cultural symbol. A lone flower suggests uniformity and a fixed identity; a bouquet suggests plurality, contrast, and the idea that the whole is made more vivid by the presence of different parts. The statement implicitly critiques assimilationist or monocultural narratives and instead frames American identity as composite—an arrangement whose beauty depends on variety and coexistence. It also hints at civic unity: the bouquet is one object, but it is constituted by many distinct blooms, implying a shared national frame that does not erase difference.