Why I'm a Proud American

On this fourth of July when we celebrate the founding of our great nation, perhaps it is time we do some real reflection while we consume burgers cooked over our backyard barbecues and drink cold beer. For there has been a rising tide of self hatred among our fellows over the past few decades that requires a response. No longer is hatred for America limited to a few leftist flag burners, it has become accepted dogma among far too many to believe that the United States is, and has always been, evil, whether that evil is described as discriminatory, homophobic, racist, warmongering, unfair or unjust. 

I believe there are two reasons for the rise of this negative attitude. The first and more recent is the rise of social media which sensationalizes the worst among us. There have been and always will be racists, homophobes, xenophobes, bigots and just plain bad actors among us. Social media makes us believe that there are far more than the small, small minority that walk among us. In fact, they would have us believe that the majority of us, particularly those who are not defined as “people of color”, harbor these attitudes and vices whether we display or acknowledge them or not.

I reject this assumption and the belief that America and its people have always been bad actors. On this day I will celebrate our founding, not curse it. America has not been perfect but it has always been better than anywhere else and was founded on the best of ideals even if she did not always live up to them. In the Declaration of Independence are the words “all men are created equal”, a revolutionary idea at the time. Even in Britain, the country that recognized rights more than most at the time, not all men were equal. Slavery was still legal, there were hard and fast class distinctions among men and women had few rights. But the founders had set the bar very high and work began immediately. The constitution eliminated title and with them, legal class distinctions among men. Beginning with Vermont in 1777, most of the northern states abolished slavery. Women acquired the right to vote in America eight years before those in Britain although several states, beginning with Kentucky in 1839, allowed women to vote.

That, however, is the legal end. Consider where we are on the social end. Women and minorities have risen to the highest seats of power. Interracial and gay relationships are widely accepted. As a country we are more diverse than any other and that diversity is legally protected and socially accepted. Except for a few loud voices trying to stir up divisions, America and its people have fulfilled the ideal that all men, and women, are created equal, that they have equal value, opportunity and the freedom to live life as they choose. We are, as a people, the most tolerant and generous. That is something to be proud of. 

The second cause of this pervasive negative attitude toward America is the rise of the government-media complex. This one is a little more complex. The media, and freedom of speech in general, was recognized and protected in our founding documents because the freedom to speak against those in power is essential to maintaining liberty and upholding the truth. The ability to expose corruption and shine a light on the activities of our leaders, good and bad, is how we hold them accountable, a necessary component in an electoral political system. Since the vast majority of those who seek power or jobs in government do so for the sheer joy of exercising that power, corruption and evil are always easy to find.

What has happened over time is the majority of the media have become a bit schizophrenic in their relationship to the government. On the one hand, the corrupt, evil government has become a stand in for the country as a whole. If the government is corrupt and evil, the country must be so as well. So the media goes out, and like social media, highlights the worst of our culture and citizenry even though they often must look far and wide to find it and if they don't, they provoke it or make it up. On the other hand, the media became enthralled with those in power, desiring to share in the trappings. Those in power joined in this symbiotic relationship in order to be treated favorably. This fit was most effective with an ideological compatibility. The basic ideological tenets they share is a desire to concentrate more power in the hands of government so they can all share its benefits and a loathing for the country and its people who are basically evil and need the hand of government to control their base instincts.

The separation of the people from their government and they rise of the master/slave mentality among those in power has led to terrible things. I neither like nor respect my government. Our government has done some horrible things. Perhaps some of it can be understood for the time in which it happened such as the colonial mindset that spurred westward expansion at the expense of native populations, a practice common among all European powers. Most of it, however, cannot. While the American people have come ever closer to accepting equality and respecting the individual rights of their fellow countrymen, government has strayed ever farther from those ideals. It is no longer representative of the people or the foundational principles of liberty. A government that is supposed to be of, by and for the people has become an entity of, by and for itself.

It tramples our rights to protect itself. A two tiered justice system has evolved to protect the connected and punish those who threaten its power. It has crushed the true freedoms of Americans, relegating us to serfdom while encouraging us to mistake licentiousness for liberty in order to keep us pacified. The government spies on us, steals from us, lies to us and pits us against one another, all in its desire for more power and control. None of this was the intent of the founders who understood tyranny and valued individual freedom and individual rights.

So while the American government has become a ravenous beast barely clothed in the rags of the founder's ideals, a monster to be loathed and resisted, the American people have come to embody the ideals the founders envisioned. We embraced freedom and liberty has shaped us into a unique people. We are the most tolerant, generous and prosperous people in the world. We are bold, innovative and creative. That is something to take pride in. Thomas Jefferson set a high bar for us in the words we remember today. And while we as a people move ever closer to its fulfillment, our government has failed miserably, becoming far worse than the government the Declaration was directed against. It does not represent me, it does not represent the ideals and principles of justice and liberty upon which we were founded, it does not represent the American vision of the founders or the transcendental maxims of a moral government in any way shape or form. It is, in a word, UN-American.

Un-American because while the principles of liberty and freedom, justice and equality are universal, they are also uniquely American. They are so because ours was the first nation founded specifically on the application of those principles to the individual at the expense of government power. So I take great pride in that fact and pride in being part of the people whose task it is to see those principles realized. We the people can be proud of ourselves. So yes, I love America, her people and her foundational ideals, my heart still fills with pride when I see our flag, and when I hear her anthem I hope we will always strive to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.