What, precisely, is it about America you love?
That’s the question this July 4 as just 29% of Democrats say they’re extremely proud of the country, accompanied by just 33% of Independents and 60% of Republicans. In fact, Democratic love of country has always fallen far behind that of Republicans, even during the Obama era, when it hit a temporary high of just over 50% (Republicans at the time said they were extremely proud of the country at a rate of approximately 70%).
Why is it that liberals in the United States are so much less proud of America than conservatives? These days, the answer typically given is America’s inherent sinfulness; there is nothing in the American founding worth conserving. On Independence Day, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., tweeted, “The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human. Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now.” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., similarly tweeted, “This July 4th, we must remember that we stand on stolen land toiled by enslaved Africans and recommit ourselves to the fight for freedom, equality, & justice so that these ideals are accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few. We are not free until everyone is truly free.”
America, to these types, is a platform for utopianism rather than a set of ideals worthy of emulation. The Declaration of Independence was a lie; the Constitution was merely a guise for power. And the quest for a perfect world must begin in tearing down such institutions with whatever means are at our disposal. The ends justify the means.
Thus, while Democrats fulminate over supposed threats to democracy, a federal judge this week ruled that the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in pressuring social media companies to restrict free speech regarding COVID-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, among others; the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden White House had violated its constitutional boundaries in waiving student loan debt. Biden’s response: He pledged to utilize the executive branch to work around the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Respect for the founding means respect for founding principles. Biden and his ilk have used a misinterpretation of one founding principle — “equality” — to vitiate the natural rights for which the founders originally fought. When the founders said that “all men are created equal,” they meant specifically that human beings had been “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They did not mean, as Biden suggests, that all human beings ought to be made equal in result, or that indeed, all human beings are equal in all capacities. Biden’s idea is utopian nonsense; the founders’ idea was grounded in millennia of evidence and Judeo-Christian tradition.
Patriots celebrate the founding for what it was: a breakthrough in the nature of human governance, a ringing statement in favor of liberty from the heavy hand of tyranny. Today, too many celebrate the founding only as a platform for future change — change that would annihilate the ideals of the founding along the road to a “higher good.” This, presumably, is why Republicans are far more patriotic than Democrats even while saying that America is in the midst of a moral crisis; meanwhile, Democrats are far less patriotic while suggesting pride in America’s current moral state. Conservatives are disappointed with man’s sinfulness, but proud of the founders’ ideals; many liberals are disappointed with the founders’ ideals, and proud of man’s sinfulness.
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website.
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I love my country, I served 20+ years in the US NAVY fighting for this country. Do I like what it is becoming? Hell No, I don’t. I don’t like what our (MY) Navy is becoming either. I feel that the country started going to hell in a handbasket once Bill Clinton took office and has been going downhill since. Granted things started to improve under Trump, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Liberal Leftist Juggernaut that has taken over this country. This is and should be the TOP PRIORITY of the Conservative Right to do something about. We as conservatives need to get our message out there, start getting more people to see that this the people in this country needs to stop relying on Government to support them and start to Think for Themselves and work to support themselves and quit giving every weak sniveling fool, everything they want without demanding something in return from them to show they can be productive individuals. We need to quit giving the homeless(transients) every little thing they want, make them Earn It. We as conservatives know that anything we have every worked for is much more valuable than that given to us without effort of some kind. This is a value that needs to be instilled in every child in school today, everyone needs to be productive members of society and not expect society to support them. I am a Native of one of the States that has been totally taken over by the Liberal Left Democrat ways of our Unscrupulous, self-centered, Governor and his minions. I do not recognize the State I was born in close to 68 years ago. I am actually ashamed to say I am a Native Californian anymore. I despise the fact that the rest of the country is slowly moving in the same direction. If today’s Children do not get a more Conservative Education, and taught the same conservative ways our parents taught us. You know the generation that lived through the great depression, those that knew first hand to know what it was like to have nothing and how to survive with little or nothing. That is what taught them what it is to be conservative, this country is DOOMED to become a third world country once again. We need to get good Conservative Leadership in the White House and BOTH houses of Congress if we expect things to ever change. While we speak our current leadership in Washington is doing everything, they can to DESTROY this democracy. They are working to destroy our economic and monetary system. They are working to destroy the very fabric this nation was founded on. Please people wake up and look around you and decide what you want. Your freedom or the be told what to do every day of your life? Do you want the government to tell you what to read, watch on tv, what to eat or drink, when to go to the toilet? Because that is where we are headed, right now. And life today is not a SCI FI Novel, it is REALITY.
I’m a proud American, but the world I grew up in is long gone. We’re in serious trouble, folks.
Liberals don’t respect America, but they’re the ones who are ruining it.
If you love this country do all you can to get your grandkids out of public schools. Versions of home schooling now exist that offer classical education. They’re worth a look. Its the best antivenom for the snakebite of communist indoctrination.
OK AMAC. Why would I not be allowed to vote on a comment?
A lot of Democrats love America for the wrong reasons. They love her when abortion is readily available, gay people proliferate, and for whatever other depraved reasons. I do not see some Democrats as Americans because many hate our country.
I do! And this old woman would pick up a gun to defend this country against foreign or our own government if they try to go to globalism or socialism. This country was founded to get away from limited religion (Catholic) and dedicated to God. It would be a terrible insult to those menand women who fought for this country in the past, not to mention the native people who helped to preserve this land .If you live here then you need to step up to defend her. God bless America
Democrats and liberals no longer exist They evolved into something that has to be named yet What should the intolerant rigid pushy unreasonable full of hate in your face always right party be named
The liberals will continue to spread disinformation to the public so as to advance their agenda to destroy the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These precious documents are what is holding back the establishment of the One World Order. The Elite will continue using everyone who are ignorant, to establish that Order over the world.
I love America and would die to defend it. There is no better country in the world! However, I’m having a hard time understanding what is happening right now. When I grew up things seemed so different. People were patriotic and family oriented and even though some people were different and had different ideas, we all got along. People weren’t lying and making stuff up to attack the other side. We had respect for authority and knew right from wrong. It makes so sad that politicians and the media can go on national TV and lie to our faces and then go home to their families as if they were honorable people. They should be ashamed of themselves. Apparently they were never taught how to lose gracefully and to win at all costs. There is no caring for your fellow man no more. I know I’m not supposed to say that because it is probably the wrong pronoun/ verb alphabet person or whatever. I don’t give a crap!
i want to puke – i see dems in my neighbhood who have signs for their left idiots yet the American flag is flying on their house. what a bunch of bull – they are the ones who are putting this great country into the trash.
I love about 50% of America. The socialist half I do not care for.
There is only ONE choice, remove ALL the democrat,rino and anti american bureaucrats in Washington, CRUSH the marxist democrat party and EVERYONE who does not honor Our Country,Constitution or their oaths of office.
We the People ARE America!
Free Citizens who believe in God,Family and Country.
These politicians are merely representatives who do OUR bidding and work for US.
When they think themselves more than that it is Our responsibility to THROW THEM OUT!
Who the he** do joebama,marxist democrats and pretend Republicans think they are????
I don’t know what to think about the”biden and groupies”new AMERICA.It won’t last long with these”misfits”ruining our country.Someone with some backbone needs to step up and challenge these liberals that are destroying our once great country.
Always glad to near Ben Shapiro’s take on things. He tells it like it is and isn’t afraid to back it up with facts.
What, precisely, is it about America that I love? There is so much.
As the article said the prevailing thought by liberals is “The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human.” This is something the authors of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence agonized over. They intended to fix it as time went on. In fact this country tore itself apart in a war about this issue. Part of the issue is they only see the bad and don’t acknowledge the good. Yes there are dark past deeds and so on but I don’t know of another country that so openly, in front of the world aired their dirty laundry and made efforts to correct things. People died to bring the civil rights into being. Note to it was the Democrats that enacted Jim Crow laws and resisted the freeing of slaves. They are also the founders of the KKK.
When the founders said that “all men are created equal,” they meant specifically that human beings had been “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They did not mean, as suggested, that all human beings ought to be made equal in result, or that indeed, all human beings are equal in all capacities. The founders’ idea was grounded in millennia of evidence and Judeo-Christian tradition.
Patriots celebrate the founding for what it was: a breakthrough in the nature of human governance, a ringing statement in favor of li. the founders’ ideals; many liberals are disappointed with the founders’ ideals, and proud of man’s sinfulness.
I am proud of America also for its involvement around the world in times of crisis and as an example of freedom from tyranny. American military has given blood, sweat and tears to fight tyranny in other countries. When there is famine, disease, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and other disaster the Americans give to support the people deeply affected by these disasters. Americans are basically very generous people. We have been a safe haven for people fleeing terrible conditions in their home country. Look at any country and how they react to illegal immigration. Illegally crossing the border in Iran and you are likely to have a prison if not a death sentence. We had a Marine cross into Mexico and he was imprisoned for a lengthy time.
This country has had a government that is an example to others. Are there issues, definitely. In fact there is a lot more wrong now but that is due to a faction of corrupt people who put aside the constitution when it goes against their wishes. Still we have far more rights than other countries.
Yes there are issues we need to fix, like getting the socialist ideology out of our schools and government. We need to stop catering to the 1 percent who are delusional and pushing agendas not in line with true science. We need to remove the corruption and bring back law and order. Prosecute the violators and remove corrupt politicians.
This country is still the best in the world.
First of all. There were more Irish Scott’s Germans in the North that worked in steel coal and other jobs for a minute amount, lived in filth with 2 families in a 2 room house, streets filled with sewer. The average life span of a child was 7 years before diseases killed them. The wives died at a young age. Yes there was some “Jim Crow” in the slave days but all but a small % had it way better that the immigrants in the Northern cities. The average life span of a Carriian slave was 7 years. Plus many slaves were taught to read which was against the law so they could read the Bible. So the best thing that ever happened to them was Christianity.